Hi Folks,
During a very wet drive home yesterday evening on a B road, I drove through a puddle which turned out to be a lot deeper than it looked. Luckily I was only going 20mph (maybe a little less) and it’s damaged/bent what I believe is one of the underbody braces beneath the vehicle.
I believe it’s the cross brace that has a triangle shape at one end. I don’t have access to a garage lift so difficult to see it easily.
Can I simply unbolt the brace and repair / replace it and will the car become unusable if I do this?
I would put some more pictures up as I can not tell where the dangly bit is. When you have identified it I would go to a Mazda dealer and get a price. Some of the underbody bits are reasonable.
When you remove the offending bit take pictures of the mountings and save them all to use on the replacement.
The Centre x-brace was jiggered in an altercation with a wall on mine. After months in the body shop it came back with x-brace still ****ed as the muppets had not read the full claim details. A few more weeks as this part was (yet another) that was on back-order, eventually arriving from Mazda Belgium.
To be honest I could have changed it myself in under ten minutes, it’s literally four bolts. I assumed it was structural to some extent; although it appears to be the same material and consistency as a disposable oven dish!
Thanks Mad Malc, the dangly piece is positioned slightly to to the near side of centre of the car.
From what I can make out the rivets must have failed (under load from puddle water?) and bent downwards until they scrapped along the floor.
It made a horrendous noise so I stopped immediately and had to further bend the brace by hand so it stopped scrapping on the floor. Luckily I was only a mile or so from Home.
I don’t think it’s the Xbrace as that looks to be in tack further back on the car.
The brace is pretty flimsy material though, as I said anove it looks like the rivets have popped so only single skin (thus enabling a weakling like me to bend it by hand beneath the car )
It does not look like it is made of alloy. Are sure it is not plastic or cardboard composite. I am sure I can see plastic pins holding it on. The alloy bits are all bolted on.
It is most unlikely that the alloy bits would come off without contacting something solid.
To me it looks most likely to be part of the undertray.
I’ve just had a look and the deformed plate is definitely made of metal (alloy?). I can see that the rivet points on the near side of the brace have all come apart.
Like you I’m very surprised too see the damaged caused by a puddle albeit a deep one.
I tried to undo the 12mm nuts nearest to me but they are simply too tight for my DIY tools and strength.
I prob could just cut off the dangly part but I’d rather not, I’ll replace like for like or preferably upgrade it for a stronger part I think.
Probably a known weakness . The rivets fail and the aluminium or similar undercover hits the floor. happened to me on my last ND1. Few years back it cost me circa £150+ at a Mazda dealership.
I seem to remember that there were a few failures in the early days and the part/fixings were strengthened on later models. Sorry it does not help you though.
Perhaps it is something to be checked on if you have an early ND.
It is definitely the front cross brace. You can see the the catalyst in the picture and further back the black plastic which attaches to the front brace!
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