Hello, I lowered my car and put Hotchkis swaybars on. After a year or so, I scraped stuff enough to cut a line on the plastic undercover along the swaybar. Then today scraped it good and it ripped one side of the cover off. So I went under the car and snipped the cover from the swaybar back, it is basically the flap that bends back to change the oil. Now the flap is gone. I have heard that the cover prevents the engine bay from filling with dust and filth, but if I just cut that little flap off is it going to make the engine bay dirty or cause any other problems? From what I can tell it looks like it really only exposed the oilpan, but I know air might vortex under there and suck up into the engine bay.

Any reason to buy a new cover? Will my engine bay get filthy?

Here is a picture of the bottom of the car and the piece I cut off. It's about 24 inches long.


Bottom of car where I cut the plastic

The piece I cut off.

 

I'd be more concerned with something important being damaged, than the lack of a plastic undercover. Have you considered that maybe your car is too low? A show car is one thing, but a car that you "daily" should not be bottoming out, IMHO.

 

I would just buy a new cover.

 

You know, in almost any other place (that doesn't snow) I would have no problems. But the streets in San Diego are complete garbage, it's like a third-world country. Huge potholes, giant dips on the freeway, it's idiotic. My car is not extremely low. I lowered it about 1.5 inches from stock. Also, a lot of those initial bumps were when I first put the coilovers on. It's not like I'm bottoming out all the time, but once in a while, something will sneak up on me. Luckily it seems that the swaybar is the lowest point, or at least the only thing that has hit the ground.

 

Cut mine off years ago. Stock height AWD sedan. Scraping the bottom of the car on ice during winter did a number to it, had to add a hole to the cover and zip tie it up so it doesn't sag too much now as some of the mounts are also broken for it.

 

I bought an aluminum undercover. Z1 makes a nice once for rwd cars, TWB has rwd and awd options. I think zspeed also made one. Clears the Hotchkis sways. Saved my oil pan a bunch of times already.

 

I second the aluminum undercover. You can get away without running anything, but remember the cover is designed to provide some protection from debris from entering the bottom of your car. An aluminum cover also provides protection from bottoming out namely saving your sway bar and oil pan. Once I tore a section of my plastic cover I bought the Z-speed cover and couldn't be happier. It both keeps things cleaner and provides good protection.

 

Same. TBW.

https://www.z1motorsports.com/z1-pro...d-p-17226.html

 

I imagine the cover is there for several reasons. As already mentioned, to keep debris out of the engine bay, but also for aerodynamics. Nearly all new cars now come with covers front and rear for this reason.

 

Remove only 2 bolts, and that panels flips off the hinges to change your oil ( more than enough room even with oil cooler thermostatic sandwich plate installed). Change oil, put 2 bolts back in and done. Sure beats dealing with that plastic garbage and many bolts on every oil change.

 

Is the aluminum cover bolted to metal or to the bumper cover? I don't want to hit a bump and instead of tearing my plastic cover, it rips the aluminum cover off and destroys the bumper...

 

It literally uses the same mounting points as the plastic one. It does connect to the lower portion of the bumper but my car was way too low and i have never had an issue with the cover doing that.

I actually just raised my car 30mm yesterday with the KW coil spacer kit ( my issue is hitting my soul function braces under the car lol)

You will not regret replacing that plastic abomination of an undershroud with the aluminum one lol