Pulling onto the apron ramp at the gym yesterday my 8 scraped the lower front of the car. This was the first time I've ever scraped the front of the car in since I bought it in May of this year. I'm usually very careful with ramps and make an effort to pull in slowly both to protect the bodywork and also to keep from torquing the unibody any more than is necessary. I feel that this helps minimize squeaks from appearing. Luckily, the 8 has minimal overhangs so it's harder to scrape the ends of the car.

I noticed just a little bit of scraped plastic on the black lower apron - very very minor and not noticeable unless you examine the car from underneath. But, then I noticed that a 1/4" gap has appeared between the top of the rotor trim ring and the upper opening of the lower air intake ( this is the area where air flows directly to the slanted radiator. It's below what you would call the traditional grill of the car, which is non-functional.)

I pushed up on the lower section of the apron and the whole thing flexed up and the rotor trim ring became flush with the top of the opening again. It looks like the lower opening may be sagging. Maybe this gap and resulting flex were there when I bought the car but I think I would have noticed it when cleaning the car. Additionally, I've pulled into the gym 2 -3 times per week on average since I've had the car and it never scraped before.... I wonder if this area is starting to sag and that's why it scraped at the gym when it had never happened before.

Has anyone else noticed this area of their car sagging?

 

My first, humorous, reaction would be "put a bra on it" ...

My bet is that a fastener or two that hold that in place have failed ...

 

i was washing my car after two days of owning it and while i was on my knees washing it, i noticed there was a screw missing holding the undertray. maybe a few screws came loose and caused the tray to drag? when i noticed the screw missing, i proceeded to tighten the rest of them. to my surprize, they were all quite loose. you'll need an 8mm hex socket or a phillips head screwdriver.

yamajj

 

^^^Yeah what he said...... my front sits pretty low so I've already scraped it a few times.