Heat Shield Problems

[Lewis]

Following on from my "Topic Rattle @about 1400rpm" I would like to understand more about the Heatshield problem related to early S4's that is raised in many topics.

I have today had my car up the ramps to check out a rattle I have on mine and following some good advice I appear to have found it. It appears to be the Metal Heat Shield on the nearside above the Turbo and exhaust. The bolts appear tight, but from the feel of it I would say that bracket for the bolt nearest the inner wing is broken. This causes a vibration at about 1400 rpm under load. Outside of that it is undetectable.

Having searched the forum on this I have discovered that this appears to be considered a serious problem with a hefty price tag of around £2500 to be fixed by Audi.

Other than being an annoying vibration what other problems does it relate to or cause. At present my car appears fine, no deterioration in performance or excess exhaust noise. I can't see why I should worry about it or go and spend such a large amount of money, especially if I can secure it in some other way.

Am I missing something, if I don't get down to Audi straight away will my Turbo's pack up? Can some explain to me what the purpose of these heat sheilds is?

Please help as I very worried something I thought was just annoying could end up causing me to sell a kidney!

[Golich]

As far as I know you are right. It is more of an annoyance than anything else. But while I have done quite a bit of work on my previous S4 I have never had cause to look for the notorious heat sheild but from a couple of years of reading the posts on this site I too believe it is not a majot prob.

[Mik]

Could be a simple bolt or bracket. But could also be more serious, so best thing is probably to get your Audi Dealer to give you a free diagnosis. Docklands Audi are particularly experienced on this subject, or alternatively you could call Audi Customer Services who know quite a lot about this issue too (I know I have spoken to them on many occasions).

Cheers

Mik

[fade2grey]

I was under the impression that if the heat shield was loose, it could overheat one of the turbo's leading to premature failure. Though I guess it depends on how the shield came loose & how bad it is.