My car has been making a rattling noise.  It’s loudest when I first start the car and then intermittently when I accelerate.  It oddly got a little better for a while, then it got worse.

I put off getting it checked – my car is a 2012 and I was worried about the expense – but I started to get self conscious about how much noise it was making.  I was also worried something would fall off while I driving down the highway. Or that the car would explode.

I planned on taking it to the dealership since I have a trip coming up soon and wanted it to be reliable, but even though I planned ahead there were no appointments until the middle of the week – when I would be expected to be in the office. 

So, I decided to try Midas again.  They are close enough to walk to and had a Saturday morning appointment available.   I booked it, got up early, and rolled into the shop – rattle and all – right on time.

They took my keys to bring the car in to check things out and I settled in with my book.  A few minutes later one of the technicians came in and told me it was the heat shield on the exhaust system that was loose.  It is secured with not-well-designed clips and while they could tighten, it would likely come loose in a few months again. Or, they could just remove it.

Since I don’t know neither diddley nor squat about cars, I asked what the consequences were on just removing it.  The answer was none – if it had been the heat shield on the gas tank they would have to replace it for safety.  But for the exhaust heat shield, no consequences. 

I gave them the green light to remove it and settled back down to read.

A few minutes after that, they were pulling my car around and I got up to pay. 

Instead, they handed me my keys and told me they weren’t going to charge me since it was just the heat shield.  They asked instead that I write a nice review for them on google – which I plan to do.

So, I rolled out of the shop after 23 minutes with a re-quieted car and no bill.  Who would have guessed?