[enjracing]

i just had my oil changed and felt the massive weight of that protective pan that goes under the oil pan. is this things needed? is the pan that low on stock springs that you need to protect the oil pan from bottoming out? has anyone here bottomed out? my cover did not have a single scrathch on it, indicating how useless this thing is. what do you think?

 

[JMM]

Most likely, the cover will not be needed...BUT...notice, the pan is made of cast aluminum. If it gets hit hard enough, it will shatter, not dent like a steel pan.

 

[fattirewilly]

Yes heavy! I have a sports car with steel skid plates and Dakota 4x4 pick-up with composit skid plates. Ironic isn't it???

Are there any aftermarket aluminum or composit skid plate replacements for the GTO??

Oh yea, the composit plate on the Dakota broke in half high centering/bottoming while crawling over a log (it was a heavy, focused hit), but did me very well for years prior to that.

 

[chrisGTO]

BMR http://www.bmrfabrication.com/GTO.htm and SLP http://www.slponline.com/view_product.asp?P=73010

 

[The_Goat]

I about removed mine last fall.... luckily I didn't. Over the winter a huge chunk of ice fell of a truck and went into my lane. I would have sworn it was a rock... Anyways, it sure felt like it would have done some damage. Just my .02

 

[YouHolden?]

Someone mentioned to me that it might have something to do with aerodynamics underneath the car- in addition to the obvious use of protecting the oil pan. I was going to buy a new skidplate whenever I have spare money that I wouldn't rather buy suspension with....but there are two on the market that I have seen- one you can get I believe at tbyrne, which I like because it is lightweight but still covers the whole oil pan like the original. There is another at gravanatuning which is lighter but its just a couple of bars, which makes for easy oil changes but would not help with the aerodynamic aspect...if this comes into play at all....any thoughts?