Skid Plate/Under Cladding Removal

[cipher93]

When you need to remove the skid plate/mud guard/under cladding/whatever that covers the lower front of the engine, what holds this in? The Haynes book and a visual inspection suggests that just one bolt on the top right corner of them, and after that it's just wedging it in and out. I just want to make sure it's not more involved than that before I get a gasket for the oil pan.

Related to that, as these essential to be on there? The passenger side one is bent/smashed out of shape and hangs down towards the back, making it hard to remove the oil drain plug and aim my catch pan and would prefer to just leave it off. Failing that, anyone know how much a junker might charge for one (I could do with new wheel well covers as well but given those seem more involved I'm not in the mood to tackle those...)?

EDIT: Related to that, how does the bumper cover mount? Mine is crooked and if I can get those covers out, I would like to at least see if it's not straight because it's deformed or because when it was reinstalled by the prior owner they just over tightened the bolts on one side before going to the others.

[Piloter]

There are a few screws down at the front of the car that hold the underbody cladding on--at the bottom of the radiator, sort of. Get down under there with a jack on the front member and you should see them--on my DX the cladding is in two separate pieces, left and right. Having it on will be better for cooling (streamlines airflow through the radiator) and better for aerodynamics and also protect you from throwing road debris straight up into anything important. I'd bet that having them out would also be a fairly dramatic increase in road noise.

Sorry I don't have pictures, but at least on mine the cladding doesn't even go all the way back to the oil pan so we may have a different setup.

[Kiwi-Corolla]

As Piloter said, there are bolts underneath holding them on and they are in two parts (left and right). There should be two or three bolts on the underside, and a couple more in the wheel-well/fender area. I tried to go and check my one to see how many bolts there are, but the car cover is on and it's tied down which makes it almost impossible to see at the moment. The removal is extremely simple though.

In regards to your question about them being essential, they definitely are in my opinion. Not only do they prevent foreign objects or water flying into your engine compartment, they also help with fuel economy since it doesn't create drag on the underside of the car as you drive along. I'd recommend replacing them if you can. Mine is partially cut due to my CAI install, and nothing bad has happened, but I certainly wouldn't be keen to have the whole bottom of the engine/transmission unprotected. Mine also doesn't go as far back as the oil pan, but it'd be easier to take them off regardless, just be sure to put them back on afterwards

[cipher93]

Alright, thanks. Mine don't go as far back as the oil pan per se, but the way it's been bent it makes it impossible to get to the bolts on the front of the pan with any ease and makes everything harder to see. It would make things a lot easier for sure when doing it.

[Piloter]

If you can find a parts place that sells these new (1sttoyotaparts used to), they should have detailed pictures so you can see the bolt holes on the removed parts, this ought to help you find them on the old parts as well...

[cipher93]

Well, I'm probably gonna let my mechanic deal with it. The bolts are badly rusted. I tried to remove one of the 5 bolts and it turned about 3 turns and the head snapped off. Turns out when it was wrecked the previous owner didn't use stainless steel bolts to put it back together. Going into the shop anyway as I'm having transmission problems...

[Kiwi-Corolla]

^ That happened to a few of mine too when I took them off a little while ago. I ended up using an Easy Out to remove them and replaced the bolts with brand new ones.

[Steelballz]

thats a common corolla thing, the bolts always rust and sometimes shear...I have developed "the touch" with mine though, you get used to how much pressure will shear a bolt on a corolla

always replace with new.and new toyota ones start to rust after a year and a bit, but then again thats on irish roads where it rains 360-odd days a year LOL...and icey roads where the lovely government puts salt onto the roads, destroying the cars also

[ganda1f]

Salty roads will cut a car's life in half. If not worse. I cannot help but wonder, how hard can it be to tell the difference between a road and a bag of french fries. Fries are better with salt, roads are worse. Clearly way too difficult for the government to realize that, considering the thousands of tons of salt they put on the roads. Salt mixed with grit on top of that. Once the grit chips away the paint, the metal rusts soooo much better.

As for the bolts, penetrating oil is your and their friend. Tapping the wrench with a hammer instead of just pulling it by hand seems to work better for breaking loose rusted bolts. Very crude impact wrench kind of thing

[cipher93]

Since it doesn't look like I'm going to be getting any of these bolts out in one piece, anyone know the size of them so I can get some (STAINLESS) replacements?

[BigDAT]

Originally Posted by ganda1f

Salty roads will cut a car's life in half. If not worse. I cannot help but wonder, how hard can it be to tell the difference between a road and a bag of french fries. Fries are better with salt, roads are worse. Clearly way too difficult for the government to realize that, considering the thousands of tons of salt they put on the roads. Salt mixed with grit on top of that. Once the grit chips away the paint, the metal rusts soooo much better.

As for the bolts, penetrating oil is your and their friend. Tapping the wrench with a hammer instead of just pulling it by hand seems to work better for breaking loose rusted bolts. Very crude impact wrench kind of thing

also roads aren't potatoes

Originally Posted by CJRocker

Since it doesn't look like I'm going to be getting any of these bolts out in one piece, anyone know the size of them so I can get some (STAINLESS) replacements?

Take them to your local Hardware store, like Lowe's or something, they can help you find replacments

[musclecar64]

I've broken the heads off a few bolds that secure the guards to the chassis, and now they hang off what's left. This is obviously creating drag and costing fuel milage and performance, but I can't just replace the bolts with new ones. Would there be anything wrong with just drilling holes and reattaching them with self-tapping screws? (as in new holes, not where the broken bolts are?)

[Kiwi-Corolla]

Originally Posted by musclecar64

I've broken the heads off a few bolds that secure the guards to the chassis, and now they hang off what's left. This is obviously creating drag and costing fuel milage and performance, but I can't just replace the bolts with new ones. Would there be anything wrong with just drilling holes and reattaching them with self-tapping screws? (as in new holes, not where the broken bolts are?)

You'd be better off buying a screw/bolt extractor kit and removing the old bolts. They're very cheap to buy and come in handy for lots of other similar jobs.

[musclecar64]

I've never used a bolt extractor before, but I know the bolts are extremely rusted. How well does a bolt extractor work on those?

[BigDAT]

it attaches to a drill and it taps into whats left of the bolt and screws the bolt out, so its really how well does your drill work. if you have a corded power drill you should be fine, because sometimes battery drills just dont have the juice