And if you remove your belly pan, all kinds of crap gets flung into your engine bay, and your ferrous bits start rusting out (turbo actuator, some pulleys, A/C case etc. etc.). Keep your belly pan and side skirts ON. Much easier to simply keep an eye on your oil level through occasional use of the dipstick.
Hi
I agree with the idea of keeping the belly pan on ......it does seem to keep the engine compartment a lot cleaner than any of my other vehicles because they have no belly pan... on the other hand I think since my Jetta is the only one that does not leak oil probably has a lot to do with engine cleanliness also.
The engine oil isn't bad to check on occasion because of the dipstick it's the transmission I wish it was easier to check for oil levels on ( no dipstick).
Not that my car currently leaks but I'm just paranoid if it starts leaking at some point unexpectedly the belly pan would catch so much fluid that I could be damaging something without knowing it ....
Maybe a good compromise would be to drill a hole at the lowest point of the belly pan that way it would least drip fluid if things started leaking yet be small enough not to let alot of debris into the engine compartment?
Something I never thought to do was to look inside the engine compartment after driving in the rain to see if the belly pan fills with water and how water actually escapes.... I don't recall seeing a factory hole in the belly pan to let water drip out ....