The heat shields on my Runner rattle ALOT. Has anyone ever had this problem and if so has anyone ever taken them off. I am getting to the point of wanting to take them off but not sure on what could get damaged from the heat if I do. Anyone anyone?

 

Not sure what gen you have but on the 2nd gens, the heat shield is part of the exhaust gasket and can't be removed unless the manifolds are taken off. If that's the case for you, might as well go ahead and install headers.

If not, the only harm I think would come of removing the shield would be damage to the spark plug wires from the extra heat.

 

2nd Gen here, I took the heat shield that was THE noisiest next to the transmission last night. I think my next rattle is the crossover pipe shield that runs pass to dr. side. I dont think the manifold shields are doing the rattle. I figured the plug wires would not stand up to the heat if i cut those out.

 

When I bought my 1990 pickup it had already had extractors fitted so the main heat shield on the exhaust manifold was long gone.
It obviously gets hot in that area but the only thing damaged has been some wire loom tube that I left hanging too close.

There is also one or two heat shields bolted to the underside of the floor pans, above where the exhaust runs, but by the looks of things they'd be hard to remove, let-alone cause a rattle!

During my adventurers with replacing the carpet in my truck I noticed the heat coming through the floor on the exhaust side of the vehicle so I had some additional heat shields welded to the exhaust itself.
They're simply some steel pipe cut in half and tacked onto the exhaust pipe - sufficient till I design something better