help with loose plastic underside

[stuffedtiger23]

Hello all,

I have a 2003 Pontiac Vibe. Today, as I was driving around, I noticed a sound from underneath the front underside. When I parked, I looked at the passenger side front wheel and noticed a hole that had eroded the front gray plastic in front of the wheel. It turns out the plastic covering the underside was loose, and there were several holes that seemed to be missing bolts causing the plastic to hang down and almost touch the ground. I'm not sure when these bolts fell out or how long this had been going on for.

I have a few questions that I was hoping someone might be able to help out with.

In the interim, I covered the hole with duct tape (not sure how safe this is) but the plastic is still hanging down

1. If I were just try to find bolts, what size would they be, how easy would it be to install myself with one tire-changing jack, how much should I expect to spend?
2. How much would it cost to replace the whole plastic underside?

I can provide pictures if it would help.

Thanks for any help in advance.

Jon

[kostby]

Few if any of the pieces are attached with 'bolts' for several reasons:
1. Speed on the assembly line.
2. Lack of easy access to the upper side of whatever the panel attaches to, making it difficult to place some fastener there and hold it in place while tightening.
3. Potential for the fasteners to rust or corrode, making it difficult or impossible to remove the fasteners later, such as to repair accident damage.

Soooo, the Vibe uses 'blind' plastic push-in fasteners to attach the underbody panels. They simply push into place and (hopefully) keep the panels in place for a very long time.

Occasionally, you'll bump something, like a snowbank in winter or a parking stop, or hit something that flies up and strikes the inner-fender liners with enough force to pop one or more fasteners.

A few years ago I took an un-planned off road excursion over a slight rise and into a snow-covered field, and popped out about 4 or 5 fasteners all at once. At least that's how many were missing when I got home and looked underneath. (HINT: Try to pick a WARM, DRY place to inspect and replace the fasteners!)

Some people are successful in reattaching fender liners with plastic zip-ties, but they won't work with some of the under-bumper panels, if I recall correctly, because they're not all located at the edges. some are mid-panel.

I went to the auto parts store (Advance Auto Parts, just because it's the closest one) and found they have a wide variety of plastic fasteners sold in small quantities.
Some are specifically designed for certain applications, such as door panels. As long as the fastener is long enough to go in and thick enough to stay in, it didn't matter to me what the 'top' (the part showing) looked like.

These fasteners are priced outrageously high for small quantities of three or four (a few dollars), considering that they probably cost .01 or so each in bulk, but then you probably need less than a dozen to (re)attach everything in front.

[stuffedtiger23]

Update: I ended up going to the autoparts and got the nylon fasteners for a few bucks. It would seem that duct tape should be enough for now to cover the gaping hole now that everything is now more secure than before. There are few plastic panels that seem to be a little on the loose end but no longer dangling as before.

Thanks for the suggestions.