I need a new plastic cover the goes on the bottom of the car under the engine because mine is falling apart. Audi wants 210 dollars for it and I really don't want to spend that much. does anyone know where I can get one cheaper?

 

Just leave it off? It's not much cheaper anywhere else.

 

Do a google search. You can find them cheaper, but not much. I was told they are primarily to protect your driveway from oil leaks (from your expensive German car), but conventional wisdom claims it protects the engine from road debris and funnels some cooling air up through the engine, too. When I bought my car with 37k miles, it was obvious the original owner did a pop-rivet repair to some damage and that has held up fine for the last 139k miles, so repair may be an option.

 

The one on my wife's car came loose and turned into a snow shovel a few years ago. I was already sick of taking it off for oil changes, so I just took it the rest of the way off and left it off. We've put about 100K miles on it since then without any trouble, so it may not be vital to the car's function. Besides, it makes it easier to verify that all of your cam seals are leaking.

 

Thanks, I will see what prices I can get one for and if not cheap enough I will try to fix mine.

 

Wise move.. There have been numerous discussions about the need for the cover on this forum.
The cover is very important and not needed guys are equally passioned about their position.
I was suprised that only the leave it off guys responded.
I personally believe that it is a good thing to have but is a PITA.

My screws are long gone so I drilled a few holes and use use brightly colored zip ties to hold it in place when I want to show off and black ones when I want to be stealthy.

I have even seen people use zip ties to stitch long cracks back together.
you can sometimes find one at Force Five, Showan, etc but it depends upon where you live because shipping can be expensive.

 

The cover needs to be in place. The cover was designed with many driving conditions in mind. For most of us, driving well maintained paved roads under normal climate conditions, the cover could probably be removed and little effect would be noticed.
However in some climates, where some folks drive their cars in the snow, on "salt laden roads", there are possible penalties to be paid for removing the "mud shield". The salty mixture can be thrown into places where it will sit for long periods, "feasting" on your bits and pieces.
Consider people who still live on and must travel "dirt roads" (there are still a few of these around), they always face different maintenance issues than the rest of us. Imagine the mud, stones, water and other debris they displace as they travel over "chatter bumps", year after year, mile after mile.
Go to the salvage yard, find a cover, get yourself some clips to replace the rotten, missing ones on your sub-frame or stringer (30-cents each) and think about doing what's right and let everyone else do what's easy!
Jackson

 

I won't try to refute those points, but I thought it was worth noting that I live in Michigan, and if any state uses more road salt, I've yet to see it. We also have more than our share of dirt and gravel roads. I'm not sure where the car spent its first 80K miles, but the last 160K have been here, and I can't say that I've seen any undercar maintenance issues that I could trace to the missing cover.

Although my example may be anecdotal, it at least indicates that if removing the cover causes problems, they may take a really long time to appear (or they may be entirely speculative). On the other hand, not having the cover on board provides a tangible increase in convenience all the time, not to mention the boost in mileage I probably get by not hauling the extra weight around. I may even be getting better undercar cooling out of the deal!

Anyway, I'm sure the appropriate disclaimer would be to remove the cover at your own risk, but as they say, you can't live in fear!

 

here we go again!!

The dump the cover guys vs keep the cover guys. LOL

99 leaves out a bit of logic when he mentions better undercar cooling without the cover... the cover actually ducts air past the motor and thus adds to cooling.

And aerodynamics says that it increases milage not lowers it. the turbulance under the motor is reducred with the cover in place and that decreases drag that robs HP and gas milage.

But we've all been around this shead before -

 

I guess being facetious in print isn't as easy as I thought!

How about this:

I also benefit from a reduced carbon footprint by having recycled that large piece of petroleum-based German plastic, and that may marginally reduce my chances of getting a disapproving phone call from Al Gore regarding my irresponsible lack of greenness. Now who could argue with that?