Diversion

I don't see one.. I see a small piece of plastic at the front of the car looking down into the engine bay, but otherwise my entire engine/oil pan is exposed to the ashphault.. This is probably hurting performance, as the wind is cooling down the header!

Jay

web

No, that is how almost every car is designed. The only real reason you get "skid plates", as to which you're kind of referring to, is when you go Rally X. There's no point in putting plastic covers under the oil pan and what not b/c then working on it would be much more of a hassle. It's almost always just under the bumper and radiator area.

Neothin

nope, that's how it's supposed to be.

you're supposed to have the splash guard right behind the bbottom of hte bumper, which you said you have.

arbnpx

My Corolla had a skid plate, but I think it was a little behind the engine. I remember because I once had grease smoking when it landed on it after some mechanic decided to put the exhaust manifold on without using a gasket where the oxygen sensor goes, or something like that. That plate got hot with the engine, so the grease smoked. Once I drove through a rather deep puddle, and ended up creating a ton of steam as I pulled out of it; it was pretty cool.

I'll have to look under the tC with a flashlight to see if it really doesn't have a skid plate or some kind of protection from bottoming out.

dieselstation

how does this hurt performance again?

arbnpx

Well, I did look under the tC with a flashlight tonight, and the lowest thing that I saw was the exhaust pipe heading down from the header (or at least that's what I think that is). Then there are a couple of bars that run from front to back around the engine area, and they have smooth bottoms, easy enough to skid on. But no skid plate. Anybody have a good picture of the underside of the tC anywhere?

web

There are no skid plates on our tCs. You can always get one custom made for it, but there's no need for it. Skid plates are more for rally cars. Our engine are open from underneath and you should easily see the downpipe (s-pipe), oil pan, transmission, tie rod ends, support rails that the engine sits on.....................I've bottomed out 1 time and almost ripped off my s-pipe. It's got a very small scuff on it but that's all.

Avenger

is the plastic thats behind the front bumper needed? i think my friend removed mine when he installed the neon lights

web

It's nothing huge if it's gone but it prevents excessive water and road debrie from getting up into your engine and CAI. It also acts as a support for the bumper so that head on wind doesn't make it bow during driving. I would have left it on. He could have just cut part of it out for the neon.