Factory fitted belly pans pics

[Eddles]

Tyres - I'm starting to suspect the suspension on my car is shot, despite only having 60,000 miles on the clock - that might explain the skittish handling as well. I'm not bothered about the shot suspension anyway.

I agree - it seems to be a bit of a daft place to place a horn. My old Nova had a horn in a similar place, but it was of a different type, more like a "plate"-y type - like this one so wouldn't have been hurt by mud/water ingress. However, that horn has been sitting there under the Astra for 8 years, and still working fine, so Vauxhall can't be doing it wrong... My old Civic had two similar horns in an similar place. The horns is used for the car alarm as well, so it was pretty loud, but they weren't affected by mud ingress, so ... *shrugs*.

I once saw a YouTube video of someone fitting a diesel locomotive air horn under his car and tooting it next to people. Bit juvenile and nasty, but would be nice to have to scare some BMW/Mercedes drivers who tailgate me

But anyway. Back to the belly pans. Only the ECO4 has the belly pans. This makes me annoyed - Vauxhall and other companies could have fitted belly pans on *all* their cars and gain a few MPG for not a lot of money and save a *lot* of fuel in general, if you add them all up.

I'll take more pics once the car's in the air, but that won't be another year, probably, if I'm lucky.

[99LeCouch]

Good food for thought!

And we are so behind the times here across the pond when it comes to aero in anything besides fighter jets and missiles.

[Piwoslaw]

I'd like to install a belly pan on my Peugeot, but I have a fuel radiator under the passenger side. This radiator is for fuel coming back to the tank from the engine, and the fuel is supposed to be as warm as 50*C. After a long trip I touched the radiator, but it was cold. Maybe it gets warmer in a traffic jam? Anyway, my questions are:
(1) Will covering it with a belly pan cause the fuel to be too hot?
(2) Can the pan be plastic?
Maybe the best bet is aluminum? Then it won't melt, and will help dissipate heat if it touches the radiator.

[lunarhighway]

(1) Will covering it with a belly pan cause the fuel to be too hot?

no idea, but i'd be a bit carefull with these things, you might want to design a vent in the undertray to allow cooling air trough the radiator

(2) Can the pan be plastic?

most factory undertrays are plastic, but some use heatshields near the exhaust

and will help dissipate heat if it touches the radiator.

i'd be carefull about letting the undertray touch stuff... in case of the radiators it might be better to allow some airbetween the dam and the rad. also keep in mind the engine is mounted in flexibe mount points, you can't move it by hand, but during sudden acceleration your engine will move quite a bit... possible touching the undertray.
i have this on my car and every time i pull up or start the car the gearbox will 'clank' against the tray... this has not caused any problems so far (and it's been on for more than a year), but i made sure the impact area does not have any sharp edges etc, that could damage things

[vtec-e]

Here is a pic of my belly pan. The angle i took it from could be better but you can see where the slots are. I have another pic taken from the rear a little

[vtec-e]

And here are the slots. It's a fairly grubby belly pan isn't it?!

ollie

[vtec-e]

The view towards the back of the car gives me hope that a full undertray should be easy enough. I'm having difficulty sourcing some means of fixing it to the car. There are a load of 16mm holes along the chassis rails that i could put something through. Also around the back axle may have to be left open but continued after it to the back bumper. Any ideas?
http://ecomodder.com/forum/member-vt...side-yaris.jpg

[Eddles]

Nice one! But yeah, it's grubby, but who cares, no-one will look up. Mine has a lot of yellow deposits on, no idea what they are.

Surprised Toyota didn't make the gap between the bumper and the front of the large bump smoother.

[vtec-e]

Yeah that step is a biggie and is on my list......
The fact that there is a lip spoiler under the bumper may have reduced the impact of the step on aero but i would have thought a smooth surface was easier to make. I'm guessing the main job of the pan is to keep the engine warm. My kia ceed even has insulation on the sump! So thats another job to do on the yaris....

ollie

[lunarhighway]

Mine has a lot of yellow deposits on, no idea what they are.

i've noticed some yellowis stuff in the plastic bits on the underside of my car... i think it might be grease which was sprayed on the subframe to prevent corrosion

because your undertray is not standards part and it might be added before the stuff was sprayed it might have gotten an extra coat of rust proofing