Heat shield fell off...

[komichal]

Hi folks,
My Yaris 2007 hatchback 1.3 64kW started to rattle from beneath the car.
A quick inspection on the road showed that a heat shield above the center part of the exhaust piping shaked off and now holds on one bolt only, rest lying on the exhaust and rattling.

Once I put my hand to the heat shield it fell off completely. I have attached a picture (not mine) to indicate the exact shield that is now gone...



I have visited a few car services/garages around and all the guys looked at me like I was some sort of freak, telling "No need to have this one on the car. Waste of money to buy it and to replace it."

Then I called an authorized Toyota service center and their reaction was something like "if the shield would not needed then Toyota would not have mounted it there". And they recommended replacing with a new one which should take some 150 USD incl. work. Quite a lot of money I think; unfortunately the old heatshield cannot be reaused, it is too thin around the bolt holes so I guess a big washer would not help.

Now I am wondering how dangerous it is to drive without that heatshield. Will my car catch fire? Will the temperature in cabin just rise by 0.1 Celsius? Will some other parts of car get corrosion/wear out faster because of excessive heat? Occasionally I had to park on high dry grass and the grass never caught fire; I guess the car cannot catch fire too...

Thanks for any thoughts on this.