My name is Mike Peters, live in St. Louis, originally hail from Jax, FL hoping to find some gator fans here I hope. I'm an airline pilot based in Chicago, married with 2 dogs, no kids yet. I'm an avid golfer, killing myself for carrying a 1 handicap into winter. I own a 2005 G35x named Jezabelle (wifes naming I swear). She has 103,700 miles on her legs and I just finished up doing the 105k items early. I also changed the rear dif fluid, I checked with the service records to verify it was completed before and it was. Previous owner had all scheduled MX done up until 65xxx miles so I was thrilled about that. Ok, my two questions. First, I've only found one forum discussion in regards to those blasted cat heat shields rattling around; mine just started about 6 months and I'm tired of it. I'm thinking of removing them but am really leery with my climate and everything that can happen to the cats. If I do remove them, is there any possible way of applying any type of rust inhibitor to them to help negate any degradation that may occur? Has anybody had luck re welding them? Second, i found oil today, a decent amount unfortunately on the driver side spark plug closest to the firewall..... what does it mean and what do I need to do to fix it? Thanks everyone, looking forward to learning alot here.

 

Don't know about the shield but the oil in plug is a well-known issue with the stupid design of the seal. Two choices: replace valve cover or get a kit where you drill out the OEM seal and install a better seal. Search forum for DIY on the fix. It's probably a sticky in one of the DIY sub-forums it's so common.

 

i would just take the heat shields off. most of them corrode and fall apart. i have heard you can try PJ1 FAST BLACK Exhaust paint. its a high heat silica/ceramic paint that prevent rust and corrosion. i have never tried it personally (cause i live in socal and dont worry about rust)

i have the same problem of the oil seeping through the valve seals. the unfortunate part is you cannot buy just the seals from infiniti cause the seals come pre installed in the valve cover. there is a company called R&D factory (located here in socal) that makes a kit with new seals. but you have to drill out the old ones and install the new ones. the guys who have done it report no problems so far. (atleast none i have heard about)

 

Thank you very much, ill scan the DIY section and see what it takes to tackle it and if i feel comfortable enough doing it.

Im leaning towards removal but as stated earlier, leery. Rockauto and others do sell the cats for half of what infiniti does but its still an expensive gamble to not atleast try and protect them. Ill definitely look for the paint.

 

Don't forget to check the marketplace, lots of options for parts there.

 

Just remove them and have them re-welded for ~50$ at your local welder.

Do not run without heat shields, you might literally cook your car if you ever park in grass.

 

lol another thing i dont have to worry about. in socal nothing but concrete. no vegetation lives here.

 

Not like you'd be able to water it anyway

 

Hahahaha I like it. Thanks guys, doing some research for welders as we speak.