Guys, my undercarriage engine cover (or dustshield) is falling apart. The dealer wants an arm and a leg for a replacement part. I was thinking of just removing it but I thought there may be some danger in that, danger in terms of the alternator getting wet or road debris getting into the engine compartmet. What do you guys think? I see all kinds of SC's in my area and almost all of them have their dust covers hanging down under the front bumper, it looks crappy to me so I want to tighten things up. Opinions?

 

howcome yours is hanging? mine was because some of the screws fell off, so i just used a couple black zip ties to hold it back up. I tried white zip ties at first, but you can see it throught the front 'big mouth' of my kit. If yours is broken, i suggest going to a junk yard.. they'll probably charge you 20-30 bucks for it. hope that helps..

 

I say YAY!

Even though my dust cover is peeling/breaking in one corner, it does a great job in keeping the engine components clean. That lets the components do their job for a longer time instead of battling the elements.

Maybe you don't have to relace yours. A patch job might suffice.

 

Good god man, do not get rid of it. Just not smart, the main pulley/belt is located right there, along with some other things. Contact aliga and check the CL marketplace

Good luck

 

vredniykot may have it.

 

i say pull it off make a trip to home depot for some thin sheet metal and cut it to the shap and size of your dust cover then simply screw or bolt it in where the stock one was

 

never had one, never will, never noticed it not being there.

SC-1

problems- 0

 

also never had one, probably never will, but did notice it not being there. haha

Only problem was drove in the rain + big puddle = dirty engine. Shouldn't be a problem unless you drive in the snow?

 

When I test drove my car I noticed that the undercarriage was loose. When I bought the car, I drove it to my mechanic and he put it back on when he did the timing belt change

 

Mine got "removed" by the shop that replaced my power steering pump. <just edited the f-word> F'ers forgot to put the screws back in it or something, so it's no longer there. Yeah, this is the shop that took 5 visits for them to make my pump stop leaking. Losers.

I thought about the big steel/plastic piece home depot thing too. I just may at some point.

 

mine kept dangling no matter how hard i tried to screw it back on, so one day while i was dragging it all over town, i just ripped it off and said screw it

never bought another one

 

haha. ditto.

 

I gotta replace mine too (heard it won't fit with a 97?! what the? ) BUT it's my LHS front splash guard... basically came loose on the highway doing roughly 110km/h (heard a slight scrape going down the highway, didn't realise it was the car (sounded like it was coming from the dash somewhere lol)... let me find the pics... they desintegrated... lol

 

It's definitely a pain in the a$$, but it's there for a reason. Mine, too, is slowly disintegrating. Oh well. . .

 

Keeps the engine bay cleaner, and helps with air flow management. Heck, it may even help with high speed stability, albeit ever so slightly. You can bet Toyota didn't go through the trouble to manufacture, test and install the part just for the hell of it.