inner belt covers

[donm]

I'm trying to decide if I should re-install those three sheet metal covers over the timing belt when I finish up the work i'm doing, but looking at the engine bay photos here, a lot of folks are leaving them off.

For safety reasons I'll be putting back the yellow plastic cover but what about the other covers? It seems to me the belt would be a lot easier to check with them off. Any specific pros and cons here?

[KevAndAndi]

I recall an amusing list of steps for removal of the inner belt covers which included the important step of running them over repeatedly with the car.

[donm]

I guess I should take that as a "no" vote.

[KevAndAndi]

More seriously: It seems the majority of folks leave them off. The inner covers were an addition to late-model cars. The only reason I can see for leaving them on is if the car is frequently driven on pebble-strewn roads. My sense is that the front timing belt cover does almost all the protecting against the risk of errant stones, while the inner covers' protection factor is negligible compared to the hassle factor.

I look forward to removing mine when I replace the timing belt. The thin sheet metal makes an annoying raspy vibrating noise at a certain RPM level.

Here's a thread that addresses the topic:

http://www.fiatspider.com/f15/viewtopic ... er#p187038

[donm]

Thanks, kevAndandi. That's good info.

[bradartigue]

From what I understand FIAT would eventually ship dealers lots of these shields as they were all destroyed in the process of removing them. Even a minor bend seems to scrape the timing wheels. With the bottom pan and front shield the likelihood of anything touching the belt is about zero. Even with no pans and no shields on some of my cars I never had an issue, on rock roads, on dirt roads, etc.