Skid plate ripped off after front fender repair, coincidence or negligence from the shop?

[The_Observer]

Hey guys/gals,

About the same day or the day after I got my car back from doing a front fender repair, I started noticing some sort of scraping sound from the car. It wasn't until days later until today that I saw the skid plate ripped off from the car... here's a picture of the skid plate damage, and the damage to the front fender in question:

I am curious if the repair of the front fender may possibly caused the skid plates to get loose, or it's just a coincidence that it just happened to be ripped at the same time? I haven't hit any big object or debris that could cause this to happen or going into puddles, I am curious what you guys think might cause this. Thanks.

 

[ewoodrick]

I haven't seen the situation before. Sound like it is time to bring up the issue with whoever did the repair.

 

[XPsionic]

Looking at one of the bolt holes on the aero shield, it seem to be ripped, so it looks like the aero shield was installed securely but ripped due to hitting something.

IMO it's doubtful that the repair shop did anything wrong in regards to the aero shield. Poke your camera down there and see if all the bolts for the shield is still intact. If the repair shop didn't put all the bolts on then the shield could flap around and be damaged.

 

[P3dStealth]

The aero shield does not even connect to the fenders. You dragged it on something. Not a big deal. Its fabric and rips easy. The new models it's hard plastic. I upgraded to a metal one from eBay.

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[The_Observer]

So I found something a bit interesting while going under the car... the screws from the skid plates were missing, and also the clips from the right wheelwell was missing as well. I don't really believe an impact would really make a screw go loose, but I could be wrong.

Here's a few pictures to show what I mean:

I do have my suspicions that the body shop that did my fender repair messed up during the process, as one of my friends that's a mechanic in Tesla states that the skid plate is mounted to the bumper, which that needs to be removed during the fender repair. What do you guys think of this?

 

[stopcrazypp]

So I found something a bit interesting while going under the car... the screws from the skid plates were missing, and also the clips from the right wheelwell was missing as well. I don't really believe an impact would really make a screw go loose, but I could be wrong.

Here's a few pictures to show what I mean:
View attachment 973437

View attachment 973439

View attachment 973441

I do have my suspicions that the body shop that did my fender repair messed up during the process, as one of my friends that's a mechanic in Tesla states that the skid plate is mounted to the bumper, which that needs to be removed during the fender repair. What do you guys think of this?

The clips from the wheel well are unlikely to fall out by themselves. They most likely forgot to install them back or they lost them and just didn't install them. To be fair however, sometimes some are missing from the factory.

There are ways to remove the fender without removing the bumper (just loosen part of it enough to remove the headlight), but the official service manual does call for the front bumper to be removed before the fender is removed and that process that does include removing the aero shield.

So if the shop was following the official service manual, they definitely would have removed the aero shield in the process and thus there is a good possibility they forgot or loss some of the clips, which may contribute to it falling down.

 

[The_Observer]

The clips from the wheel well are unlikely to fall out by themselves. They most likely forgot to install them back or they lost them and just didn't install them. To be fair however, sometimes some are missing from the factory.

There are ways to remove the fender without removing the bumper (just loosen part of it enough to remove the headlight), but the official service manual does call for the front bumper to be removed before the fender is removed and that process that does include removing the aero shield.

So if the shop was following the official service manual, they definitely would have removed the aero shield in the process and thus there is a good possibility they forgot or loss some of the clips, which may contribute to it falling down.

I looked into the service manual on how to replace the fenders, and you are absolutely correct.

It doesn't make any sense for any sort of impact to make the bolts go loose, and leaving a clean looking screw hole as a result. I am also thinking it's very likely the shop screwed up but not putting back all the bolts.

Oh well, I will write a very thorough explanation on what happened, hopefully I will get some reasonable compensation from this. This is pretty ridiculous.