Broken underbody panels
 

I scrapped the bottom of my FR-S and broke off an underbody panel in the right back corner, which had seemed to cover some of the gas tank and a brake line (photo attached). I've got two questions:

1. The left side of my car doesn't even have this panel. Is that stock, or did the previous owner remove it for some reason?

2. Do I need to buy a new panel to cover this area back up?

Any advice would be appreciated!

:slap: don't do that no more, this is not an off road vehicle and those aren't skid plates.

As far as the one on the other side, some of those under panels were not put on vehicles made for the US - but I don't know which ones. AND, I'm not about to get down and look under my car - because I may have to crawl over to the step in my garage to get enough leverage to get back up, and I have my new house robe on.

Yes, I would suggest you buy a new panel for the one that you tore off - the manufacturer put it in place for a reason.

As old man humfrz said.

Do you really need it? Eh? Not really. But if you really want it look up the part at any Subaru/Toyota online parts catalog. Or take a trip to your local dealership.
I would look up the parts numbers, but I'm taking a massive shit right now.

That happened to me so I used that as an excuse to get the JDM under panels installed

Not necessary ... but I wanted to have it some "protection" as insurance lol

That "happened" to you, and used as an excuse to buy the JDM panels? :lol:

Ejem, where can I get those JDM panels? I seem to be missing a few myself.:(

They're not JDM panels. You can order them straight from Subaru/Toyota if you have the part numbers, or know which model they came on.

I think I have those P/Ns written on a wish list somewhere...

They were JDM at one point. I think in 2018 they became standard.

It was my understanding that the earlier cars randomly came with or without them, but were always available for order from Subaru/Toyota. At least that's what I remember reading here when I lurked years before I bought mine.

The earlier models had smaller underbody panels - quick google can show you: https://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38946
Scroll down to see the USDM vs JDM underpanels


Looks like you can buy the kit still, I think you save a few bucks ordering them yourself though
https://www.ftspeed.com/part/86-unde...ro-underpanels

Here's the part numbers for the fuel tank shields (Toyota/Subaru):
SU003-01051 / 42045CA030 (left fuel tank shield)
SU003-01050 / 42045CA020 (right fuel tank shield)
SU003-00049 / 023508000 (nuts x4, can reuse one from the old piece)
SU003-02984 / 909140007 (clips x4, can reuse two from the old piece and/or just use generic 10mm bumper clips)

Around $35-50 total depending on your dealer. The FR-S didn't come with anything on the left side, just the right side piece.

1. Yes, that is normal. Standard versions of the cars bound for the states were set up with one long plastic panel on the left side and one small panel in the back covering lines and part of the fuel tank. The special editions (Release Series, 10 Series, Series.Blue/.Yellow, etc.) were the ones that you'd tend to find the full set of underbody panels that the rest of the world got on all the cars from the factory, which covers a lot more of the underbody surface with more substantial panels.

2. Do you absolutely need to? No, but consider that if you have another scrape like the one you did, you'd risk damage to the parts it was covering if it was enough of a drag to rip the panel off. If it's even remotely possible that it could happen again, I'd say replace it. And if you don't want to go about getting the JDM/Rest of the World set of panels (though it's a lot cheaper to do so now than it was a few years ago and provides a ton more coverage), replacing the one you lost is probably not a terribly expensive piece of plastic to buy. If I were you, I'd replace it for a little peace of mind.

Possibly 2017, My Yellow came with them. Not sure if they were special to the series or not?