Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

This is a follow up to the "Clanking sound on slow acceleration" thread. Thanks again for everyone's input.

I took my van to my local Mitsubishi dealer, who are actually pretty helpful, and we figured out that the rattling sound was something to do with the muffler.

I then took it to a local muffler shop and they found that the rattling/clanking sound was due to the heatshield coming loose on the muffler. They suggested removing the heatshield as there was already an extra heatshield above the muffler. I was quite reluctant to let them, as it does seem that everything the Japanese do is for a specific reason and the extra heatshield may be necessary. They said they have removed heatshields on plenty of imports and domestics with no problems. I expressed uncertainty all the way through it but they just did it anyway. They didn't charge me for it but I can't help but feel that they wanted to indemnify themselves by not providing a receipt or paper trail in case something did go wrong.

So can anyone ease my concern and confirm that removing the heatshield attached to the muffler will not cause a problem in the future?

Thanks.

I wouldn't worry too much about removing it, especially since diesel's exhaust is much cooler than that of a gas engine, and there is another shield, it should be relatively safe.

Ditched mine.

My replacement muffler doesn't have an attached heat shield so it shouldn't be any problem.

Okay thanks. That seems to be the consensus.