MKIV Panzer Plate Install Instructions
This
is the install procedure for installing the Dieselgeek.com MK4 Panzer Plate
Skid Plate Kits. These instructions are for all
1999 1/2 through mid-2005 A4 Jetta, all
1999 1/2 through mid-2006 MK4 Golf, GTI and 2004 R32, and all 1998 through 2009 New Beetles, regardless of engine type, transmission type or body type
(sedan, wagon or hatchback). These instructions and the parts list only
apply to MK4 Panzer Plate kits bought from Dieselgeek.com.
Parts List
One
aluminum skid plate
Two
identical black
powder-coated steel posts with a two-hole flanged foot.
Nine
30mm long bolts
(available at Home Depot or Lowe's: 17mm heads, 10mm thread x 30mm long with a
1.5mm thread pitch) Equivalent VW
or Audi Part number N 100 704 03
Ten
1 1/4 inch diameter, 3/8" or 10mm 1/8" THICK
washers for all of the bolts above (one washer acts as a spacer for the rear
center skid plate bolt.).
One
10 inch long, 1/8" thick aluminum rivnut tool
Eight
rivnuts VW or
Audi Part number N 908 106 02
Two
1.5 inch long, #10 Phillips head or hex head sheetmetal screws with
stainless fender washers for the front side skirt holes
Two
OE Torx T25 screws
for rear side skirt holes
Tools Required:
Torx T25 screwdriver
17mm socket and socket wrench (longer handles are better)
12 inch extension bar for socket wrench
Flat-bladed screwdriver
Phillips screwdriver
Torque wrench for accurate rivnut setting
Car jack and heavy jack stands and/or car ramps
Any automotive grease
WD-40 or equivalent lubricant spray
A hack saw is useful for modifying your stock side skirts for skid
plate use.
Getting a safe start:
First, jack up
the car and place the car on ramps or sturdy jack stands. For manual shift
cars, set the handbrake and put the car in gear. For automatics, make sure the
handbrake is set and make sure the car is in the "Park" position. Use
the floor jack as a third "safety" jack
stand in the middle of the subframe. You can also do the install on a
vehicle lift if you have access to one. Once the car is safely raised into the
air, remove your center factory plastic air deflector/sound deadening plate by
removing all of the Torx T25
screws. Next, remove the engine bay side skirts by either simply pulling them
downward or by unthreading the flat star speed nuts with a long screwdriver
(two per side) by placing a flat bladed screwdriver in one of the star nut's radial slots
and turning the nut counterclockwise. On turbocharged cars and especially the
TDI, it may be easier to remove the passenger side skirt after the hose leading
into the lower part of the intercooler is removed or the 6mm nut holding the
rear of the intercooler hose is removed. Be careful to save all hardware and
reattach the hose at the end of the install.
The rivnuts are the anchors for the skid plate and provide the super
strong and secure attachment points for the skid plate. During this procedure,
you will install seven rivnuts into preexisting 13mm holes on the car's
subframe (picture 1,
2,
3)
and on the underside of the driver side and passenger side frame
rails on either side of the engine bay. (The subframe is below and behind the
engine and has the steering rack and sway bar mounted on top of it.) It is very
highly recommended that you install the first three rivnuts into the rear
subframe since access is the best and you can get a feel for installing them
without any obstructions.
To prepare to install all of the rivnuts, grease the threads of all nine 10mm x 30mm bolts and place one 10mm washer on each one. Insert one of these greased bolts with washer through the offset or centered hole in the rivnut tool and into a rivnut. Tighten the bolt slightly so that it is snug only. By using the rivnut tool as a handle, insert the rivnut into one of the rear outer subframe holes until its head is completely flush with the bottom of the subframe. Using a 17mm socket and ratchet or wrench, start tightening the 10mm bolt while counter holding with the aluminum rivnut tool. Maintain a gentle but steady upward pressure on the rivnut as you are tightening the bolt to ensure that it is butted up against the subframe. As you are turning the 17mm bolt, the center section of the rivnut will slowly mushroom out/expand to lock the rivnut into the subframe hole (The mushrooming action takes place inside the subframe and cannot be seen.). Tighten the rivnut enough to completely stop turning in the subframe hole. As you are tightening the bolt you will get to the point that it becomes noticeably harder to turn. At this point, finish tightening the rivnut with a torque wrench to 35 lb. /ft to fully lock it in place. Once this torque has been achieved, loosen and remove the 10mm bolt and rivnut tool from the installed rivnut. Repeat the procedure using a second rivnut and install it into the remaining outside subframe hole and torque it to 35 ft.-lbs. After these first two rivnuts have been successfully installed in the rear outside subframe holes, repeat the process for the last subframe rivnut by using only the offset hole of the rivnut tool. Install this rivnut into the rear center hole of the subframe and torque it down to 35 ft.-lbs.
Installing
the four remaining rivnuts into the underside of the frame rails is pretty much
the same as installing them into the subframe. You will use the aluminum rivnut
tool exactly as you have
for the first three rivnuts but you will have less space to work with. The
offset hole of the rivnut tool works best for the passenger side rivnuts. Once
you are sure that the rivnuts are completely flush against the underside of the
frame rail, tighten the 10mm bolt
to 35 ft.-lbs with a ratchet, 17mm socket and 12 inch extension bar. Repeat
with another greased bolt and rivnut. After all four of the rivnuts are
installed and torqued into the frame rails, you should loosely bolt the front
mounting posts to the underside of the frame rails. The posts should be
oriented with their legs pointing slightly forward in the car (the post
is not welded perpendicular to the base plate). The skid plate will not fit
otherwise. The four mounting post bolts should not be tight at this time
as the slack will be used to align the plate when is mounted. You will tighten
all of the bolts fully only after the plate has been mounted.
Once all seven of the
rivnuts have been installed, the vertical plastic engine bay side panels or
side skirts should be installed:
We
always highly recommend reuse of your existing plastic side splash
guards to reduce the demand for more plastic in the world. Even if your side
skirts are damaged, they can be reused if the screw mounting points are still
intact. The plastic side skirts that are used with our replacement side skirt
kits are the same original plastic Volkswagen parts that your car was equipped
with from the factory. The side skirts provide absolutely no other function
than to keep water and dirt out of the engine bay and to reduce engine noise.
They are not structural at all when used with the Panzer Plate. The
Panzer Plate provides all
of the structure and load bearing capacity for striking any obstructions in the
roadway. Furthermore, the required modifications to allow use of your existing
side skirts are very easy to do and should take at the most 15 minutes
by simply cutting them with a hack saw.
Modification of your original equipment engine bay side panels or side skirts: To modify your existing side skirts, there are a total of five cuts required per side skirt. The first four cuts will remove the yellow shaded area in this picture. Cut A should be the first cut made with a hack saw. It is 2 inches beyond and parallel to the last gusset (marked with D in the picture). Cut B should be the second cut made with a hack saw. To make cut B, simply cut right down the 90 degree crease in the skirt to the point 2 inches beyond the last gusset which is also the end point of cut A. The last two cuts C and D are simply to finish removing the gussets. It is not necessary to cut them very close to the side of the side skirt. The finished product of the first four cuts looks like this. The final cut is simply removing the tail section as shown here. Repeat the five cuts for the other side skirt.
If you purchased a pair of replacement engine bay side panels from us,
install the new plastic side skirts by sliding the front rounded edge into the slot in the radiator
support
and then pushing
their star nuts onto the threaded stud
on the bottom side of the frame rail. You can tighten the star nuts further by
placing a flat bladed screwdriver in one of the star nuts radial slots
and turning the nut clockwise. On turbocharged cars and especially the TDI, it
can be slightly tricky to install the side skirt on the passenger side of the
car with the lower intercooler hose rear mount still attached to the frame rail
(with a 6mm nut). Removing the hose mount does make it a little easier to
install the side skirt but it is not absolutely necessary to do so. Personally,
I have never removed the intercooler hose or mount during a skid plate install.
Your needs may differ and that is fine.
Install the side skirts by sliding the front rounded edge into the slot in the radiator
support
and then pushing their star nuts onto the threaded stud
on the bottom side of the frame rail. You can tighten the star nuts further by
placing a flat bladed screwdriver in one of the star nut's radial slots
and turning the nut clockwise. On turbocharged cars and especially the TDI, it
can be slightly tricky to install the side skirt on the passenger side of the
car with the lower intercooler hose rear mount still attached to the frame rail
(with a 6mm nut). Removing the hose mount does make it a little easier to
install the side skirt but it is not absolutely necessary to do so. Personally,
I have never removed the intercooler hose or mount during a skid plate install.
Your needs may differ and that is fine.
All
Panzer Plates are manufactured with a trapezoidal keystone shaped cutout for draining your oil through
the bottom of the car. This cutout is meant for four cylinder cars only
and is marked as such on the skid plate. Cars with the VR6, 1.8T gas turbo
engine or the 2.0 liter gas engine will still need to remove the skid plate to
remove the oil filter. TDI owners who have elected or will elect to remove the
keystone cutout will not need to remove the skid plate to change the oil
since the filter housing is at the top of the engine bay.
If you
have a four cylinder car and wish to remove the keystone cutout you
will need to obtain a loose
hack saw blade (shown wrapped with paper towels) or an inexpensive $5.00
Home Depot, Lowes, Ace Hardware, etc. keyhole saw to remove
the keystone cutout like
this picture shows. Cutting the two connecting webs of
aluminum takes a couple of minutes apiece. The trapezoidal hole left in the
plate will work perfectly to drain the oil without removing the skid plate,
assuming the oil is lukewarm. Just put a 19mm or three quarter inch
box end wrench or socket on the drain plug to loosen the drain plug.
Installing the Plate:
Before
you lift the plate into place, make sure that the remaining five 10mm bolts
with thick washers are placed within reach under the engine bay. Spray the
female threaded hole of both of the front mounting posts with WD-40 or
equivalent spray as they are degreased during the coating process and have very
sticky threads if left dry. Thread a bolt in and out of the mounting posts to
make sure the threads are well lubricated prior to installing the skid plate. To
install the plate, center the plate on your chest and lift the skid plate up
into place and while supporting the center of the skid plate. Loosely thread
two of the 10mm bolts into opposite corners to hold up the skid plate. These
two bolts will hold up the skid plate while you are installing the three
remaining 10mm bolts. Next, install the last extra washer supplied with the
kit as it acts a spacer between the skid plate and the rear center bolt
hole. After the spacer washer is in place, thread a bolt through this skid
plate hole and into the center rear rivnut. Finish threading the remaining
three bolts. After all of the bolts have been threaded a few turns each to make
sure they are threaded correctly, finish tightening them with a 17mm socket and
torque them to 35 ft.-lbs. The passenger rear of the skid plate will distort
slightly as you tighten the passenger rear bolt. This is o.k.! Next, finish
tightening all four of the mounting post bolts to 35 ft.-lbs using your 12 inch
long extension and 17mm socket. Once all nine of the 10mm skid plate bolts are
fully tightened, attach the side skirts to the skid plate with the two long
Phillips head screws and black T25 Torx screws provided with the kit. The long
Phillips screws are for the front side skirt holes. Use the standard Torx
screws for the rear side skirt holes. After a day or so you can replace the
Phillips screws with Torx screws as the side skirts will be molded to the new
skid plate.
