I have a '98 S70 which just turned 100K miles. Low miles, but I live in New England where the roads are liberally salted in the winter. The exhaust has had a few minor failures like tail pipe hangers and pipe from cat to muffler. these problems were dealt with by a local welding shop for little money. The stainless mufflers are amazingly tough, it seams, but things around them tend to rust and fall apart. Case in point: a heat shield on top of the big rectangular muffler has come loose and is nor resting on top of said muffler making a rattle that's pretty annoying. Is there a way to fix this? Should I just get rid of the heat shield? It is located between the muffler and the floor of the car. Will the undercoating met or something bad like that without it? Is there a way to re-attach it?

Please help. I searched and found it to be a common occurance on these cars, but found nothing on how to remedy the situation.

Thanks in advance!