bic

I must have hit something in the road while I was driving which dislodged a piece of the plastic underbody beneath the car. It's a big piece of black plastic that runs laterally just ahead of the the rear wheels. This plastic is now firmly suspended about halfway between the road surface and the rest of the car and it scrapes whenever I go over speed bumps. Aside from that, I don't see it doing any harm other than maybe the drag from it knocking off a fraction of a MPG.

My question is whether I should seek to replace the part or simply remove it. I took it to a Porsche dealer with the intent of fixing it but a service manager told me the replacement part would be $140 and none of his guys would be able to fix it that day. So now I'm wondering if I should take it to an independent shop to get it up on a lift and cut it off or if I should go with the full replacement. Thoughts?

Sputter

Either repair it or replace it. (depends on if the pan is all there to repair).
You don't want rocks etc flying up under the car and hitting the exposed undercarriage.

AlpharettaRK

Yep - I'd replace it. You should be able to find a used one (cosmetics obviously aren't important) there in FL or from DCAutomotive or OK foreign or ebay. If you have jackstands it shold be an easy DIY, too. I've had all of mine off at one time or another and don't recall any of the plastic covers being a challenge.
Cheers
Randy

bic

Yeah, you guys are right. I'll look into replacement parts.

Macster

Replace it. Be sure its attached properly. Panel serves aerodynamic function which helps keep car stable at speed, reduces drag, helps evacuate air from cabin, and helps keep engine compartment air temperature down.

Besides, some piece of road debris hit the panel hard enough to knock it loose and probably cracked it too boot). Do you want the next piece of road debris to hit an accessory drive? Knock a chunk out of the serpentine belt drive pulley on teh front of the crank? Maybe cause belt to break? Or poke hole in engine case?

Sincerely,

Macster.

bic

^ Excellent post-- exactly why I came to Rennlist with this question. Thanks!

sjfehr

In addition to aerodynamics, this piece protects some of the rubber coolant tubing, brake lines, and other parts of the engine from road debris. I recommend replacing it, but it won't hurt to drive around without it until you can get a new one put on. You probably won't be able to pull it off, though; a little duct tape should tape it for the time being.

I had to replace this on my car, too. (In my case, I'm pretty sure my underbody panels were damaged by a botched jack job when the previous owner had the tires changed.) I replaced it myself, but had access to a lift. Some of the bolts on this one are sunk in pretty deep in the centerline of the car, so you'd have a hard time doing without at least jacking the car up and crawling underneath. That said, it's not a difficult job to do, so you wouldn't be paying much labor, either. Any indie can do it without much effort.

bic

Took care of it today. The replacement part (986 504 129 02) cost $159.60, I picked it up from the Porsche dealership and took it down the street for an indie shop to install for free. Thanks to all for the sage advice!