Celica Forums General Discussion Exterior Need skid plate advice...

I take my car in for regular oil changes at this Valvoline place around the corner from me. About 60% of the time, after the oil change, the skid plate will partially come off the bottom of the car (horrible dragging plastic sound hehe).

I take it back to them and now I have to sign a waiver that says "We're not responsible for breaking the plastic snaps that hold the skid plate on." Apparently they have this waiver for a few other car makes as well.

They claim that it's difficult to remove the skid plate without breaking the snaps. They also recommend I go to a Toyota dealer and just buy 20 or 30 of the snaps and bring them every time I get my oil changed, and if they break one, they'll replace it with the ones I bought.

Now... are these guys full of shit? Are there alternatives to holding up the skid plate? Would it be safe to just remove the damn things? I'm about to take my car in this weekend, but I don't have new snaps for them. Not even sure if Toyota will sell me a bunch for a reasonable price.

What do you guys think?

too hell with them. It's not difficult to remove the under celica plastics at all. Plus i don't know why you take your celica into some greasemonkey oil change place to begin with. No one other than me puts wrench time on my car.

You can remove them and drive safely unless you have a cold air Intake, one puddle, your engine will lock.

You can get the snaps from toyota or your local auto store.

Alright, you definitely don't want to buy them through toyota; those plastic rivets are about $1 a piece through the parts counter (and that's the bodyshop rate)

Go to autozone, and buy the screw-head type of plastic rivets, it's like $1.50 for 12 or more of them, if they lose one use those instead.

they are definitely easy to remove without breaking them though, you just push the center pin in and remove the fastener, If they're breaking them, they are retarded.

They are feeding you some lines, you shouldn't have to buy some generic ones, and tell them to use those instead. show them how to unlock the fasteners from toyota and ask them to replace what they break (every other service shop is obligated to do this), or just do your own oil changes from now on.

forget those guys man

F those guys
Those clipis are easy as hell to take off.
If tehy are to stupid to know how to take them off without breaking them don't go to them.

You should have make them pay for the clips that they broke and for a new skid plate because it was thier fault yours got all scratched up.

That's BS!!!!!!!!!!!!
They're totally easy to take off - unless you're ripping them off or being careless. If you don't change your oil yourself - take it to a toyota dealership (biggest rippoff ever though) for oil changes - at least they'd fix it if they broke it.

You're poor celica

If you don't go to a dealer, and don't do it yourself - at least take it to a reputable place...

Thanks for the input... Unfortunately it's so much easier to take it there and to go to a dealership (which takes hours to change the damn oil). I'm not mechanically inclined as most of you do-it-yourself people. It's times like this I wish I was I don't even own ramps or jacks to get my car off the ground even if I wanted to change the oil.

So! That being said, I think I'll go to Autozone as a post suggests and get some of the snaps there.

It's hard for me to be harsh to the Valvoline place. Been taking my car (and my wifes) there for years. It's actually run by a pretty awesome guy with an amazing gold Honda Prelude. They even wanted me to crank up the tunes in my car while they work hehe. Unfortunately a few of the people in the "pit" below are the retarded ones. The owner puts the smack down on them if they screw something up. Last time I came back with the skid plates dragging, he started yelling at people "Who the hell did the oil change on this!? Nevermind, I'll look it up on the damn computer!"

It's a cool place, so I'll give em a chance... It's only a recent thing. Like I said I've been going there for years without a problem. Must be some new guy down there.

As for the car... the skid plates are fine, just scratched up real nice... not that anyone ever sees them. When it came loose the first time on the highway, it sounds like I ran over, and was dragging about 8 milk cartons under the car heh.

Anyway thanks for the input! I rarely post, but you guys always seem to be around when I need Celica help.

hehe, my dealership does NOT replace the clips they lose or break... this is a fact.

I went to Murrays and they had clips identical to they toyota ones, about a buck for two of them, way cheaper than dealership price, but pretty much any ol plastic rivet will do for the underplastics.

Also, keep some zip-ties in the center console, if you lose some rivets, and you're in a pinch, you can zip-tie them together or hold them up.

just take the plates off,thats what i did after dragging most of them down the highway