My car has been experiencing a pinging noise during light acceleration and when driving on bumpy roads. An Acura dealer's diagnosis indicates that the car's intermediate shaft heat shield and its mounting bushings are loose due to rust.

The related technical service bulletin is "TSB 07-026: Pinging, Rattling, or Squealing During Light Acceleration", which you can access here:

https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-tl-2004-2008-93/3g-tl-technical-service-bulletins-tsbs-3g-garage-j-016-a-613659/



Usually people fix this by replacing parts, as the TSB has recommended.

However, to make things simple (that is, to avoid taking off the J-pipe), I'm thinking of ripping off the intermediate shaft heat shield and its mounting bushings altogether for good, like what the RSX guys have done:

http://forums..com/showthread.php?t=735185

Is this a good idea? Will it save the problem of taking off the J-pipe? Will it damage the intermediate shaft because of excessive heat?

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For references of other (Acura TL) fixes:

Rattling drive shaft heat shield
https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-tl-problems-fixes-114/rattling-drive-shaft-heat-shield-839129/

Fighting this squealing noise
https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-tl-problems-fixes-114/fighting-squealing-noise-778285/

Loud chirping noise is finally gone!!!!!
https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-tl-problems-fixes-114/loud-chirping-noise-finally-gone-781192/

 

Good idea, I'd say no as heat from the exhuast can cause many a problem. Never worked on the shield, but if the bolts are accessible w/o removing the exhaust, I'd remove the bolts and try some metal spacers to see if they will help tighten down the unit. If removed, will it cause problems in the future, hard to tell, but when I chamged the motor in our rotary turbo I didn't replace the heat shields on the upper part of the exhaust and have seen no problems, but then again, I didn't install the pre cat that resides in the area and that in itself certainly helped the heat problem.
They're there for a reason.

 

I've removed most of the heat shields around the cat back, jpipe and primary cats (out of necessity when I replaced them with HFPC's). I haven't removed this particular one however because it looks rather light and a bit of a pain to get to. So I can't say if it would be safe or not. However, I've made a point to routinely inspect areas where I've removed heat shields to check for damage such as warping, melting, etc. So far I've seen no negative impacts. I've removed every heat shield from the bottom of the car with exception to the one below the gas tank.

If you decide to remove it, make sure to check daily for about a week to see if anything is looking suspect. If everything looks normal I'd say you're fine. After that, check about once a week, especially if the car idles for a long time or you're in hot weather. Idling for longer periods of time in hot weather will be the most extreme heat since there will be less flowing air to cool off the surrounding components.

 

some of the bolts are kind of hard to get to. You can try shifting the shield a little bit and then tightening up the bolts you can easily get to. That fixed my pinging problem. I pulled the shield towards the drivers side and then tightened 2 of the 3 bolts i had access to.

 

^ Thats a good idea. Pulling the jpipe is a pain IMO. I bet just shifting it and tightening would get rid of the sound.

 

I have had mine removed for about two years or so. I have had absolutely no problem.