Heat shield around battery box
 

'87 S4 Auto

I'm trying to thoroughly clean the underside of the car now that nearly everything is stripped off, but I have a question regarding the heat shield that is surrounding the battery box.

It appears to be just pressed on and locked with clamps that can be removed:

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...95f83666c5.jpg


So my questions are:

1. Can I remove the shield and put it back in place using the same clamps?
2. If not, are these clamps available as parts and what is the part number?

Thanks again very much in advance for all your help!

Ya..its just a simple speed nut of some metric size.

I'll bet a donut that you'll do some serious damage to the heat shield trying to get those one-time-use one-way speed nutz off the pins. Yours is already damaged so maybe that's already part of your remove-and-replace plan.

That is what I somehow feared. I contacted my parts supplier the other day hoping to order a replacement but he replied it was no longer available.
Next best option IMHO was to remove it and hopefully have it repaired by a metal guy.

Thanks for the advice guys!

To get those speed nuts off, without damaging the heat shield, insert a small screwdriver into the gap as shown (red), and twist clockwise. That will bend one of the speed nut segments up and away from the central stem ... repeat with each segment, and it will come off without any damage to the shield. If you don't bend them up too far, you can flatten them out once they're removed, and use them again ... although new ones will be better if you can get the right size.

Thanks for that Dave! Went to the parts shop yesterday just to confirm the heat shield was indeed NLA, and the guy pulled the correct page out of PET that showed the parts number for the nut:

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...63cc22a30d.jpg

Sorry for not checking PET throughly enough......Luckily they are still available (at €0,19 a piece..... :D), so I ordered plenty.....!

I will post some pics after the heat shield is removed, cleaned en restored....

Removed the heat shield from the battery box, it looks a bit like a mess:

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...dcac60f0ac.jpg

It appears to be some sort of asbestos-like material covered with a thin layer of tinfoil. Wil try to remove the heat shielding material, have the metal repaired and then put on a new heat shielding layer.

Tried to clean the battery box and area around it, seems like there's no end to the job! The 'rubbery' layer on the underside of my car is rather discolored, so no 'smooth finish' after cleaning....:rolleyes:


https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...5dd1802109.jpg