he means take it off and leave it off. i havnt had a skid plate for a year or two and the car has a 1.5" drop. you just have to be careful not to hit any road debris- not that the stock piece of crap plastic would do much for you anyways.

but i agree- they are incompetent. if you cant figure out how to remove a few rusted clips, you shouldnt be a mechanic.

 

ha i wish i even knew what a skid plate was. i need to learn about this thing so i can do my own work

 

Great idea if you have to pull the engine to change the oil (like in sterndrive boats) but that leaves about half a quart of oil or so in the pan. I'd rather take the skid plate off and leave it off than leave half a quart of dirty oil in my engine.

 

i dont know if it leaves that much in there. maybe a pint if that, but the reason that method isnt very good is that all the solids and shavings settle to the lowest point, which is the little dish area around the drain plug. when you pull the drain plug, they all come washing out. but if you suck the oil out thru the top, you leave the worst part of the residue in the engine in the bottom of the pan.

 

If you can release the front of it you dont even need to remove the two rear bolts that hold it up. It will swing down like like a hinge.

 

Respect as always guys, but this guy sounds LOST.

The Skid Plate is the plastic moulding that you will see if you look underneath your front bumper. It extends the width of the car for about 2 feet. It is held on by some plastic clips which can be undone with a flat head screwdriver, so any one telling you they cant remove it should be fired.

Any mechanic should be able to do this in less than 10 minutes. If you can get your car safely on jackstands then give it a look, it really couldn't be simpler.

As it is just a sheet of plastic protecting the underside of the engine bay from debris and water splashing up from the road your car should be fine without it. So even if you break it off don't worry, and an oil change is certainly more important than it at this stage!

 

I have a 2000 A6 Avant and I do still have my s-plate.My son-inlaw took his 2001 A6 in to a oil change place and they took the s-plate off but never put it back on.He is not that much of a car guy and he never noticed it until a mechanice asked him about it sometime later. It was to far gone to even go back on the oil change place.They said that it must have fallen off after they replaced it. I highly dought that they ever put it back on.So if you go in for an oil change take a monent to look and see if they put it back on. Audi wants $500 to replace this skid plate, so we are looking for s-plate in junk yards.