About 2 weeks ago my car was hit by someone who wasn't paying attention (texting) and it was totaled. I looked around my area and found a 2009 Toyota Matrix 1.8L 4 cylinder with 113,000 miles. I took it to my mechanic and he said it was in good shape. I bought the car for $7300. I was doing some minor rust repair on the hood last weekend and noticed the car was missing the splash shield that sits under the front of the bumper and goes under the radiator. I picked one up online for $25 and this evening when I was trying to install it I noticed some of the holes didn't line up 100% and I had to use a couple of zip ties to make sure the guard didn't rattle around.
My question is is it better to have the splash shield there to protect the radiator from rocks and stuff even if it's held on a little funky with the zip ties (it's secure) or should I just take it off and not worry about it?
It probably does help protect stuff from road debris, though I think the main reason manufacturers started using them was for underbody aerodynamics and a little better gas mileage at speed.
My plastic shield fell out in the road somewhere years ago. I haven't bothered replacing it and haven't had any problems. However if you've already managed to replace the thing and secure it well enough that it will stay in place I'd just leave it there.
Thanks very much for the reply! I will leave it on there for now and if it ends up starting to rattle or something I will pull it off. I think my main reason was salt haha
Thanks again!
I replaced a bunch of those on my 05 matrix, as you said, the cheap ones don't match up perfect, but mine has been doing fine with zip ties, and some of the holes matched up, so I got the correct push retainers on those at least.
Yeah I was able to get some bolts and retainers in and then zip ties for the rest. I feel much better about it now. Thanks for the reply!