Due to the recent flooding/storms, a lot of the roads in the area where I live were in pretty bad condition. As I was driving early morning (like 6am) yesterday I was on a back road that sometimes floods but was altered to allow to drain. Long story short, the road crew didn't put up sufficient warning signs describing the road hazards THEY created by removing sections of asphalt and essentially making 3 large dips/bumps in the road. I didn't realize until it was too late that I needed to come to a complete stop at the gaps (road sign said 'rough road' midway past the actual first bump) and dipped down suddenly and basically getting launched airborne (in a very bad way). After landing, I thought all the tires had blown b/c I heard some scraping rubbing noises much like a flat tire. I pulled over immediately to check out the damage to find that the car looked okay but the splash shield was dragging on the ground. I moved the car forward a bit and that's all it took for the whole thing to come off. I placed it in the trunk and continued on to work, monitoring anything that might clue in to suspension/steering damage, etc.

Everything seems fine, I'm going to put the car up on jack stands later today to make a full inspection, but I'm going to need to buy a new splash shield (and all those plastic clips) to replace the old one. In the mean time, I still need to drive the car, so my question is how long would it be bad to be driving around without the splash shield covering the underbody area? I know it will get dirtier from being exposed to the weather and everything, but is there anything else to keep in mind?

 

your mpg will go down, that is mainly all i can think of.

 

It's a $80 part. Road debris would have a higher likelihood of hitting the engine, trans case, etc without that shield.