[W126 Coupe] Catalytic converter

[Louis Miller]

Thanks, everyone. I'll do some crawling and let you know how I make out.

 And will avoid parking over grass and leaves after a good drive.

Lou Miller


----- Original Message ----- 
From: Steve Nervig 
To: Mercedes Coupes Mailing Lists
Sent: 7/28/2008 3:26:08 PM 
Subject: Re: [W126 Coupe] Catalytic converter


Usually, if the heat shield is mounted on the underside of the cat, its reason to be there is to help prevent a fire starting if you happen to park on something flammable, like dry grass, or cardboard patch in your garage, for instance.


Steve




On Jul 28, 2008, at 12:16 PM, Jonathan Hodgman wrote:


That heat shield has rusted off more cars then not @ this point..  I wouldn't worry about it.  If you are worried, it shouldn't be touch for someone to put that back on or bend some sheet metal around your cat etc..

Were it my car I'd just leave it be.

Jonathan



On Mon, Jul 28, 2008 at 2:28 PM, Markus Meyer <mfm at meyerprobateproperties.com> wrote:

Lou,

Should be "re-installable".  I haven't looked under mine in a bit, but I know my truck has a shield that is loose as I saw it hanging the other day.  On that, the shield attaches on both sides and is bolted together around the converter.  I know on the 126's there is heat shielding attached to the body, but possibly to the converter itself as well.  I know on newer equipement I've read the literature that clearly states that many high flow converters and mufflers need shields as they lower under-hood temps but have higher temps of their own than stock pieces.

In your case, if the shield bolted on with 2 or 3 bolts, you'll need to get new ones as I'm assuming they rattled loose, as opposed to the shield shearing or tearing off?  If there are two shields that attach to each other, I wonder if the other piece is still there.  A look under there should confirm the story.

Markus Meyer


-------- Original Message --------


I have a 1990 560 SEC which has been lowered properly and sits on wide AMG Wheels. I have 149,500 miles on the car.

After a visit to my daughter in NYC, and a ride over a few very rough streets, I was greeted with what appeared to be a heat shield on the street outside my house. I had driven about 75 miles, without incident, and in the last 1,5 miles I had a scraping sound as the thing had apparently come loose and was hanging down, scraping  Once the shield was off the car, it was its usual self with no extra noise of rough running at all.

I took the shield to the new MB dealer here in Flemington, and he was able to get a part number from the thing, and it is apparently part of the catalytic converter. I haven't checked under the car yet, but it is actually almost completely intact and looks like it can be straightened out (there is a small dent) and reattached to the bottom of whatever it came from.

Is this possible, or am I going to have to ante up for the entire converter. The rest of the exhaust system looks and sounds completely intact.

Any thoughts or help would be appreciated.

Louis Miller
millerlh at earthlink.net
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