Yesterday i got my new exhaust (PaceSetter, pretty nice and super cheap), and I spent all last night getting the horribly corroded and broken exhaust pipe and muffler off my car.

note: Minnesota cars are a pain in the butt cause of the massive corrosive buildup.

But anyway, spent all last night ripping off exhaust hangers, grinding off bolts, and using a little elbow grease to get the exhaust off.

Anyway, it ended up that unplugging the 02 sensor from the cat, and detaching the whole exhaust right after the headers was going to be easiest (the connection from the cat to the tail pipe was essentially welded by rust).

In the process, i pretty much had to rip the heat shields, top and bottom, off the cat to be able to unscrew the 02 sensor.

I am just wondering, what is the purpose of these, and should I bother getting replacements? there is still one heat shield left, mounted to the bottom of the car, but the 2 on the cat are pretty much trash.

sorry this is so long, thanks