This winter a part under my 2008 Prius bent down, far enough to drag on the ground at times. At the front of the car right under the license plate. The dealer said it was just a heat shield and don't bother replacing it - $62 plus $47 for labor. I got to wondering - am I going to lose MPG? We take measures to keep heat _in_ during the winter. I probably tried to drive through a little bit too much snow, one too many times.
That is a plastic fod plate. Without it in place the very very expensive AC condenser is exposed to all sorts of road debris and will take a real beating real fast. The ac condenser is in front of the rad and the first one to take road debris to the face.Prius is very low to the ground in front and will catch all road debris in that hole like a cow catcher on a train. In the snow it will packed up in there real fast. Tiny pinhole in the ac condenser is about $1500-$2000 to replace.
If black plastic, this would be the engine undercover. If metal, this is probably a heat shield for the catalytic converter.
"fod" = "Foreign Object Damage"? The term is new to me, and that's about all I could pry out of Google. Ballpark cost to replace?
"fod plate" is Ed's name for that part, and is not an official name. If the dealer's service writer saw the same damage as your photo depicts, then I think you can rely upon his price quote.
I'd try here first; 08 2008 Toyota Prius Lower Engine Cover - Body Mechanical & Trim - Action Crash, Left - Driver Side, Lower Center, Right - Passenger Side - PartsGeek 08 2008 Toyota Prius Bumper Spoiler - Body Mechanical & Trim - Action Crash, Left - Driver Side, Rear, Right - Passenger Side - PartsGeek
If it were me, I'd replace that. A lot of times technicians think there is no purpose for something but, they are not engineers. Trust me, if that didn't serve a useful purpose, they would not have put it there.
$42 labor at the dealer sounds like a good deal. Its a pain to put on I would imagine and they have ready access to all the busted plastic attachments your going to need imho. Try to bundle it. You never mentioned the miles but if more than 75K get the trans fluid replaced too and the oil. Bring them your own synthetic oil. Make it worth the trip. It will be up on the rack anyway. Get some stuff done.
Still should change the trans fluid its sat in there for +6 years. Gets acidic. Plus the life the car is leading is somewhat hard on the 12 volt battery. Never really gets a good charge. I would keep an eye on that as it tends to leave you at a most inopportune and where you live freezing time. Do this test and report the 3 numbers back here: Weird stuff happening? MPGs dropping? Test The Battery | PriusChat
OH YES!! engineers NEVER put on things that are not needed! And Santa will come in August if your a good boy!
In many engineering projects, a phase comes called "value engineering", where all concerned are specifically tasked to look for eliminations and modifications for the express purpose of saving money. Eliminating an unneeded component can save hundreds of thousands of dollars in a total production run. I'm also inclined to believe that the panel has a purpose and if not replaced, should at least be repaired. Even black gaffer tape might be better than having the pictured gap left as is. I will try and be good in August though, just in case.
Oops - mine is off, better replace ASAP. I do NOT want to be without AirCon on Guam! BTW - - - Foreign Object Damage (FOD) is an Air Force term for junk that gets sucked into jet engines. A 2 cent screw can do hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage.
