[Proulx06]

My wife was driving our 2011 EX-L RES on the highway today and apparently ran over a rather large rock. She said she never saw it, and only heard the impact beneath the car and saw it behind her. The end result is that this impact tore some sort of heat/protective shield off the bottom of the car. Here's what I know:

-It's located beneath the driver's side sliding door, in towards the middle of the car a bit.

-It appears to be a heatshield-type thing, protecting the front left corner of the fuel tank. Only thing is, the exhaust is on the other side. So is it some sort of protective plate, like a skidplate for the gas tank?

-It attaches at two points: one is a bolt on the front of the piece, the other side slips in under the strap that holds the fuel tank in.

I've attached a couple of post-incident images. Basically what I need to determine is what this piece does, and if it's important enough to replace. FWIW, I could not find the part on the illustrations on Majestic Honda's website.

 

[megatron]

That appears to be the fuel tank protector... a metal "shield" if you will to protect your fuel tank from road hazards that could puncture the plastic tank that hold your fuel.

Honda Automotive Parts

No 7 in the above. Expensive part!!!

 

[Proulx06]

That's crazy! Looks like I'll be removing it and taking the ball peen hammer to it to get it back to its original shape!

 

[William Wiles]

Why is it crazy? If it wasn't there your gas would have been dumped alver the ezhaust and probably burning.The tank is made of plastic and probably would have been punctured,

 

[Proulx06]

Why is it crazy? If it wasn't there your gas would have been dumped alver the ezhaust and probably burning.The tank is made of plastic and probably would have been punctured,

It's crazy not because it exists (and I'm certainly glad it does), but that it costs $480 to replace. It's literally a piece of stamped metal that's about the size of a folded-up paper plate. Seems to be a case where the price is based on its importance, not how much the part actually costs to manufacture. I've spent a lot of time around cars, and this seems like the type of piece the junkyard lets you go out back and grab for free provided you can access and remove it.

 

[08odylx]

Looks like it may actually be an exhaust heat shield vs. the fuel tank shield... hard to tell with the pics.

 

[nicomtl]

From the the price - I would bet that it includes the gas tank... :-/ The gas tank, item 1, is not listed and this item's description includes "gas tank".

Hammering time!

Nicolas