panel fell off... what's the purpose?
 

Howdy,
I ran over some roadkill yesterday that knocked a panel off the underside of my Nismo. It's a 5 1/4" wide by 3' 2" long sheet of thin plastic with the part number of 75895 1A30A. In this diagram2010 Nissan 370Z Floor Fitting - Diagram 5 747301 it's in the upper left hand corner.

Unfortunately all that was left was one of the 8 or 10 plastic rivets that hold it on. I'm hoping my dealership will slap it back in place for next to nothing during my next oil change, but my question is... what does this plastic sheet do? When I look under the car it doesn't seem to protect anything. It just bolts onto the larger engine cover Ideas?

The functional purpose of that panel is protection, if you bottom out or hit some object sticking up in the center of the road surface. Not protection for the plastic panel it's attached to: protection for your engine (front of oil pan, etc). The stiffer plastic panel will distribute the hit more evenly than the flexible larger panel does.

The dealership should be able to easily replace the panel if there was no other damage, although they may need to order in the panel and/or fasteners that are missing. We're talking 2 minutes of labor.

the panel also protects three clips that hold the center of the bumper up. my rectangular piece well off ann so did the three fasteners under it. that was bad!!!

Oh I didn't realize it was that far forward (I don't have a Nismo). If it's over those 3 clips, it's over the lower front frame rail, as opposed to under the front edge of the engine. Does make you wonder why it's there. There must be a reason I'm failing to see though.

its there so you scrape it instead of the bumper. its meant to come off before the bumper. you wouldnt want to scrape off the clips that held the bumper on. so this protects them.

When I was doing the oil cooler install my best theory was that it was there just to smooth out the undercarriage airflow. Without it there is a noticeable cavity.

actually that same piece fell of my nismo 2 weeks ago, and i did some research... it's an aerodynamic piece that keeps the bottom stable...also that piece alone cost 350$ to replace...

Yeah, I saw a ~$300 part price tag as well. give me a break. You can buy an entire 4x8 sheet of HDPE for $100. I figured it was a typo on the price sheet and that maybe that price was for the entire under engine cover. ...but I guess not.

lolz, even when i called nissan parts.. the guy thought it was a mistake. but he confirmed it.

At least his didnt fly off at 145mph taking out his rear oxygen sensor harness! And I thought that the 02 sensor was expensive. WTF

thats almost what happened to me.. it flew off going at 140mph ..

its there for aero, and its protecting clips that if they fall off the bumper is very unstable. trust me!!!!

If its there for aero and two people already had it fly off at 140mph then epic fail on nissans behalf. Either way if it happens again then im gonna make my own out of abs. BTW my friend that owns a body shop got mine for $190 (not that im proud about paying that for a piece of plastic).

Go to dragonplate.com and see what a sheet in that size would cost.

Carbon fiber laminate could be less than the plastic from Nissan.