check your belly pan

[Tom in PT]

Too many brushes with curbs, pot holes and what not compromised the connection between the front belly pan and the lower lip of the front bumper - as I found out cruising down the road at 55 mph. I hear a huge horrible explosion as the wind blew the front of the belly pan right down onto the road and then this loud scraping/dragging sound as I slowed to a stop. Sure enough, the tabs holding the pan on were out of their recesses in the belly pan pretty much all across the front of the bumper. I could only manage to put a few tabs back in with my bare hands as I was lacking the necessary screwdrivers/pry bars to do so and fortunately the road had an 8 foot shoulder to work on it, thank goodness. I managed to make it home going slow and fixed it in my driveway.

From now on I am going to be looking at the belly pans a lot more closely . . . Don't make my mistake and ignore them, particularly the front one, for years and years like I did.

 

[pedroYUL]

I wondered why the single screw in the front of the belly pan on newer TDIs...I guess your story is why.

 

[privateTDIjet]

I wondered why the single screw in the front of the belly pan on newer TDIs...I guess your story is why.

Remind me to put that screw back

 

[740GLE]

the front fingers of the pan dovetail to create a nice secure gap to avoid any air getting under.

Who was the last person to put it on? i'd wager improper reinstallation was the root cause (plus some road debris).

 

[Tom in PT]

The belly pan in question is not the one you remove to do an oil change. That has been on and off ~ 20 times since I bought the car new and it is in good shape and fully secured. I am referring to the plastic undertray that is directly in front of that, immediately below the front edge of the bumper extending all across the very front of the car. That has never been touched since the car left the factory. I am pretty certain I hit a parking lot curb and got the pan messed up either hitting the curb or going in reverse to get away from it.

I am going to add a few fasteners to secure the pan to the bottom edge of the bumper - which should have been there from day 1 if VW had designed it as they should have.

 

[pedroYUL]

Wait what?! ...you broke the cowl, actually I also don't know that the proper name is, but it is not the belly pan. That part might be called the radiator support, and it is there supporting indeed the radiator, intercooler and fans, they are all sandwiched together to that cowl.

I would look into replacing that radiator support.

 

[oilhammer]

Boy if I had a nickel for every car that I lift up that has a mangled piece of plastic underneath.... I'd have a lot of nickels.

Those little curb things that people park against, and get too close... then you've got the people that maybe don't get too close, but then don't set the brake, so then the car rolls another six inches and jags into the curb, and then when they get out of the car and back in, when they go to back away they rip and tear it all to pieces.

I also see a frightening amount of composite lock carriers with the whole bottoms ripped off, and the radiator/condenser/intercooler/etc. left dangling and flopping under there like an old man's balls on a hot summer day.

On the NMS, what Tom is likely talking about, is the flat piece of plastic that clips into the bottom edge of the bumper cover, and then screws to the bottom of the lock carrier and lower edge of the fender liners. I replace a lot of those.

 

[Tom in PT]

OH hit the nail on the head - "the flat piece of plastic that clips . . . . " There was no structural damage and no I do not need to replace anything at all, just put it back where it belongs and secure it permanently.

I can imagine how many nickels OH would have, LOL. About 1 in 10 cars I see driving down the road has some plastic hanging down at wierd angles 1 inch off the ground. The one that broke loose from my car was totally without warning and with a colossal BANG. I thought my turbo blew or a tire exploded, even looked in the rear mirror for a cloud of smoke, none fortunately,

 

[740GLE]

The belly pan in question is not the one you remove to do an oil change. That has been on and off ~ 20 times since I bought the car new and it is in good shape and fully secured. I am referring to the plastic undertray that is directly in front of that, immediately below the front edge of the bumper extending all across the very front of the car. That has never been touched since the car left the factory. I am pretty certain I hit a parking lot curb and got the pan messed up either hitting the curb or going in reverse to get away from it.

I am going to add a few fasteners to secure the pan to the bottom edge of the bumper - which should have been there from day 1 if VW had designed it as they should have.

Ahhh yeah that def made a sound when ever you hit it and should have been easy to spot.

 

[Zambee500]

Too bad that dieselgeek apparently has stopped supporting the B platforms with panzer plates. I am certain the metal plate has saved my B5.5 TDI multiple times. For some reason the need for a metal belly plate has never really been on my radar for the B6.5 version, but I guess need to look into the other trusted vendors here to see what's on offer.

 

[oilhammer]

Here's one:

VW Evolution Osiris B7 NMS Passat TDI Diesel Aluminum Skid Plate Belly Pan 12-14 | eBay

 

[Aslaught3r45]

Boy if I had a nickel for every car that I lift up that has a mangled piece of plastic underneath.... I'd have a lot of nickels.

Those little curb things that people park against, and get too close... then you've got the people that maybe don't get too close, but then don't set the brake, so then the car rolls another six inches and jags into the curb, and then when they get out of the car and back in, when they go to back away they rip and tear it all to pieces.

I also see a frightening amount of composite lock carriers with the whole bottoms ripped off, and the radiator/condenser/intercooler/etc. left dangling and flopping under there like an old man's balls on a hot summer day.

On the NMS, what Tom is likely talking about, is the flat piece of plastic that clips into the bottom edge of the bumper cover, and then screws to the bottom of the lock carrier and lower edge of the fender liners. I replace a lot of those.

Can you provide the correct terminology for the pieces of plastic on the underside of the vehicle? For purchasing

 

[Tom in PT]

They are called a lot of different things - belly pan, undertray, protection shield, splash shield, splash guard, and so on. Figure out which one you need by the shape of it, and then look at the images of the product you are looking at to see if it is exactly the same. Or visit a dealer.

 

[Zambee500]

My plastic belly pan ripped off last summer and got all mangled up, and most of the fasteners were missing, so I bought the Evolution steel plate that Oilhammer linked to above. And glad I did. Just a few weeks later I knocked the $hit out of it with direct hit in a dilapidated abandoned parking lot that was being used intermittently for overflow parking at a sports venue....and I hit something.

The only thing I don't like about it is that it's loud with a squeaky sound, metal rubbing on metal. Very annoying. It actually goes on fine and is quiet for awhile, but whenever there's a noticeable change in ambient temperatures then it gets all squeaky and won't go away without removing it and reinstalling it which is a PITA. And I tried adding more of the nylon washers but that didn't help, so the metal on metal contact isn't occuring at just the bolt-up locations. I probably need to just run tape along the top 3" edge around the entire perimeter of the plate to create a barrier between the metal on metal, which I will get to doing soon enough. Anyway, just throwing that consideration out there. The Evolution steel plate on my 2005 Passat has been awesome for many a years. Definitely good insurance investment over the OE plastic.

 

[Zambee500]

Also, if you go with the Evolution plate, just note that the 2012-14 model year uses different plate than the 2015 model year. Both are listed as "NMS Passat" but be sure to double check the model year compatibility.