What Are These Grommets For?

[BenIS]

Hi

I could do with know what these grommets are for, they are just in front of the rear wheels . Also is it part of the chassis that they are in?

[noby76]

think its to aide under body airflow to make the car stable when crusing at high speeds if you watch its on all four ends of the car. mates BMW 3 series has them too..IS200 has a drag coefficient of 0.28 which is very good for a car designed in the late 90's. modern top ranger ISF has 0.27 drag coefficient.

[BenIS]

How do the rubber grommets aid airflow? Are you on about the same thing as me? lol

[noby76]

ignore my previous post mate was looking at something else in your pic. dont know the purpose of the rubber ones..

[sparkystav]

They're to allow water out should the areas above become flooded.

[jasons]

^{The larger oval one is used to tie the cars down during delivery- there is one on each corner.}

^{Missing ones (at the front especially) cause an annoying wind noise (especially up at the A Pillar).}

^J

[Monster-Mat]

The cars are not tied down there during delivery,

The small one is a grommet to plug the hole for what is used , or should be used when aligning chassis members, they are located all over the underneath of the car, the larger one is the "inspection/drain" for the chassis box sections, during production when the car goes through the paint process these plugs and grommets are not fitted to allow paint and rustproofing fluids to enter, and excess to run out of the box sections

[BenIS]

Many thanks for the replies everyone. Im soon to be installing puddle lights and im just trying to figure out mounting in certain places. So the general feeling is that they will not need to be used again? and that they were only used during production?. so that i can use them to help me install the puddle lights.

[Monster-Mat]

if you remove them then you are opening the box sections of the car to the elements, they are there to prevent the formation of rust, the larger grommet will give no access to anything other than inside the chassis leg at the rear....

looking at your pics though, a bit of preventative maint would go down well, a bit of new rustproofing..

[BenIS]

looking at your pics though, a bit of preventative maint would go down well, a bit of new rustproofing..

yeh I was thinking that myself, didnt realise what it was like until i saw it in the pics. I guess you kinda overlook the underside of the car. Especially as the topside is so nearly immaculate. Thanks for the advice gents

[shagpile]

I worked as a car transporter driver at Toyota in Portbury and can tell you that the oval plug holes (torque box) ARE tie down points for when the vehicle is delivered on a transporter. Lately most cars are strapped up and over the wheels rather than use the torque box.If you still have the rubbers in the holes,then its likely your car was either wheel strapped or towing eyes were used to secure it too the transporter deck....

[BenIS]

wicked thanks dave

[Monster-Mat]

Shagpile you say lately, i saw my cars on the ship at Portbury when they were imported in 1999, 2000 and 2001 all were straped using towning eyes and wheel chocks, as were the other cars on the ship, according to my body collision damage book the oval hole is called "inspection hole"

the point i was making though is that that hole is blind, it only gives access to the box section and wouldnt be good for running wires through, or wise to leave it off

as a side point there are similer holes on the bigger toyotas (landcruiser, hilux etc etc) that are used for tieing down