Q: Shield rattling on a 2012 VW Passat

No, it’s not necessary. It’s a shield that keeps your oil pan from getting hot. Those Volkswagens are so squirrely, if you want to talk about over-engineered German nonsense.

Their oil pans are two-part oil pans on most of them. There is a lower oil pan and the middle oil pan and there is the engine. If you break those two oil pans, it can cost 1000 bucks to change them. The reason they put that guard in was because it is low, and if you hit something, and knock that pan, you can break both of them. That would be 1000-something bucks down the drain.

Now, if you don’t care and you take it off and the noise goes away, and you aren’t running over speed bumps all of the time, you can go ahead and take that chance. But, if you do hit something, it can destroy the oil pump. If you drive fast enough and you do that, you can run the oil up and blow the engine. If you want to have this looked at, a technician from YourMechanic can come to your car’s location to diagnose and repair the sound.