How do you decide when/whether to replace the undertray?

[anonymouse]

At a regular service they have reported that there are two holes in my Sort Turismo's undertray. I had the same in my previous Taycan and off the record the OPC said that every car ends up with these, and unless there is more serious damage it's not worth bothering to get it replaced (which will, of course, be expensive).

It seems that the undertray is made of fairy floss (US: "cotton candy") stiffened with tissue paper and takes regular beatings from speed bumps and other things as we drive around. So it is inevitable that it will get holes.

I guess it does protect what's above from salt and spray, although presumably anything metal is already rustproofed. I doubt it gives any protection to the battery, which in any case has its own expensive-to-damage hard cover.

Would be interested to hear what others have done. Do you get the undertray replaced (and then again at the next service, and repeat...) or leave it alone or make some other kind of cheaper fix?


Edit: replacement is quoted at about £450. Not warranty of course, as it is collision damage (with road surface, speed bump, entryway etc).

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[SergeyIndy]

I wonder if you can expand on what you mean by undertray. Are you talking about the steel on J1.1 battery protective plate and you are saying it has holes? Or you are talking about the plastic bits that are toward front and rear only. I have never heard of holes developing in tray or these plastic bits.

As you can see below, Bottom cover is the protective plate, then you have Cooling system before that and the Battery pack enclosure. The problem is if you have a 3mm+ dent in the Bottom cover in the middle, your cooling can be damaged and everything has to be replaced - we have a use case for this on the forum.

 

[anonymouse]

I wonder if you can expand on what you mean by undertray

I am going by the low quality video they send from a walkaround, but I think it is at the front - the dark coloured part in this frame:

I had holes in the same place in my last Taycan and they say it is very common.

 

[SergeyIndy]

Good, it is not the steel plate. Otherwise, there is no way the cooling system will be ok with it.
These are plastic covers, snapped by plastic pins. Sure, they may have scrapes, but actual holes, that still seems very strange, but I would agree that water/salt would not matter as they are not waterproof and are there to smooth the bottom for aerodynamics and to take the scrapes from speed bumps.

 

[trycan]

Something has to come in contact with the underside of the car to make a hole, they don't just happen from driving around. If you're doing speed bumps or steep entry driveways correctly (air suspension up), then no contact should ever be made with the underside of the vehicle.

If I had to guess there is something in your regular environment that you did on both old and new Taycans to cause this. Something like pulling over the parking curb at your office building, etc which didn't seem like it would made contact, but it did.

 

[Watchesandburgers]

And wouldn't this be a warranty issue?

 

[Rob Scott]

At a regular service they have reported that there are two holes in my Sort Turismo's undertray. I had the same in my previous Taycan and off the record the OPC said that every car ends up with these, and unless there is more serious damage it's not worth bothering to get it replaced (which will, of course, be expensive).

It seems that the undertray is made of fairy floss (US: "cotton candy") stiffened with tissue paper and takes regular beatings from speed bumps and other things as we drive around. So it is inevitable that it will get holes.

I guess it does protect what's above from salt and spray, although presumably anything metal is already rustproofed. I doubt it gives any protection to the battery, which in any case has its own expensive-to-damage hard cover.

Would be interested to hear what others have done. Do you get the undertray replaced (and then again at the next service, and repeat...) or leave it alone or make some other kind of cheaper fix?

I had the same minor damage identified on the undertray of my 2021 RWD as well. My wife drove into a funky entryway to a parking lot recently and scuffed the undertray and created a small hole in it as well. I had it evaluated at my dealer and they mentioned this happens all the time. I have my four-year service coming up in April and I plan to have the undertray replaced at that time to keep the car up to spec. The replacement quote for the work was about 800 bucks. For the question on this thread, this is not a warranty item and will be out of pocket for me. I don’t care, as I love the car and I just want this protective part replaced. Best wishes on whatever you decide to do!.

 

[Vercingetorix]

Buy a roll of tape.

 

[CraigUrch]

I ran over some road debris and put a hole into this cover, it is some form of fiber board not plastic. I ordered a new one from my dealer ~$400 and replaced it myself using my 4 post lift to put the car in the air. Took maybe 20 minutes or so.

 

[Darrell]

If its the the actual battery protective tray, the 2020-2024 models have a steel protective tray and it's my understanding that the 2025's and beyond are now made of a fiberglass/kevlar type of material. If the service advisor says it's not affecting any components I would just leave it as is since you cant see it anyways.

 

[Bognar67]

Scraping cars no way. Scraping electric cars absolutely no way.
Use the lift system and change the driving habit or buy a SUV.

 

[Gareth Swain]

I ran over some road debris and put a hole into this cover, it is some form of fiber board not plastic. I ordered a new one from my dealer ~$400 and replaced it myself using my 4 post lift to put the car in the air. Took maybe 20 minutes or so.

Scraping cars no way. Scraping electric cars absolutely no way.
Use the lift system and change the driving habit or buy a SUV.

Damaged rear undertray on a new gate installation at kids school. £350 to fix. Seemed reasonable to keep,the car in good condition.

 

[D00notD00d]

Different dealers may give different advice.
One advised me to replace the HV battery protection plate.
Another said the damage was small, affected an unimportant area, and if I replaced it the small ground clearance meant it was likely to happen again.

Similarly for the front and rear undertrays.

It can depend upon the dealer’s motivation.

 

[Silverback]

I had mine replaced on my previous Taycan. I decided to have it replaced as I did not want any other issues to be blamed on it being damaged as it was still under warranty. I think mine was around £600. Surprisingly not that hard to do on the UK roads, particularly country lanes, you can easily end up with two wheels in the soft verge as you avoid that white van coming the other way.

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