Hi

For all fellow Roomster owners who consider fitting extra underbody protection also known as skid plate, here are some points to take note of, as you will not find install guide in Elsa, and ETKA picture is fuzzy to say the least:

The skid plate (listed in ETKA as engine/gearbox assy skid plate page 018-05 Accessories) is made of heavy duty, steel reinforced plastic, several mm thick, and much, much tougher than the default engine underbody cover. It mounts via 2 dedicated steel brackets directly to car's chassis at front, and via 3 bolts to suspension frame at rear, fully covering the low protruding parts of engine and gearbox.

For access during install, you just need to lift front of car, unbolt engine cover and the 2 wheel well liner ends. No need to remove the wheels.

ETKA has a mistake when specifying bolts, you need not 4 but 7 skid plate bolts

(torx, M8x18mm 7x N107 170 01 ).

Also, you do not need the black T25 torx screws at all (don't order 6x N90974701), the ones that come off with factory cover are enough, in fact you will be left with 3 T25 torx spare screws at end of install.

The mounts for the plate need to have total of 5 rivnuts (rivet-nuts) installed, you need an impact wrench to start them, then torque wrench to finish install. While it is possible to install them without initial use of impact wrench, I found it to be a real pain on my earlier car (Octavia). Torque the rivnuts to 50Nm/M10 and 30Nm/M8, you can torque the M10 ones later to higher torque if you wish as the M10 rivnuts holding brackets won't be removed through the life of the car. Lockite or similar is a good idea on the M10s, as is corossion protection.

It is a good idea to order 1 extra M10 and M8 rivnut (so total 3x M10, and 4x M8), as sometimes they do not install corectly and need to be drilled out. Mine did install correctly, but one rivnut at back frame was marginal, started warping but ended up OK. I must say these rivnuts are much easier to install than ones for Octavia Mk1, as they are hex shaped and tend to lock in the hole well.

You need to dig out 3 T25 torx silvery speed nuts from rear frame, that's where the M8 rivnuts go.

Use a long piece of metal with an 8mm hole drilled through it to counterhold M8 rivnuts while you apply impact wrench to the bolt, preferably use different, longer bolt for install. Front rivnuts you can install using the skid plate brackets as counter-hold.

Stock plastic cover for diesels has a thick 2cm piece of heat-proof fabric on top to quiet down the engine noise (and probably to distribute impacts to oil pan and gearbox). I considered installing that fabric on the new skid plate, but decided against it as the skid plate is thicker, has reinforcements and as a result sits closer to the engine oil pan. I did not notice any increased noise after installing the skid plate, it is thick enough to simply stop the sound.

I torqued the 2x M10 bolts to 70Nm, and the 7x M8 bolts to 35Nm, depending how well your rivnuts are installed you may want to use less/more torque. Single M10 bolt bracket install is a bit wobbly in my opinion, but since ETKA specified M10x20 bolts are on long term factory back order and I need the skid plate for a trip next week, I had a selection of reused M10 bolts to choose from :think: I finally settled for a couple of old Mk1 Octavia rear suspension top shock absorber mount bolts, ones that come with a serrated washer pre-attached. These seem to hold the brackets just fine, eliminating any vibration.

Fitting time incl. thinking is about 2hr, but as long as you're good with rivnuts and have all tools ready, you can do the instal itself in under 30mins if you have a 4-wheel lift (I don't).

So much for my Roomster Panzer conversion, (edit) no photos, sorry, I did not have much time, perhaps next time the skid plate is removed photos in my posts below . I must say it is one mod that does give you piece of mind when going over speed bumps and potholes. The only other mod in that area that I will consider later will be to increase ground clearance and comfort by going for higher profile tyres (185/65/R15) when stock 195/55/R15s are worn out.

Edited 23 May, 201214 yr by dieselV6

Do you have the install guide from ETKA?

May be interested in fitting this once a future project is completed ;-)

There is no install guide in ETKA / ELSA hence these install notes above, if you mean parts listing ETKA page (engine gearbox/assy protection plate) then you can ask dealer I am sure they'll be happy to print it out for you when you order the parts.

One assumes they'll fit a MY2008 Roomster Scout? The newer Roomsters being facelifted, would not mean a complete re-design of the underbody?

There exists one for MY2008, but is totally different design, it is also reinforced plastic.

But I have now a photo of my skid plate (MY2012/3) on the car:

Not much to see from this perspective other than it is quite a bit thicker, you can see the 4 front mounting bolts that mount the skid plate to brackets.

Old, stock underbody cover, off the car, is here:

and the padding under engine and gearbox is visible here:

I do not need any particular protection, but I was thinking of replacing the stock underbody cover on my TSI roomster with the stock TD one. the TSi petrol version is half the surface and covering only the front part.

I suppose the full surface TD version is much more able to deaden engine noise and resonances, resulting in a quieter car.

Now, my doubts are:

- Will maintenance (and oil change) be more complicated because of the full surface cover?

- And, since you write it is sound effective, could it be simpler to fit the real skid plate, so as to gain noise reduction and real impact protection? Can you compare the noise difference before and after your modding?

thx :sun:

No difference in noise that I can hear between diesel cover and the skid plate. In fact, I knocked at various underbody panels to check for resonances and the fronts of wheel well liners resonate more than the skid plate (though they still barely resonate at all).

TD version might be cheaper to buy/install than the skid plate, though, the only thing I imagine you'd need to check would be the 3 silvery speed nuts at back of the frame, you might need to fit these.

If you still are doing oil changes via sump plug, consider using an oil extractor. For many years now I have been using Sealey TP69 extractor, and you can get more oil out of the engine with the extractor than using the sump hole, because you can "vacuum" oil out of oil filter/cooler housing. The difference is about 200ml-300ml, that's about 5% of total oil in the engine....

As long as you are doing oil changes on a warm engine and using a thin hose inserted into dipstick tube and not the dipstick tube itself, you can get oil out of the oil pan down to the last drop, no sludge, residue etc. It also saves tons of time and cleaning up as bottom access to the engine is not neccessary.

In the last 7 years, I opened sump plug only once, to check for residue/sludge after 5+ years of oil changes using oil extractor only, and the oil pan was clean as a whistle.

Edited 23 May, 201214 yr by dieselV6

Thank you for the valuable, valuable info :sun:

I had a few bolts to replace due to ETKA error (got initially only 4 plate torx M8x18 bolts while needed 7), and took opportunity to take more photos:

Skid plate off the car:

steel brackets mounted to chassis:

skid plate on the car:

Hi guys, I need the under engine cover for my Škoda Roomster, 2007, 1.6 TDI

What is the best site to order that? Thanks in advance!

@Juanito7

If it's not too late, and only posting late as it's only just happend: