Plastic undertray

[Rich]

My Marea TD125 had a plastic undertray enclosing the whole underside of the engine bay. However, about a week after I last had it serviced I noticed that it was not there any more. I did try complaining to the garage, but as I can't prove that it was there when I dropped the car off and not when I collected it I didn't get much joy. The garage just said that they often break and there's nothing they can do about it and most people just leave them off. I think I'm pi$$ed off most that they didn't tell me about it - hoped I wouldn't notice? What else did they break and not tell me about?! (Turin Motors in Leeds, by the way, if this is the kind of thing that puts you off a garage….).

Anyway, I would quite like to replace the undertray, but a new one from Fiat is £72. I might try to find one at a scrappers, so I was wondering if anyone knew whether other Mareas or Bravo/as have the same undertray? I'm likely to find more 1.4SX's for example at a scrapper than TD125's, so would that moulding fit mine?

Cheers,
Rich

 

[Martin]

My missus decided to do a little offroading in her works carpark and ripped the drivers side of our HGT's undertray loose, I have had to cable tie it back on.
I would say though that it is very unlikely that the whole tray could just dissapear without you noticing, they are fecking large. My betting is the gimps at the garage took it off and forgot to put it back on. Noticed it laying around, couldn't remember which car it came off and binned it

As for locating one! I doubt if a scrappers would have one, most Bravo/Marea/Brava's I have seen are all front enders

Good luck in the hunt. I am sure that you could go without, but the engine will get covered in more crap off the roads than with one and if anything it's the wrong time of year to be going without

 

[Rich]

Re: Re: Plastic undertray

Thanks for the reply Martin.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the garage broke it while taking it off (they kind of hinted that it happens often), but I couldn't prove anything and they weren't gonna fork out for a new one....

I'd like to replace it partly to keep crud out of the engine bay, but mainly because the ground clearance between the front wheels is only about 3" (and that's on standard suspension) and it often bottoms out on the stupid narrow speed-humps round here - I'd rather scrape a piece of plastic than the sump or suspension!! I reckon the flat underside will help reduce drag as well - maybe give about 0.1 mpg extra?! It would also catch anything that happened to fall off the engine.... (spot tongue firmly in cheek!)

I spoke to a scrapper this afternoon, who thought that it was the same part on all the 5-cylinder cars - anybody know if this is correct?

Cheers,
Rich.

 

[Anonymous]

Re: Re: Re: Plastic undertray

I think it is the same on all 5 cyl cars. the differences are inthe plastic panels to the sides.

The petrol one from the 20v has an access hatch in it, which is supposed to be for access to the oil filter, although I'd like to see someone actually manage to use it for that without covering the tray in oil after, and then watching it drip ontheir driveway for ages after. The dealer should be able to easily tell you from the parts CD which other models use the same undertray so you can get one from a scrapper...

The Undertray is mainly for acoustic reasons (driveby noise), but also serves to protect the FEAD from dirt ingress.

The rear fixings on the undertray are very poor design, and thus the bolts can fall out of these, and the tray could then fall onto the road. You will often notice Alfa 156's with the tray half falling off as well. Solution is to use some decent grade cable ties (Farnell.co.uk do some suitable) and tie it on. Then don't forget to give the garage two spares each time for your service, else they will charge you for new ones at some comedy price....