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It's been a while (a little over two years) since I got laughed at for engineering overkill with the IPD skid plate. Since then, I've completely neglected it - except for the occasional scraping sound, which always makes me smile and think "that's why I bought this thing". Pulled it off the other day to shim the AC compressor and thought I'd take some pictures.
At first glance it doesn't look too bad. A few people were concerned about the painted area, being recessed, filling up with crud. I've never washed - or even hosed down - the underside, but it doesn't seem to be a problem. Here's before it was installed (Feb 2010):
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And now (June 2012):
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Now I didn't see this at first, but looking a little more closely, it seems she's taken some pretty big hits. The corners are ground down to almost a knife edge. One hit on the passenger side sheered off a few rivets, and left 1/16" gouges down one side that could have been made by an angry bear:
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It's hard to capture how dramatic these are...
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It's stopped quite a few rocks. Would these have gone through the factory plastic thing? Probably not. Would they have cracked the oil pan on impact? Maybe. The biggest chip is about 1/8" deep.
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Here's the bottom, as of Feb 2010:
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And two years later, I definitely need to replace an engine mount (or three). You can see where the lower mount bashes against the butyl on hard acceleration. It hasn't actually dented the plate, but it can't be good:
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Here is the scariest picture. Again, I did not notice this at first glance, only once I stated taking pictures. This shows the type of force the reinforcements have encountered:
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That is about 3/16" deformation of the aluminum angle, where it contacted the bottom of the AC compressor. It's on the same side as the busted rivets and bear claw scratches. Not sure what I hit, but that would have done some serious damage without reinforcement. The plate itself is bent around the angle on both sides, but the angle did exactly what it was supposed to: prevent the plate from bending into the belts. AC compressor is fine, can't tell where exactly it pressed on.
The center strut also has some impact damage:
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Not as bad as the passenger side though. I suspect this presses on the bottom of the oil pan during front-impact scrapes.
Some concluding thoughts:
1) In my opinion, this was worth every penny of the $200 I spent if only for the peace of mind knowing that the scraping noise is the skid plate and not the oil pan.
2) Rocks do hit the front of the plate, and hard. The amount of force required to take a 1/8" chip out of aluminum plate is insane. If the right rock, going the right speed, made it through the logo, it could do some serious damage. So put a plate over it... period.
3) Reinforcements are probably not necessary if you drive gingerly on well-paved roads. If you are like me, and often say "f'it, I've got AWD", than I would highly recommend reenforcing the plate so that it does not crumple around critical spinny bits (like the timing and accessory belt) after a hard hit.
4) The butyl rubber has held up beautifully, with no noticeable melting or deformation. So if the "ting" is bothering you, some edead 45 is the perfect thing to take care of it.
5) No issues with the two rear aluminum spacers/insufficient threads. Mine are 1/4" thick. I used loctite at the beginning, but now I just torque the crap out of them and haven't lost a bolt yet.
6) USE STAINLESS HARDWARE. The galvanized nuts I used in the front have started to really rust bad.
Cheers :beer:
At first glance it doesn't look too bad. A few people were concerned about the painted area, being recessed, filling up with crud. I've never washed - or even hosed down - the underside, but it doesn't seem to be a problem. Here's before it was installed (Feb 2010):
And now (June 2012):
Now I didn't see this at first, but looking a little more closely, it seems she's taken some pretty big hits. The corners are ground down to almost a knife edge. One hit on the passenger side sheered off a few rivets, and left 1/16" gouges down one side that could have been made by an angry bear:
It's hard to capture how dramatic these are...
It's stopped quite a few rocks. Would these have gone through the factory plastic thing? Probably not. Would they have cracked the oil pan on impact? Maybe. The biggest chip is about 1/8" deep.
Here's the bottom, as of Feb 2010:
And two years later, I definitely need to replace an engine mount (or three). You can see where the lower mount bashes against the butyl on hard acceleration. It hasn't actually dented the plate, but it can't be good:
Here is the scariest picture. Again, I did not notice this at first glance, only once I stated taking pictures. This shows the type of force the reinforcements have encountered:
That is about 3/16" deformation of the aluminum angle, where it contacted the bottom of the AC compressor. It's on the same side as the busted rivets and bear claw scratches. Not sure what I hit, but that would have done some serious damage without reinforcement. The plate itself is bent around the angle on both sides, but the angle did exactly what it was supposed to: prevent the plate from bending into the belts. AC compressor is fine, can't tell where exactly it pressed on.
The center strut also has some impact damage:
Not as bad as the passenger side though. I suspect this presses on the bottom of the oil pan during front-impact scrapes.
Some concluding thoughts:
1) In my opinion, this was worth every penny of the $200 I spent if only for the peace of mind knowing that the scraping noise is the skid plate and not the oil pan.
2) Rocks do hit the front of the plate, and hard. The amount of force required to take a 1/8" chip out of aluminum plate is insane. If the right rock, going the right speed, made it through the logo, it could do some serious damage. So put a plate over it... period.
3) Reinforcements are probably not necessary if you drive gingerly on well-paved roads. If you are like me, and often say "f'it, I've got AWD", than I would highly recommend reenforcing the plate so that it does not crumple around critical spinny bits (like the timing and accessory belt) after a hard hit.
4) The butyl rubber has held up beautifully, with no noticeable melting or deformation. So if the "ting" is bothering you, some edead 45 is the perfect thing to take care of it.
5) No issues with the two rear aluminum spacers/insufficient threads. Mine are 1/4" thick. I used loctite at the beginning, but now I just torque the crap out of them and haven't lost a bolt yet.
6) USE STAINLESS HARDWARE. The galvanized nuts I used in the front have started to really rust bad.
Cheers :beer:
