I don't really care if the car feels hot inside. but a friend told me that's there for a reason. that what if the tranny snaps the splines on the driveshaft and the driveshaft falls and maybe catapult you car up or send the driveshaft threw the rear.. kind of scared the crap out of me.. so is this true???

 

wat

 

Wut

 

rut


it's there to keep the underside of the car from getting excessively hot, there is no practical reason to remove it since it only weighs about 2 lbs. and tell your friend to stop getting ideas from movies.

 

I think he thinks that the flimsy heat shields are some kind of scattershields..

Well they aren't.
(Translated because I occasionally teach English Comp 1)

Also.
"Race cars" have heat shields.
Keep them. I have them and my turbo still cooks my passenger.

 

is it 2 questions ?

does OP think the heat shields act as a barrier against deadly catapulting driveshafts?

I removed a heat shield or two in my day- but only because they were rattling really bad and I ripped them off out of aggravation. There is no reason to remove them otherwise.

 

well I see some people understood what I was trying to say.. aha.... well mine were rattling so that's why I removed them.. but I just got a little spooked when he told me that theres that chance the drive shaft can some how drop and catapult you in the air..

 

if it were ever to happen(very unlikely, like getting struck by lightning and then hit by a 747 airliner unlikely) the heat shield isn't going to keep the shaft in the tunnel, the exhaust is the best you could hope for..

i have had a driveshaft come off on a customer car, it just beat up the midpipe is all. don't ask me how it happened, i get cars come in with bolts loose all over the car ALL the time! (the customer was in the car when it happened, i was getting a little mad because i hate people wasting my time)

 

ahaha well thanks for that... I just replaced the driveshaft and doubt any of those bolts are lose so yeah.. thanks again I appreciate it!

 

Your friend watches too many special effects movies.

A couple things I hope you take into consideration:
#1: Guys here actually OWN an Rx7..and give you STRAIGHT advice...not assumption.
#2: keep that Idiot away from your car.Do not let him work on it!
#3: If you really have to listen to him,Buy and smoke some POT and that way you can crap your pants laughing while he "schools you with his expertise"!

 

Too much video games.

 

So what would actually happen if say.. there was, through extrodinarily bad luck, a hole big enough for the shaft to fall through while still bolted to the diff?

 

They tried to do it on a mythbusters. Busted.
Annotated Mythbusters: Episode 27: Exploding Port-a-Potty, Pole-vaulting car

 

the heat shields work! without them you can melt the carpet and or passengers shoes.

 

If I remember right, I'm missing one section of the heat shields and my trans tunnel and all the plastic, carpet, and even shifter get really warm after driving. After some spirited driving it's like feels like you are gonna get cooked in the car.

That MythBuster's episode was pretty good, though the car doesn't vault as high as you'd think. But, considering a 7 is quite a bit lighter than their test car, who knows? Maybe we could make it an Olympic sport.

 

what the **** kind of thread is this, lol

 

did the car ever vault before they basically had to make it? i don't exactly remember that episode but most myths they have to get creative to make the myth even feasable.

 

when I get big I'm gonna be a truck driver

 

Not really RE, it took a highly modified driveshaft that self unscrewed when thrown into neutral and a hole the size of Adam and about 1 1/2 feet deep. And even then it only lifted the back tires a couple feet, keep in mind this was a rather large car.

I've got every episode on my computer so I just went back and re-watched it.

 

It was only a couple feet cause they were running the stock exhaust heat shields.

It's mostly just the reaction as every mount between the driveshaft to the chassis bends or breaks. A driveshaft is terrible at transmitting that type of load because of the u-joint. It's like pushing rope.

 

lmao thanks for giving me some laughs!

 

I thought this was a joke at first

 

it is a possibility, but not gonna happen with a stock to lightly modified car.

on one particular customer's car his S5 driveshaft in fact twisted from the torque applied to it, the driveshaft shop rebalanced it and it has been ok but it is still a scary thought when you start pushing 400tq plus through of a stock/rebuilt driveshaft and the forces required to actually start twisting that tube. this is also why i don't screw with non turbo BS components.

 

Because did not remove heatshields. Cars with heatshields will NEVER catupault. Its just physics.

 

Without heat shields the extreme heat given off by the driveshaft rotation would burn your anus