Dangling Skid Plate

[WillCO]

Headed up the hill Thursday night with the family to climb one of our mountains on Friday. Woke up early AM at the hotel, truck made a bizarre noise when I backed it out of the space.

Turned out my skid plate was hanging by one bolt and dragging on the ground - all the other bolts had fallen out.

Nothing I could do about it 75 miles from home, so I drove it and hoped for the best. Thankfully, the best happened; the one bolt held all the way home Friday night. 15 minute task to screw in new bolts the next day.

You guys might want to just slide under there and make sure your bolts are tight.

 

[BourbonNcigars]

Do you offroad it? Any idea what may have caused the initial problem?

 

[swathdiver]

Any idea what may have caused the initial problem?

Yeah, a thief! Some scoundrel was trying to score one for his ride, got three bolts before someone scared him off! Or maybe he just wanted the bolts for his new skid plate and didn't want to pay $7 each for them either!

 

[Rocket Man]

I guess that advice could apply to pretty much all your bolts....especially the ones holding things like your wheels on!

 

[79jasper]

I guess that advice could apply to pretty much all your bolts....especially the ones holding things like your wheels on!

Yep.
When I'm changing the oil (or just under a vehicle for whatever reason) I tend to look everything over. Just like they teach you for looking for loose lug nuts on a semi, you will either see a rust ring, or shiny spot around bolts.

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[WillCO]

Do you offroad it? Any idea what may have caused the initial problem?

No offroading at all. I looked at the skid plate to see if there was any evidence of impact and saw none. It's just the plastic skid plate, a $45 part and juice not worth the squeeze to steal.

My leading theory is a lazy oil change tech might have dropped a couple bolts and blown off replacing them, and/or under-tightened the ones left.

 

[Rocket Man]

No offroading at all. I looked at the skid plate to see if there was any evidence of impact and saw none. It's just the plastic skid plate, a $45 part and juice not worth the squeeze to steal.

My leading theory is a lazy oil change tech might have dropped a couple bolts and blown off replacing them, and/or under-tightened the ones left.

You don’t need to pull the skid plate to change the oil. There’s really no need to pull it unless you’re changing the power steering pump or something to do with steering or similar.

 

[WillCO]

You don’t need to pull the skid plate to change the oil. There’s really no need to pull it unless you’re changing the power steering pump or something to do with steering or similar.

I guess that's true; the oil filter is outside the skid plate area.

Who knows. The truck has 60,000 miles. I've had all the scheduled maintenance done, which perhaps included a check or flush of the power steering pump. Possibly that tech did a poor job reattaching the plate. Or otherwise, maybe the bolts were just shaking loose little by little over the last 4 years.