noise under car

My name is Andy and I just purchased a 92 SVX several months ago. My only serious problem is a "noise" under the floorboard. It seems to be coming from the heat shields that protect the car from the heat off the exhaust. I was thinking about just removing all of these heat shields and wrapping the exhaust with heat tape. Has anyone else tried this?? Or does anyone have a better solution? thanks Andy

[Mr. Pockets]

Originally posted by taohog
My name is Andy and I just purchased a 92 SVX several months ago. My only serious problem is a "noise" under the floorboard. It seems to be coming from the heat shields that protect the car from the heat off the exhaust. I was thinking about just removing all of these heat shields and wrapping the exhaust with heat tape. Has anyone else tried this?? Or does anyone have a better solution? thanks Andy

What kind of a noise is it? Is it a metallic rattling kind of noise? It could be a few things.

Rocks or other debris caught in the heat shields. On a '92, it's likely that the bolts attaching the heat shields are rusty and not really useful. You may end up removing the heat shields in a rather destructive way.

Damage to the heat shields. I MUNGed one of my heat shields good a couple months after I bought the car and it rattled like crazy.

Exhaust resonator. These have been known to make bad noises. Replacing is expensive, so many folks have just had the thing cut out and replaced with a straight pipe, welded right in. The costs tends to be about $50, and I guess there is little difference in the exhaust noise.

yes, the noise seems to be more of a metallic rattle. But it is extremely difficult to try and make the noise happen and also as difficult to isolate exactly where the noise is coming from. Therefore, I thought about removing all of the heat shields.