I just bought a 2003 Xterra SE Supercharged, and noticed a rattle noise that I have deduced from these forums to be my heat shield. Problem is I cannot locate that exact spot. I know some recommend removing the heat shield for the exhaust, but I don't have a lift and it seems impossible to get to some of the screws. Any suggestions on how to isolate where the noise is coming from and a quick fix. I plan on upgrading the exhaust with a magnaflow, same as I had on my 2000 frontier, but dont have the cash right now to do this. I will have that shop remove the heat shield at that point, but was wondering who else has had this problem and what they did to fix it.

Thanks for any help.

get under there when the truck is cold and shake the exhaust. listen for rattles in different areas as you shake it.

if you can't get under the truck, you can drive it up onto ramps and chock the wheels, or you can jack it up and put jackstands under it.

If yours is a 4wd the two cats are in a tight squeeze, Mine has one between the trans and frame, and one between the front drivline and frame, with just a little bottoming damage they could easily be rattling on something else

Thanks for the help. I have deduced the noise to the rear near the muffler. I spray water in this area and a lot of dirt and rocks came out, but still have the noise. I might be on the right track, not sure. How hard is it to remove the heat shields and are they really needed. If I upgrade the exhaust I was thinking of having them just remove the darn things if they are not really needed. If anyone has done this let me know and if they had any problems once removed. Thanks again.

I've pretty much got the same problem now. Some of the U clamps holding the exhaust in place are alittle loose from rust, so I get noise when I start to ascellerate. Guess that'll be fixed soon. As for the heat sheilds on the catalytic converters, I took them off when I noticed some rattling underneath. It was a tight squeeze for the hands to get up there but with a tiny bit of cursing and persuasion they came off.

One other possibility could be right under your front seats, on my fiancee's X there was a small piece of thin metal bolted on that was apprx 1 1/2 feet long that was rusted out that made the same noise as the cata converter , I just took that off and everything was fine.

Good Luck.

Thanks again for all the help. My orginal thought of it being by the exhaust was wrong and I am still trying to find the location. It might take awhile, but the places you all have suggested is most likely the source, I just need to find the exact spot. If I ever do I will let you know and tell you how many knuckles I cut up messing with this.

i have the same problem on my x its a 2000 se and it only happons when i step on the gas around 1500 rpms the shop that replaced my brake controler said it was my heat sheild over the exaust and the mounts are messed up they told me it would cost about 150 to fix and i asked if i could take it off and he told me not to cause it would put to much heat on the floorboard so i just deal with it for now

i crawled under the truck about a week ago and had my wife step on the gas so i kuold see if i could find where it was coming from and i can hear it but i cant seem to put my finger on it but i did look at all the mounting hardware and i cant find a single one that was messed up or broken off so the nissan dealer that looked at it i guess didnt look at it like they said they did so i guess it wont be going back there anytime soon.

I'm sorry, and please don't take offense to this...

but dang json, I can't understand your posts without any punctuation!

throw some commas and periods in so we can tell one sentence from the next. :)

He's working on it, but he hasn't quite mastered it yet....:laugh-big: