What good are belly pans for?
- Thread starter supton
- Start date
Kestas
Staff member
It creates poultice corrosion.
I try to keep the pan on my car. It takes a lot of abuse from ice and being low to the ground. the Current one I bought cheap, but it’s super flimsy. Not worth the price, but it’s still there somehow. Just zip tied it in a back corner today until I find a better quality one. on my bmw it’s essential to keep the bay clean (don’t forget the electric water pump is down there) as well as let the engine warm up in the winter.
Mine turned into a snow shovel several winters ago and got ripped down. $300 to replace it. I figure if it was that important it wouldn't be made of fancy cardboard.
That's enough dirt to re-pot plants!
The Lexus has one but it's not a dirt collector, per se. The only two disadvantages with this under cover is:
1. It can mask any small fluid leaks. I never saw any coolant leaks until I did the timing belt. The coolant in the reservoir never did need a top-off either.
2. Dealership (and most likely the dealerships that farm out oil changes to quick change oil places) are too lazy to completely remove it so they end up bending and flexing it out of the way and it soon tears. Ten fasteners to remove the cover.
Note: I never use quick lube places; I prefer to do it myself. Before I took ownership in 2008, the under cover had torn from the few oil changes that this vehicle had in 36k miles.
The Lexus has one but it's not a dirt collector, per se. The only two disadvantages with this under cover is:
1. It can mask any small fluid leaks. I never saw any coolant leaks until I did the timing belt. The coolant in the reservoir never did need a top-off either.
2. Dealership (and most likely the dealerships that farm out oil changes to quick change oil places) are too lazy to completely remove it so they end up bending and flexing it out of the way and it soon tears. Ten fasteners to remove the cover.
Note: I never use quick lube places; I prefer to do it myself. Before I took ownership in 2008, the under cover had torn from the few oil changes that this vehicle had in 36k miles.
That is a crazy amount. @supton, do you figure this is one winter's worth or many?
It's a mix of salt sand and grit they use on the roads in my area too. You will get a build up, but I've not seen one with that much unless they regularly travel on dirt roads.
The other issue you have with the underbelly plastic is shops not re-installing all the fasteners. I've seen so many youtube automotive repair videos where very new vehicles already have many of the fasteners missing from oil changes.
It's a mix of salt sand and grit they use on the roads in my area too. You will get a build up, but I've not seen one with that much unless they regularly travel on dirt roads.
The other issue you have with the underbelly plastic is shops not re-installing all the fasteners. I've seen so many youtube automotive repair videos where very new vehicles already have many of the fasteners missing from oil changes.
I've never seen this before. I'm leaning towards installed wrong at assembly or if it was removed for maintenance before. Not good.
on top of motor need to go too
foam of some kind I suppose
So I looked; we bought in April-ish of last year, so it's the first winter. 148 miles on the clock so maybe they had been off before? certainly not in our ownership (as in, it's never been back to a dealer, only been 11 months0. I've never noticed anything amiss underneath, but I never went looking either. It's not like I've had reason to truly crawl under it yet, just tire rotations (and since it's incredibly hard to jack and add jackstands, it's unlikely I ever will).
As I said in the OP, I know what they are for.
The thread title was tongue in cheek. Just looking at it made me marvel at the sand--then when I removed the pans I was shocked at just how much was under there.
As I said in the OP, I know what they are for.
The thread title was tongue in cheek. Just looking at it made me marvel at the sand--then when I removed the pans I was shocked at just how much was under there.
Hermann
Site Donor 2023
What is ? Salt and moist cold are car killers.
Marketing: "Yeah cool we should add belly pans to our vehicles."
Engineering: "Uh, ok. What's a belly pan?"
Marketing: "You know, those things Lexus has that makes the bottom look like a model kit."
Engineering: "Oh, ok. Well I never liked models, never could figure out how to put them together."
30 minutes later: vehicles have actual shovels mounted to their undersides.
Engineering: "Uh, ok. What's a belly pan?"
Marketing: "You know, those things Lexus has that makes the bottom look like a model kit."
Engineering: "Oh, ok. Well I never liked models, never could figure out how to put them together."
30 minutes later: vehicles have actual shovels mounted to their undersides.
Has it been a year already?
No...
but time to do this again.
*sigh*
Not as bad right now, and the weather is warm the next couple of days (of course the wife is just about to head out for the day, so cross out today). I think I need to lift the car up, get it up high enough that I can "easily" crawl around under it, and see what is really going on. Or at least make it so that this is an "easy" job to clean out. Sheesh.
In lighter news: we took the car to CT for Christmas, and I got to drive. Today was oil change day. While entering that into the logbook I noticed the mpg's that my wife has been dutifully noting. My time behind the wheel was *ahem* a bit less mpg, with the note "Daddy driving". Can't get away with nuthin' with my wife.
No...
but time to do this again.
*sigh*
Not as bad right now, and the weather is warm the next couple of days (of course the wife is just about to head out for the day, so cross out today). I think I need to lift the car up, get it up high enough that I can "easily" crawl around under it, and see what is really going on. Or at least make it so that this is an "easy" job to clean out. Sheesh.
In lighter news: we took the car to CT for Christmas, and I got to drive. Today was oil change day. While entering that into the logbook I noticed the mpg's that my wife has been dutifully noting. My time behind the wheel was *ahem* a bit less mpg, with the note "Daddy driving". Can't get away with nuthin' with my wife.
Most of these belly pans get distorted and destroyed by people rolling up to the parking stops or curbs while parking at grocery stores, gas stations, etc etc. This usually results in them hanging down destroying most of the plastic fastener/plastic rivets, and becoming shovels
Golfs, Civics and Mazda3s seem to be the most common car to see the belly pan flapping around or literally dragging on the ground around here. The Outback has them although they leave a gap for oil drain access, and some down each side just inside the rockers to the driveshaft down the middle of the car. They don't seem to collect much sand thankfully.
The focus has no belly pans, but the front sub frame and boxed in "frame rails" in the body seemingly have random holes, and no clear drain holes... These are pretty full of sand and rust....
JHZR2
Staff member
Many of my cars have them. Supposedly it’s to help with aerodynamics and noise. My MB 350SD has a little air scoop that routes the incoming air along the rear half of the oil pan and then somewhere else (not the air filter).
they're good for service departments
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