Plastic undercovering replacement
 

So I was coming home from San Diego yesterday and one of those tire retread pieces went right underneath my speed and ruined/shredded the plastic undercovering but not before ripping my front lip out and ruining it.

I guess my question is can I run without it? I'd rather not do that but for now I need a temporary solution or else I can't drive the car pretty much. One the freeway the wheel well coverings were being forced into the tire by the wind due to it not being fastened down by the undercovering.

I guess I need to just buy a new one but damn if I buy it from the dealership, screw that. Any advice or comments is appreciated.

Also, I guess the good thing about losing the front lip is I can look for a better one now! Any suggestions? Hehe!

Time to get beefy...

Aluminum Skid Plates | Mazda 3 Skid Plate

As far as not running it, you'll be fine. All your engine pieces won't look pretty after a few hundred miles though. Also, you're in CA, and you don't need to worry about salt and crap on the roads. And it's not like it rains there now anyway.

My speed was the first car I have owned that still had the undertray when I bought it.

Should totally get Corksport Aluminum Skid Plate. You'll be protected the next time this happens again.

Thanks for the advice gents. I'll be looking into that skid plate here shortly.

I'd try to avoid running without it for too long. Aside from protecting the undercarriage, it may affect the underhood air flow. Not sure about the 3/MS3 in particular, but some cars are more prone to overheating without it.

Maybe try to source a used one from a salvage yard? Guessing it's the same as the regular 3, so it shouldn't be too hard to find one.

I took my under tray off a months back to install a new turbo and was too lazy to put it back on. I have had no issues, temps are still roughly in the same area, and it's 100* or more with high humidity.

Now I do plan on reinstalling at some point. In the end you will be fine.

I've been running without one since I went FMIC. It annoyed me by popping out the whole drive home, after stopping to put it back about 3-4 times, so I just ripped it out when I got home. Haven't had any problems with temps, and that's with this hot ass FL weather.

I do have one at home waiting to be installed, but just haven't really cared enough to get it done yet.

Mine is sitting in my garage as well since I put the front mount on... I have had no ill effects running around in 90+ temps/humidity, temps seem to be kept in check just fine. I do plan on reinstalling mine at some point or making another of my own, but I've just been too lazy so far.

I am pretty certain it actually increases pressure inside the bay thereby decreasing tmic efficiency and possibly increasing intake temps without the airflow (underhood pressurized creates more stagnate air conditions)

Some one (@dale_dribble; )also just posted that on a MS6 they saw a decrease in hwy mileage by 8% with the plastic off

Found a temporary solution!
 

So I got fed up and took a closer look yesterday after work. I was tired of driving the Expedition and wanted some speed in my life again. Anyways, took a look under the car and noticed it wasn't the plastic skid plate undercover thing. What happened was when the front lip got ripped off the other screws got ripped off also so the left and right plastic/rubber covering things near the wheels where not fastened to the bumper...if that makes any sense. So basically they were dragging and got torn up and in turn were rubbing against the front tires. So what I did was I just cut them off so both sides wouldn't be dragging anymore. It's the part where you can see that it is stapled to the bottom of the wheelwell covering, where it has that little flap.

I made sure the screws were tightened on the plastic skid plate undercover and now I'm driving again. I'm going to have to see if I can find some replacements for those parts I cut off. At least I'm on the road again - minus my front lip and those flappy undercover parts. I'm gonna have to browse back to another mazda forum and find the pic of it. I'll edit this with what I'm talking about. Thanks for you guys' help!


http://i723.photobucket.com/albums/w...e.jpg~original

Another reason I want to get everything put back on correctly down there. I already get horrible mileage as almost all my driving is town/city driving, with the A/C blasting. So any little help I can get in the MPG department i'll take.