Doug427

I bought my '06 E55 last month. I just had it up on a lift yesterday, and for the first time got a very good look at the underside of the car. From the front bumper to the rear axle, the entire underside of the car is covered by removable plastic panels, except for the exhaust/tunnel area. Have any of you just removed all this? What is the purpose. It seems these panels will just make maintenance more tedious. Other than excess weight, why keep these on there?

cmriv

They are there to protect your underbody. From rust salt things of that nature. They as well dampen noise if i'm not mistaken (road noise) don't hold me to that, thats what the gurus say in Duetchland. They don't weigh much either. Keep them, they are there for a reason.

Also you don't want rocks and debris hitting the oil pan trans pan ect....

e500slr

Really? Excess weight? .....and you have 80 pound seats

Those plastic panels smooth the air, protect the bottom from rust and dampen noise as said above and generally protect the vehicles undercarriage.

They weigh nothing, nothing is to be gained by taking them off.

RVAE34

I removed all of mine to check out everything. They are there to keep everything clean and to create better aerodynamics. Very simple to remove. I think most are held by 8mm head screws.

And yes, they weigh almost nothing.

Doug427

The weight comment was really tongue in cheek!

I was thinking that they're really just a pain in the a$$ to remove every time you need to do something under the car. However, since they seem to serve a useful purpose then I'll just leave them there. Thanks to all for the info!

Doug427

By the way, do any of you guys with access to a parts program or from past experience have a part number for the plastic nuts that hold on the rearmost panels? I'm missing three of them, and some of them don't seem to be able to be tightened as they just spin. Since I'm leaving the plastic pieces on I'll buy a new nuts and make sure they're all secured. I'm ok driving it as is now since the missing nuts are all on the trailing rather than leading edges of the panels.

Thanks again.

Toadster

some of them actually channel air from the engine department underneath the car - keeping the engine bay cooler and also reducing air buffeting underneath the car - reducing drag...

the W211 is one of the most slippery vehicles to cut the air prior to the mainstream electric cars pushing the envelope...

cmriv

They are just 10mm plastic nuts. You might be able to snag some up at the depo or lowes. Knowing mb, they are probably marked up 4000%... per usual ha

verminator

THIS^^^Electrical components like generators and the power semiconductors in the voltage regulator like to be kept cool...heat leads to component failures...there is actually a small duct that directs outside air to your alternator and voltage regulator to keep them cool...very nice design

romeomikehotel

A flat underbody also helps increase downforce with no increase in drag. Leave them on.

RobE55

+1 - leave em!

I also noticed the 2 front cooling tubes just for the hyd motor mounts. Keeping The Beast mounted requires cool mounts under pressure.

Denroll

Check this page. Great resource for the nuts, bolts, and fasteners with the odd thread pitch:

http://www.clipsandfasteners.com/Mer...show=90&page=1