Bastard undertray

[Bren]

Changed the oil and filer on the vectra - the oil filter is a PITA to access on the fiat engine, low down at the back.

 

I used my trusty pela to suck the old stuff out, I worked out that if the expansion bottle was moved to one side I could get a 32mm socket on the housing. Result.

 

Not exactly - despite putting tons of kitchen roll around the housing a lot of oil found its way onto the undertray - I did'nt realise until later when I saw the puddle.

 

I had to remove the tray to clean it and check the filter housing - I was worried I might have cracked it through overtightening.

 

No wonder the tray had held so much oil - it is a very elaborate moulding with lots of smaller mouldings which trapped the oil - it also had a heatshield (a bit overkill) which held much oil.

 

I had to douse it in washing powder and then rinse it off before putting it all back together. I could'nt help but think if the same amount of effort had been put into the design of the car as the bastard undertray it would have been car of the year.

[DSdriver]

It sounds like they may have copied Citroen's patent rustproofing the underside system and changed it to work with engine oil rather than LHM to avoid having their arse sued.

[Junkman]

 

[DaveAspley]

I always breath a sigh of relief when a 1.9 powered anything comes in with its 'tray missing. When I was a techy at Vauxhall in the late noughties and the first one came in we all stood under it and in one big communal rant shouted "are they taking the f****ing piss!" Add to that the sump plugs all rounded off because they'd been over tightened at the factory. Good times....

[Sigmund Fraud]

My Megane also has an over-engineered undertray, but in a good way : directly underneath the sump plug there's a cap that you can unscrew by hand, allowing you to change the oil without taking the whole undertray off !

 

The people designing the engine were more respectful of Renault tradition, though, so you need an odd-sized square key to undo the sump plug. Also, the oil filter is horizontally placed and directly above the coolant pipes to the radiator, so there's no way of changing it without dousing said pipes with hot oil. Vive la Regie !

[HH-R]

I'm surprised GM didn't bean count the undertray off altogether.

[chaseracer]

It sounds like they may have copied Citroen's patent rustproofing the underside system and changed it to work with engine oil rather than LHM to avoid having their arse sued.

 

The Blingo's engine bay has been completely rustproofed via the medium of its own oil, facilitated by the removal of the filler cap following the failure of one or more of the "attachments" on the "acoustic cover".  This happened several times before I lost patience, ripped the fecker off and winged it into a hedge in the back garden.  Where it remains.

 

Engine noise has not increased...