yact: big piece of metal fell off the bottom of my car =/

[MeanMeosh]

i was driving home today and as i took my exit, my car (95 mazda mx-6) suddenly started making this horrible noise as if it were dragging a piece of metal. since it was 11:30pm and there was noone around, i immediately hit my brakes and came to a stop. then, all of a sudden, this huge piece of metal just went flying out from underneath my car, dragging sparks and all. scared me horribly. so i pulled over to the shoulder and went and got the the piece (looks like an oddly shaped plate of some sort) and drove home slowly. the car drives fine / normally except for a plate of metal missing somewhere...

i'm gonna take it to the dealership tomorrow, hopefully nothing wrong with it

for those of you who don't know much about mx-6s, there is like this big plate of metal under the car to protect it when its being bottomed out. i'm hoping a part of that is what broke loose, and it just has to be bolted back on.

 

[HiTek21]

Sounds like the exhaust heat shield came off.

 

[Akira13]

Something similar happened to my mom's Nissan Quest a few years back. She pulled out of the garage, and a metal pan was dragging beneath the van. I'm pretty sure it was something unimportant.

 

[Talon02]

I think first you yelled shut up at the lap top, hit the second stage NOS and the floor pan fell off.

I saw it in the fast and the furious, it can happen.

 

[MeanMeosh]

Originally posted by: Talon02
I think first you yelled shut up at the lap top, hit the second stage NOS and the floor pan fell off.

I saw it in the fast and the furious, it can happen.

heh, the first thought that went through my mind was "holy fvck!" and then when the plate went flying by, i just went "..." and was pretty scared. i don't think i've ever seen anything from my car just go flying by at 45+ mph, sparking as it touched the road.

i really hope its one of those shields and not somethign that will be expensive to put back on =/

 

[flxnimprtmscl]

Originally posted by: Talon02
I think first you yelled shut up at the lap top, hit the second stage NOS and the floor pan fell off.

I saw it in the fast and the furious, it can happen.

Lol, my first thought too. I think he blew the welds on the intake manifold which usually makes the floorboard fall out.

 

[DanFungus]

Originally posted by: flxnimprtmscl

Originally posted by: Talon02
I think first you yelled shut up at the lap top, hit the second stage NOS and the floor pan fell off.

I saw it in the fast and the furious, it can happen.

Lol, my first thought too. I think he blew the welds on the intake manifold which usually makes the floorboard fall out.

hahahah

 

[HappyPuppy]

Why are you taking an 8 year old car to a dealership? Do you have some sort of magical extended warranty?

Just take it to a local garage or muffler shop. You will get it fixed for half what a dealer will charge.

 

[deerslayer]

Originally posted by: flxnimprtmscl

Originally posted by: Talon02
I think first you yelled shut up at the lap top, hit the second stage NOS and the floor pan fell off.

I saw it in the fast and the furious, it can happen.

Lol, my first thought too. I think he blew the welds on the intake manifold which usually makes the floorboard fall out.

Indeed!

 

[IGBT]

Reminds me of the time I ran over a box spring mattress on a crowded freeway..what a mess that was...

 

[Occifer]

Originally posted by: IGBT
Reminds me of the time I ran over a box spring mattress on a crowded freeway..what a mess that was...

I his a pallete once doing about 60 - 65, that thing exploded and didn't even take out one of my tires. Ford Rangers are tough!

 

[datalink7]

Originally posted by: flxnimprtmscl

Originally posted by: Talon02
I think first you yelled shut up at the lap top, hit the second stage NOS and the floor pan fell off.

I saw it in the fast and the furious, it can happen.

Lol, my first thought too. I think he blew the welds on the intake manifold which usually makes the floorboard fall out.

I was going to verify to see if you were correct, but my Fast & th Furious disc was missing.

 

[ObiDon]

Originally posted by: datalink7

Originally posted by: flxnimprtmscl

Originally posted by: Talon02
I think first you yelled shut up at the lap top, hit the second stage NOS and the floor pan fell off.

I saw it in the fast and the furious, it can happen.

Lol, my first thought too. I think he blew the welds on the intake manifold which usually makes the floorboard fall out.

I was going to verify to see if you were correct, but my Fast & th Furious disc was missing.

:Q

 

[Sundog]

Originally posted by: HiTek21
Sounds like the exhaust heat shield came off.

Yep...happens all the time.

 

[Jeff7]

Something came off of my car a few weeks ago too - I was about a quarter mile from home, when I heard something clanging around under the front of the car. Then it fell off; I went back then to retrieve it. It was like a half-cylinder, with flanges on the ends. Someone working at a car parts store said that it's a catalytic convertor heat shield; no one seemed to think it was very critical. If it's not critical...why have it and what does it do?

 

[iamwiz82]

Originally posted by: Jeff7
Something came off of my car a few weeks ago too - I was about a quarter mile from home, when I heard something clanging around under the front of the car. Then it fell off; I went back then to retrieve it. It was like a half-cylinder, with flanges on the ends. Someone working at a car parts store said that it's a catalytic convertor heat shield; no one seemed to think it was very critical. If it's not critical...why have it and what does it do?

so the interior floor doesnt get hot. It is not comfortable to ride with a hot floor right beneath you.

 

[jurzdevil]

Originally posted by: iamwiz82

Originally posted by: Jeff7
Something came off of my car a few weeks ago too - I was about a quarter mile from home, when I heard something clanging around under the front of the car. Then it fell off; I went back then to retrieve it. It was like a half-cylinder, with flanges on the ends. Someone working at a car parts store said that it's a catalytic convertor heat shield; no one seemed to think it was very critical. If it's not critical...why have it and what does it do?

so the interior floor doesnt get hot. It is not comfortable to ride with a hot floor right beneath you.

its so you dont burn up on re-entry

 

[J0hnny]

Sounds to me like the Catalytic converter heat shield or one of the other exhaust heat shields. On most cars there are 2 parts to the catalytic converter heat shield, the upper and lower (screwed / clamped together). If you lose this, you don't really have to worry too much, it'll only be a bit hotter and I doubt you'll feel your interior heat up at all. You can actually start a fire if you park your car over a really really dry patch of grass. The other exhaust heat shields only cover the top side of the piping and serves no real purpose other than to prevent the underbody from heating up too much. I wouldn't worry about anything.

Just jack your car up and crawl underneath and take a quick peek.

 

[vegetation]

I've had my heat shield off for a long time and the floor does not get any warmer. The heat shield isn't exactly from space shuttle heat tile technology, it's just a thin piece of aluminum.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: vegetation
I've had my heat shield off for a long time and the floor does not get any warmer. The heat shield isn't exactly from space shuttle heat tile technology, it's just a thin piece of aluminum.

It depends on the car. In my car the exaust and the driveshaft share the center tunnel so if I loose my catalytic cnverter heat shield then all my exaust heat gets funneled up into the passenger compartment through the hole for the shift-lever. The heat shield reflects that heat back down and it also helps the cat get hot faster.

ZV