Car Undercarriage Cover Dragging – Instant Solutions and Repairs

A car undercarriage cover is most commonly called a splash guard and basically helps you avoid damage to the undercarriage from water, dust and small stones, and other road debris that can hit some parts in the lower part of the engine bay. This is an important part of the engine protection system that is still absent in some vehicles.

Car undercarriage cover may be the reason for scrapping noise under your vehicle when your drive. And today, we'll tell you why this may happen and how to cope with this problem. Unfortunately, it may be difficult to instantly solve the issue in some vehicles, but we'll give you some tips on how you can keep on driving your car at least to the nearest repair shop.

Here's what we'll discuss in this article:

• What kinds of undercarriage covers may cause problems?
• Why is your undercarriage cover dragging and making some noise?
• What can you do to immediately solve the issue and keep driving?
• How to repair this problem and prevent it from happening again?

Let's get started!

Types of undercarriage covers and possible problems with them

So, modern vehicles may basically have three types of undercarriage covers or splash guards:

• Plastic soft splash guards. These are very thin and basically useless covers that only help to protect the engine bay from water splashes when you are going through some puddle on the road. They are not really expensive, in most cases.
• Hard plastic covers. These ones ensure more protection for your vehicle's undercarriage. They protect the engine bay from splashes, mud, small stones, and road debris, even from some minor hits over obstacles when you are off-roading.
• Metal undercarriage covers. These ones may be thin or thick and they protect your engine bottom from pretty much any impact but the very hard one. They are much more expensive, much heavier, and tend to cause more problems for car owners.

Thin plastic covers are fastened to the body parts by plastic caps or other short-lasting fasteners and they tend to fall off. We believe vehicles older than 10 years will not have at least one part of these splash guards under them anymore. But even if you lose one, you will not experience any serious problems.

Other types of undercarriage covers are heavier and are mounted more seriously. If one of the fasteners goes bad, these parts will drag on the road and make a lot of noise. This scraping noise will actually be one of the first signs that your undercarriage cover needs some help from you right now.

Why can the splash guards be dragging on the road?

The main reason for this is that one or several of the fasteners went bad and now the cover is holding on to some other fasteners and struggles to survive. The weight of the cover itself makes it go down a little. Given the ride height of your car is not very big, one of the corners of this cover may start dragging on the road.

In many modern cars, you will not even hear this at once. Closed windows and loud music may make you think everything is just fine. But once the cover meets some obstacle on the road, it will let you know the problem is there.

Here are the main reasons why it may have fallen off:

• your cat has hit something high and hard on the road like a stone or a piece of broken asphalt road;
• the fastener was corroded because of water damage and now is dead and doesn't hold the guard anymore;
• the place where the fastener was holding on the body is corroded and can't hold the fastener anymore;
• the bolt was not tight enough and was shaking in the thread destroying it step by step, you are in trouble now;
• the guard itself is just broken to pieces and some piece of this cover is dragging now on the ground making this awful sound;
• the vehicle got into a road accident and you try to drive it but suddenly hear that bad noise of a dragging undercarriage cover.

We can continue throwing additional bullets here but we believe you've already got the point. Now, you may inspect the undercarriage of your car and deduct the actual problem that killed this part in your vehicle.

In some cases, you may repair the issue right in the middle of the road spending just five minutes on this, but in many other cases, you will need professional help. But how can you keep driving if something is dragging under your car? We'll see what you can do to avoid issues.

Instant solutions for a dragging undercarriage cover

We understand how unpleasant it can be to understand that your vehicle is unable to go further. Especially if you are in the middle of nowhere. But, in most cases, you can apply some DIY methods to temporarily fix the problem and keep driving. Once you are in some city or town, you should plan a visit to a repair shop to make sure everything is safe there.

So, there are several things you may do:

• try refastening the loose end of the undercarriage cover using the original fastener that may be there;
• if refastening the guard is impossible, think of any creative methods of lifting it up from the ground - tie it with something, bend it, use any available resources you have;
• take the guard off the vehicle - for this, you will need to jack up the car a little and find the appropriate tool for unscrewing the bolts or other fasteners;
• cut the guard off or just break it to keep driving - this will obviously work with plastic covers only and also make sure you know the price of this part before you decide to do this;
• call for help - you may want to call the dealer and ask if they can provide you with road assistance, also you may call a tow truck if things are too bad.

The most complicated situation is with metal covers that are heavy and will create a very loud sound when dragging on the road. Also, fastening them with some DIY methods is really hard. The best idea is to unscrew the bolts, take this cover into your trunk and drive without it.

But if you are driving without a splash guard, be careful. Any stone or road debris can damage your oil pan or other parts of your engine. This may lead to very serious damage. So, this is a good option in that case only if you are not planning to go off-roading.

Repairing and preventing the problem

To repair this issue, you will need to have the undercarriage cover reinstalled properly by a qualified mechanic. Of course, if you have the proper tools and experience, you may do this on your own. But for this, you will also need a car lift. In some vehicles, reinstalling the cover will take a lot of time and effort, so we still recommend you find a good mechanic who will do the job.

Sometimes, just reinstalling the broken cover is impossible. If it's damaged, bent, torn apart, or heavily corroded, you will most likely need the new splash guard. You may also choose to drive without this part but this is dangerous for the engine. If you lost the soft plastic cover, you may actually drive without it. But the price of such a part, even OEM, will not be very high. So replacing it still sounds like a good option.

Preventing this kind of problem is hard because sometimes they happen accidentally because of a stone on the road that hits the cover fastener. But here are some things you may try:

• inspect the undercarriage cover once a year to make sure it's not corroded and its fasteners are all OK;
• when driving, avoid any stones that you see on the road, and don't go into road pits or puddles without it being necessary or unavoidable;
• avoid buying and installing cheap aftermarket splash guards that are of bad quality and will not last long enough;
• regularly check the undercarriage of your car for corrosion, damaged fasteners, the buildup of mud, etc.;
• understand the road clearance of your vehicle and avoid any obstacles that can damage any part under the car;
• don't ignore any signs of problems with your vehicle including weird noises, changes in handling, etc.

It's better to always control how things go with your vehicle than to repair it in the middle of the interstate road. But remember that this issue may happen unexpectedly and you should know how to deal with it.

Final thoughts

Undercarriage covers or splash guards are not the eternal parts of your car. They are made of plastic or metal and they can be broken or damaged. Just keep an eye on what's happening with the undercarriage of your car and be ready to solve the problem if it shows up eventually in your car. If you were reading this article carefully, now you know what to do in case your splash guard drags on the road and makes an unbearable noise.