Just got back from a couple of days driving round the Lake district.

Car was great, but noticed when I got back that the engine undertray was hanging down and almost touching the ground. I'm going to try and clip it up today before I lose it.

Two garages have been at the engine lately: A Fiat full service and local garage to sort a new gearbox mount. Surely Fiat would have seen it if loose?

Would the undertray need removing to change the gearbox mount, or would it have been the service - or both?

Cheers.

If the car had new oil and filter they would have to remove the tray.

Ok, Thanks.

I've had a better look, and it looks like it's been hanging for a while. Some of the bolts are missing.

I'll take it into Fiat and ask them how come no-one mentioned at the service that the undertray was damaged when they got to it, and why it wasn't secured properly after they serviced the car.

Lots of people on here have reported undertray problems once their car's been to a garage. Be grateful you've still got one...some garages have been known to hand the car back without it re-fitted!

Problem with under trays is they are fine when fitted new but over the years the grime/salt seizes the bolts. If plastic screws are used these simply break or mangle when attempted to be removed. Don't be too quick too blame your garage as often little they can do (this applies to all makes, alfa are the worse) however the owner could soak his rusty nuts overnight if it pleases him.

Just use some short screws with big heads to fit the undertray to the sidetrays, then drill a 5-8 mm hole in the rear end (center) an inch or two from the end, pull a wire (I used a thin electric cord from a lamp) through the hole and straight up through the "spare" holes in the gearbox lower part. You will see them. It is a perfect way of getting the undertray off the tarmac, and preventing all kind of **** (and salty snow) from entering the engine underneath.

and oil the threads before putting bolts/nuts back on!

I got censored... For me, **** has several other meanings than just ****, maybe the word "dirt" works?

It's obviously been dodgy for a while, and although I'm not really blaming the garage for causing the problem, I am a bit annoyed that they didn't bother telling me about it. They were the last people paid (a decent amount of money) to be under the car checking things out for me.

I've secured it for now and will sort some bolts.

Thanks.

garage should of used cable ties if in any doubt of its security.

My car was serviced at fiat and was given back to me hanging off, I could here it dragging along the floor as I drove off. Good times.

what does an IT technician do?

Although this is an old thread, I thought it worth resurrecting because of my own undertray coming down and my subsequent repair. There two bolt holes at the front that seem to line up with two fasteners securing the bumper. These don't appear to be threaded and I cannot see any other way of attaching the undertray in that position. What I've done is to drill two small pilot holes in the Plastic crossbeam behind the dumper air deflector. I have drilled the same in the undertray very close to the lip. I then used two of the self tapping bolts used to attach the undertray to the side trays to attach the front of the undertray to the plastic beam. The result is that they are secure, the lip of the undertray is tucked up under the car and out of the airflow. All I need do now is check to see if it is a permanent fixture or if I need to come up with a plan 'B' in the next few months.

As a sub note both the side trays have cracked around the front mounting bolts so they are not attached. As previously said, both bolts are rusted in and I suspect a bit of force will ultimately shear the heads off.

french bean said:

There two bolt holes at the front that seem to line up with two fasteners securing the bumper. These don't appear to be threaded and I cannot see any other way of attaching the undertray in that position.

Click to expand...

French, there should deffo be two holes in the leading edge of the tray which line up with two threaded holes just behind the spoiler. This is where the two bolts go. All the rest of the fixings are self tapping screws I believe.

"French, there should deffo be two holes in the leading edge of the tray which line up with two threaded holes just behind the spoiler. This is where the two bolts go. All the rest of the fixings are self tapping screws I believe. "

Yes, the 2 holes in the undertray do line up with what looks like 2 threaded inserts. However they are star headed screws not threaded plugs for bolts. This is why I've ended up drilling two new holes and using the self tapping bolts from further back along the tray. I did try removing the bolts from the bumper that hold the side trays in place but they have definately seized in and drilling sheared bolts out is not my favourite job.

There are definitely two 10mm bolts into threaded inserts at the front; another two 10mm bolts into threads on the cross member at the rear & three self tappers each side on my car. (Multijet 150)
Back two sheared on removal last Monday when I changed the oil, so I had to grind off the stubs, redrill & retap 6mmX1 to take two new bolts with large washers to spread the load. Needless to say, all were copiously greased prior to replacement.
Absolutely NO excuse for a garage to leave a tray loose, even if they don't do a proper job & retap the holes, it'd only take a minute to secure the thing with cable ties in extremis.

If you can drill the original bolts out or use a thread removing tool, then just make the hole clean with the next size drill up, hammer in a new threaded insert then galvanised bolts. An application of spray laquer to the bolt heads will keep them clean and easy to remove in future. Get a lot of rusty bolt problems on our HGVs and this technique has worked every time.