Not sure if it's been mentioned on here before but I've been told today that the tin exhaust shields that Ford like to fit on their cars have now become part of the MOT test, so if they are missing then it is now an MOT failure !!

I have binned loads of these over the past 30+ years that have come loose and been rattling on the exhaust (my last being only 2 days ago but fortunately the bin-men haven't been yet !!). I was talking to a local garage proprietor this morning who had a Mk 2.5 Focus in for a service which was missing 2 of these shields and he stated that Ford wanted the best part of £150 to replace them....you have been warned guys !!!!

Yep, been this way since the 'new' regs came out in 2018!

Not sure if it applies to all of them, I was aware it applies to the ones near the fuel tank. On my wife’s Mazda 2 there was one above rear silencer beneath boot floor, that fell off a few years ago, it is hanging on a nail in my garage. Hasn’t been an issue for mot so far. I have not checked mot manual for exact wording. 

Was only going on what I was told yesterday and the fact that a prominent large local garage had it's MOT licence suspended as a result of passing a vehicle with said heat-shield missing !!