[Engine] Catalytic converter

[oldbird]

Hi guys, this is probably gonna sound like a stupid question, but someone told me my heat shield is missing. At the time we looking down into the engine. He said it was the heat shield for the cat, but whenever Ive searched for the location of the cat, it always states that they're at the rear of the exhaust system. Can anyone shed anymore light on this for me. I have a 2007 1.6hdi van.

[Sol]

No such thing as a stupid question if you don't know the answer.

The cat is the big cylinder shaped object at the front of the 1.6 HDi engine, pointing down and leading away from the turbo, on the hot (brown / rusty) end. On this engine, the exhaust manifold is at the front. On all engines, the cat is the first thing on the exhaust line, after the engine manifold.

Watch this video by one of our members, @saskak as he posts a lot of good content on the M59 HDi engine. This one deals with exactly the task you are asking about, fitting a new heat shield to the cat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyL5nRiFfT0

[oldbird]

That's perfect. That's what I thought I was looking at, but everything on google seemed to contradict it. Thank you so much.