First issue with me 3200GT

skyestuart

Member
Messages
181
Went out for a run today.... horrible noise coming from the front of the car after about 10 minutes of driving. Pulled over to find the plastic undertray scraping on the ground and that either the oil cooling radiator or maybe aircon radiator not attached on one side. (immediately underneath the radiator) So the plastic tray is ruined and I guess I need to find why the radiator has come loose... No time to look today. But any tips appreciated. Anyone got a spare plastic undertray for sale?
 

allandwf

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10,958
There was a recent thread on the undertray. Soprano Stu, on ebay, had one as I asked for the op.
 
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jluis

Member
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1,703
Between the plastic under tray and the radiator you have a metal cross member with 2 holes where the radiator sits.
This crossbar then bolts to the chassis.
Have a look there as they are known to bend/break when scraping the floor.
Mine was bent and I had to replace the crossbar
 

skyestuart

Member
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181
Ah I suspect thats the issue then, the cross member thanks for the info, hopefully not a big issue to solve. I'll have a look on Thursday I'll need a couple of axle stands anyway so will pick up a couple.
 

Oneball

Member
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11,069
The locating lugs that fit into the crossmember are quite fragile and the whole thing is just held in place at the top and bottom, no bolts, so it’s possible it could have come out at the top and dropped down too.

I recently had to replace the undertray and no one had a second hand one so had to buy new. They are available from Maserati or Eurospares.
 

davy83

Member
Messages
2,809
It will be the metal crossmember. its held on with 4 bolts, and they get broken. I had to weld some new mounting lugs for my one as it had ben pretty badly abused. It gets clipped when you are parking since you cant really see the front of the car. I also got fed up with repairing the undertray and this cross member and I fitted parking sensors to the front diffuser and not hitting kerbs while parking helped a lot!!!
 

skyestuart

Member
Messages
181
The locating lugs that fit into the crossmember are quite fragile and the whole thing is just held in place at the top and bottom, no bolts, so it’s possible it could have come out at the top and dropped down too.

I recently had to replace the undertray and no one had a second hand one so had to buy new. They are available from Maserati or Eurospares.

Thanks for that ... ive had a look and it looks like the crossmember has hit something and bent it back. I'll try Eurospares for the undertray. I expect they will be cheaper than Maserati?
 

skyestuart

Member
Messages
181
It will be the metal crossmember. its held on with 4 bolts, and they get broken. I had to weld some new mounting lugs for my one as it had ben pretty badly abused. It gets clipped when you are parking since you cant really see the front of the car. I also got fed up with repairing the undertray and this cross member and I fitted parking sensors to the front diffuser and not hitting kerbs while parking helped a lot!!!
It
It will be the metal crossmember. its held on with 4 bolts, and they get broken. I had to weld some new mounting lugs for my one as it had ben pretty badly abused. It gets clipped when you are parking since you cant really see the front of the car. I also got fed up with repairing the undertray and this cross member and I fitted parking sensors to the front diffuser and not hitting kerbs while parking helped a lot!!!
It is exactly whats happened... I think this must have happened before I bought it and the bad roads of Skye of dislodged the radiator at the bottom. What sensors did you fit? I think it would be good to have them front and rear as its a lot longer car than you first think.

Thanks for all the info everyone :)
 

Oneball

Member
Messages
11,069
Thanks for that ... ive had a look and it looks like the crossmember has hit something and bent it back. I'll try Eurospares for the undertray. I expect they will be cheaper than Maserati?

Eurospares were a little cheaper than Merdian but I went with Meridien as they’re usually quicker.

It’s a little tricky to get the integral brake duct horns located but it does go in without removing anything.
 

davy83

Member
Messages
2,809
it was an electromagnetic parking system which uses a strip of foil to be stuck inside the plastic bumper. I had both my bumpers off at one point and it was easy to fit, I put the front one inside the diffuser section and the rear just across the middle of the bumper. There is no external evidence of them being fitted. They are sensitive to salt water getting at the foil in the strip and I have had to paint over the foils a couple of times in the last 5 years to stop them going crazy in the wet, but generally they work. I put a distance display thing on my rear view mirror which i hated at first and now dont even notice, and its good for reversing. I will drag out the exact make when i get home but it was not expensive to buy (£50 i think) but required a bit of work to get all the wires in place. I fitted an additional button on the dash to power up the front sensors, you have to switch them on before you front park, reverse just uses the power from the reversing light to enable them. Drilling a small hole in the leather for the button really freaked me out, but it was small and I got over it!!
 

skyestuart

Member
Messages
181
Thanks to all who gave good advice on this. My car is back on the road, I got a local marine engineer to fix my bent cross member, and I;ve got a used undertray being delivered on Monday. Now I need to fix my next issue brake judder.