Underbody Scrape Noise

[Speedy2008]

When I back out of my driveway, the front part of my car seems to scrape the curb. It's a loud rough sound. Maybe I should back out at a slower speed. Does anyone know if repeated underbody scuffing will cause damage or was it designed to take a little abuse due to its lowered ride height?

[3GFX]

lol, no abuse is good abuse.

Try backing out on an angle. This is a trick to increase the ability to climb over objects without scraping.

[b]

I've ripped teh engine undercover off a few times now. It is approx $125 to replace it with a new one.

[Speedy2008]

Thanks, I'll try to back out at an angle at a very slow speed or maybe even back into my spot instead of going straight in. When I look under my car, there seems to be plastic guard pieces. I guess it acts as protection for minor scrapes. Can anyone confirm?

[Chuckie]

hahaha i got that piece of the underbody shielding hanging.
im going to maybe just rip that shit off.

[3GFX]

The point of the shield is to "shield" the engine from debris and such. Salt especially.

[Cardinal Fang]

The undershield will take some damage but it was never meant to absorb severe punishment consistently like those on SUVs. Just be careful and slow backing out.

[Wild Weasel]

Yeah... it's a shield, not a skidplate. :chuckle

[Unoriginalusername]

Yeah... it's a shield, not a skidplate. :chuckle

lol x2

[REZXPERT]

i snowplowed home on my way home from Montreal last month in a wicked snow storm. winter wheels held up nicely except one casualty: undershield. ripped off whatever was left. not the best material for cars driving in our winter climate....
especially if you're lowered.

[Unoriginalusername]

i snowplowed home on my way home from Montreal last month in a wicked snow storm. winter wheels held up nicely except one casualty: undershield. ripped off whatever was left. not the best material for cars driving in our winter climate....
especially if you're lowered.

i might be interested in your winter wheels if you are selling them and do in fact sell your car

[REZXPERT]

i might be interested in your winter wheels if you are selling them and do in fact sell your car

do i hear winter driving in your future? must be tough staring at it in storage..... hard enough lookin at my summer wheels!
the winters are a great set. i'll keep you in mind if/when the sale happens.

[JashiK]

if you look under the car is it scraping the middle shield? or the rectangular plastic pieces that stick down infront of each tire? Those rectangular pieces with holes are functional and are there to cool our brakes, so hopefully you're not mangling those pieces.

[Speedy2008]

I will take a better look under my car to find out what got scraped. Hopefully, it was just the front part. It definitely was a very painful sound. I've scraped it about 3 times. It's time for me to change my ways. I will back-in to my driveway instead because it is very difficult for me to exit at an angle due to my very narrow driveway.

[Speedy2008]

I looked under my car and determined that the scraping noise resulted from rubbing against the fairly flexible plastic guard that wraps around the underside of the front bumper. It's the very thin plastic piece that hangs down about 1cm. I can see and feel the rough points along this plastic piece where is scraped against the curb. I can also tell that it can be replaced because there were metal screws holding it in place. Now I can breathe easy.