While leaving a gas station today, there was a somewhat steep exit of the parking lot. I ended up driving out the exit and hearing a soft scraping noise under the car. It wasn't as loud as scrapes ive heard while being in other people's cars. I inspected as much as I could see under the car, and nothing seems to be damaged. Do you think it was the plastic cover that was scraping the ground?

 

I jumped a curb awhile back and for sure scraped the undercarriage yet when I checked for damage, the plastic shield didn't have a mark on it.

So I'd say yes, you scraped the plastic cover and like me, somehow showed no damage.

 

if it was a soft scrape, ure probably fine. it probably scraped the lip right under the front chin. touch it and see if u can feel some roughness.

 

just checked. No visible marks or feelings of roughness anywhere under the front side. Strange, maybe it was the plastic shield cover?

 

yah, but dat is not the lowest part of da car so pretty weird. maybe dere was some asphalt/concrete sticking up.

are u running factory wheels and tires?

 

I hear this when i back out out of the garage and turn , there is a slight incline and then 5 feet away is the lane. i cant believe it is the spashshield, i put it down to more a front shock cover or the top bearing on the front shock, but it SOUNDS like the spashshield rubbing but it just cant be......i cant be bothered to try and track it down....i dont hear it any other time. nothings fallen off yet....LOL

 

I get this myself when the grade is a bit steep coming out of certain places (like the office park where my insurance agent is). It's never been anything more than a light momentary scraping noise and I checked under the front end several times afterward and never saw or felt anything odd. I've just learned to be extremely careful and go extremely slow when I spot a potential trouble spot and make a mental note to avoid it in the future if at all possible.

In my file of things to worry about, this has dropped pretty low on the list.

 

I am running factory wheels / tires. Why do you ask? I have a base model LX btw.

I am now thinking that it was that small piece of rubber/plastic that sticks out vertically under the lip that was rubbing against the asphalt. Does anyone know what that is? It's completely separate from the plastic shield cover, and is slightly anterior to it.

 

In my file of things to worry about, this has dropped pretty low on the list.

true dat!!!

 

The black rubber molding under the front bumper will probably scrape first when entering or exiting a steep driveway.

 

folks running the wrong wheel offset or tire size tend to rub their fender liners when suspension is compressed as dey dont know how to mod cars properly. but since you're running factory wheels, not an issue.

as for the vertical piece, that is usually called a deflector and that was the part i was referring to located under the chin. those tend to scrape first if bottoming out.

i cant remember on the GK, i was just under dere on Saturday lol, there should also be 2 small defectors forward of the front tires too. those deflect air to prevent turbulence from the tires spinning air forward resulting in better mpg.

 

"The black rubber molding under the front bumper will probably scrape first when entering or exiting a steep driveway."

I have a stock suspension 2016 EX. And I've gotten the scrape sound off steep driveways a couple of times with no visible damage.
I've always assumed the above was what I was hearing.

In any case...out of sight...out of mind.
A lot of modern cars are so low that they scrape on steep driveways. If my Fit does it and hides the damage...great, I'm happy. Because it simply is going to happen from time to time.