On Thu, 27 Sep 2007 18:52:31 GMT, Catman
<catman (AT) rustcuore-sportivo (DOT) co.uk> wrote:

It does actually. If you hit the road (or a rock) in such a way that
the impact is not severe enough to destroy everything in sight - i.e.
your usual 156 glancing blow. In the UK this will typically be on a
rough (stones proud of tarmac) bump then the undertray saves the sump
from being ripped open by the tearing action, if it happens in that
area. It only offers a small amount of protection when denting the
sump and this depends on how well fitted it is.

My last garage said it had had a number of memorable cases of this
because the ruptured sump always resulted in an killed engine due to
running with no oil. The customer, when faced with the bill, created a
huge stink relating to car too low, suspension no good, sump not
properly protected - Alfa's fault! However, the garage said that they
had no cases of holed sumps in cars with undertrays. For the cynical,
I was discussing this with them long before I needed a new tray
myself.

In any case, I'm not sure what the big deal is. Just get a new
polypropylene tray and it's job done. I'd do this even if I had a
fibre undertray in fairly good nick. There's nothing wrong with a
clean engine and more peace of mind.

BTW, having a veloce 2.4JTD and spending a bit of time in deepest Fife
and the Highlands, I'm an expert on how to sharpen the nose of a 156
and smooth all the rough bits off the bottom. :-(

--
Z
Scotland
Alfa Romeo 156 2.4JTD Veloce Leather
'Oil' be seeing you..
(Email without 'Alfa' in subject are auto-deleted..sorry!)

On Thu, 27 Sep 2007 21:22:51 +0100, "GT"
<ContactGT_remove_ (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote:

Either bolts have been beheaded (unusual) or the mounting holes on the
fibre tray have been ripped off (common) or a garage didn't bother
putting all the bolts back in (also common!). This is just phase one
of a fibre tray's destruction - the early warning! Almost always
temporarily *cured* by a dealer with a useless lattice-work of tie
wraps which only delay the inevitable as the tray never stays high
enough to avoid getting subsequently trashed.

The next phase is bits will come off it and it'll crack and break up.

--
Z
Scotland
Alfa Romeo 156 2.4JTD Veloce Leather
'Oil' be seeing you..
(Email without 'Alfa' in subject are auto-deleted..sorry!)

"Zathras" <webnewsgroup (AT) nospamthanks (DOT) hotmail.com> wrote

Yes, some of our roads over here are a little, 'bumpy'.