[dishe]

I just noticed some sort of shield or something hanging off the bottom of my 01 Sentra XE, on the back of the passenger side.

I'm not sure what is being shielded there, it's under the trunk on the opposite side of the spare tire well as the muffler/exhause pipe. Looks like a box of some kind, but I didn't get a good look at it before the sun went down. I'll look again in the morning.

I know some shields are relatively safe to just remove and not lose any sleep over, but I'm not sure what this is or if I should remove the rest of it. Right now, it seems to almost be touching my rear passenger tire, which can't be good. Remove it, or have it put back on?

 

[JudoJohn]

it's probably part of the fender liner. i would try and reattach it. it takes apecial plastic screws-- u can get them at autoxone

 

[i68k]

if its almost touching the tire, i assume youre talking about the black plastic wheel well liner. there's a bunch of plastic clips, and some screws, that hold the plastic liner in place, you may just need a few plastic clips, or screws, to hold it back in place. as for the passenger rear, you dont really 'need' the plastic liner, the only thing passing by there is your exhaust. the plastic clips, and screws, are relatively cheap when you get generic ones from a parts store instead of the dealership.

if you have a metal shield, it could be the fuel tank shield, or an exhaust shield. the fuel tank shield should be there somewhat to protect the fuel tank, but the exhaust shields, you can rip those off.

either way, you dont want a shield or liner to rub the wheel/tire, the shield could actually cut the tire while you are driving causing a flat, which is very dangerous.

 

[dishe]

it's probably part of the fender liner. i would try and reattach it. it takes apecial plastic screws-- u can get them at autoxone

if its almost touching the tire, i assume youre talking about the black plastic wheel well liner. there's a bunch of plastic clips, and some screws, that hold the plastic liner in place, you may just need a few plastic clips, or screws, to hold it back in place. as for the passenger rear, you dont really 'need' the plastic liner, the only thing passing by there is your exhaust. the plastic clips, and screws, are relatively cheap when you get generic ones from a parts store instead of the dealership.

if you have a metal shield, it could be the fuel tank shield, or an exhaust shield. the fuel tank shield should be there somewhat to protect the fuel tank, but the exhaust shields, you can rip those off.

either way, you dont want a shield or liner to rub the wheel/tire, the shield could actually cut the tire while you are driving causing a flat, which is very dangerous.

Interesting- it doesn't appear to be the fender liner or wheel liner, as far as I can tell. It looks like used to connect on the bottom to protect whatever is to the left of the spare under the trunk. Is that the fuel tank? I'll have another look at it in the morning. If it is in fact the tank being protected, I probably want to put that back on, eh?

I hope the screw holes aren't stripped or anything- I have a similar shield starting to come off in the front, but the plastic that the screw would fit into is stripped away.

Really makes me wonder what the $%#! goes on under my car that would cause this!

 

[dishe]

Snapped a picture this morning of it:

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g205/mnrgilden/IMG_20130102_084930.jpg

Sorry for the poor quality, it's from my phone and as you can tell, its pretty cold outside!

What do you guys think I'm looking at here? Rip it off or see if I can figure out how to put it back on?

 

[i68k]

Snapped a picture this morning of it:
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g205/mnrgilden/IMG_20130102_084930.jpg
Sorry for the poor quality, it's from my phone and as you can tell, its pretty cold outside!
What do you guys think I'm looking at here? Rip it off or see if I can figure out how to put it back on?

ok, hold on a minute. you said this was on the passenger side. the pic you have is of the driver side.

that piece of plastic is to protect your evap box from excessive dirt and water getting splashed on to it, as theres electornic sensors, and you dont want water in your evap box. but dont worry, all that stuff is on the front side of the evap box, so you should be good. from the looks of it, you are only missing clips on the back section, you can fix this with some clips, or even zipties or something.

see the corner on the ground? there's a small hole where a clip should get pushed in, just lift the plastic to the rusty metal, where there should be another hole for the clip, and push a clip thru both holes. you can use a ziptie or something if you dont have clips. there should be another matching hole on the passenger side of the evap box, it seems you lost both rear clip.

if you need to, you can also drill/punch a hole into the plastic liner, and ziptie it up somewhere. you may be ok without the plastic, but its just as easy to fix it.

EDIT: theres no screw holes on the evap box, so dont drill/screw into the evap box (the grey plastic box), its a pressurized evap system.

 

[dishe]

ok, hold on a minute. you said this was on the passenger side. the pic you have is of the driver side.

that piece of plastic is to protect your evap box from excessive dirt and water getting splashed on to it, as theres electornic sensors, and you dont want water in your evap box. but dont worry, all that stuff is on the front side of the evap box, so you should be good. from the looks of it, you are only missing clips on the back section, you can fix this with some clips, or even zipties or something.

see the corner on the ground? there's a small hole where a clip should get pushed in, just lift the plastic to the rusty metal, where there should be another hole for the clip, and push a clip thru both holes. you can use a ziptie or something if you dont have clips. there should be another matching hole on the passenger side of the evap box, it seems you lost both rear clip.

if you need to, you can also drill/punch a hole into the plastic liner, and ziptie it up somewhere. you may be ok without the plastic, but its just as easy to fix it.

EDIT: theres no screw holes on the evap box, so dont drill/screw into the evap box (the grey plastic box), its a pressurized evap system.

::facepalm:: Did I really say passenger side? That's embarassing, yes, I meant driver's side.

So that's the EVAP box, eh? That's what has been throwing error codes that keep my engine light on lately. Yikes, this thing isn't supposed to get wet you say, but look at how it is exposed to the snow and ice. Well, passing inspection should be fun this year!

I can dig up some twist ties and get that back up. That will be enough to hold this? I was afraid to use plastic in case it is something that gets very hot. Thanks for your helpful input!

 

[i68k]

yea, thats your evap box, its basically a charcoal canister, you dont want water inside of it, as if its cracked or something. what codes do you have? you should check your ses light, noone wants to drive retarded.

 

[dishe]

yea, thats your evap box, its basically a charcoal canister, you dont want water inside of it, as if its cracked or something. what codes do you have? you should check your ses light, noone wants to drive retarded.

Its a long story (and one that I'm not proud of). I've owned this car since it was practically new- a 2001 with 20k on it, bought early in early '02. I babied it for years, then got married and kids, life, family vehicles, etc, became a priority. I feel really bad about it, but I basically just do the bare minimum to keep this thing on the road, as it is really a secondary car for when the wife is driving the family car somewhere else.

For the last couple of years, I've been getting codes 0420 and 1491 on regular intervals. Sometimes individually, sometimes together. I've been quoted large amounts of money to fix it properly ($1,500+!), but I understand that these are emissions related problems and as long as I can get the car to keep the light off long enough to pass an inspection, I've just been living with it.

Don't judge me!

 

[i68k]

p1491 - vacuum cut bypass valve
p0420 - precat below thresold

im sure a mechanic wouldve quoted you $1500 to rebuild your motor, if you had fixed this earlier, its possible that you couldve fixed this with a catless header (<$100) and some antifoulers (<$20) without having to worry about your headgasket, or other internal failures. and you wouldve passed inspection in most states. you should check out the precat faq in the tech section. hopefully you dont suffer from precat failure like most people do, which you probably will if its been years with that code and you havent remove/replaced the precat. also, these might be emission codes, but as far as your afr is concerned, this means your afr will be really rich, basically, really bad gas mileage.

your vacuum cut bypass valve is in between your fuel tank and the evap box. i would take a look at things, its possible your liner that was hanging couldve banged/yanked/cracked the hose for this valve, or maybe yanked on some wires causing a disconnect.