I recently purchased my '04' coupe and have been going through the process of fixing many of the previous owner(s) neglect. And yes, you'd be surprised how rough a 4 year old luxury car can be. Anyways, does anyone know the name of this particular part of the car?

Searching didn't yield the exact name.

 

It's called a 'tunnel stay'. Acts as a brace.

 

Thanks, is this an item that gets frequently damaged?

 

You dont really need that brace. I just got my exhaust installed and they just took it off.

 

If the car is lowed.


Also it might be "need" to drive, but I'm sure it helps stop body flex

 

mine's all rusty from scraping, and I'm only lowered on tein s-techs.

it used to scrape even on stock height.

 

My vehicle is at stock height. Eventually I plan to upgrade various underbody suspension. But is there an aftermarket replacement?

 

apply some POR 15 to it if you want to stop the rust and protect it.

 

Yes .... there are aftermkt replacements. One very good one is by GT Spec, however, it extends lower than the stock brace and will scrape even more. And yeah, you DO need it. The tunnel is a weak point in terms of body flex which is the reason the brace is there @ all. If it's just scraped then no big deal but if is 'bent' outta shape then the stock or aftermkt unit is necessary. Can you tell the diff w/o it ? YEP .... over time you will be able to feel a difference.

 

^+1
It's a structural piece, not a good idea to remove it.

 

Is this the aftermarket replacement? The positioning doesn't look quite the same.

 

Different part of car underbody. The GTSpec 4-point brace is not a replacement for that.

 

What is the replacement?

 

That is the only known aftermkt replacement for the tunnel stay. While mounting points are different, end result is the same. It's reinforcing the structure from a wider stance. If you'll notice, the widest mounting points are inline with the widest points of the stock unit but it's obviously shifted more toward the center of the tunnel (front to back), hence the name. Again .... if your's is just scraped and the mounting points are in tact, then it's doing the intended job.

 

If I get a chance to take some pictures of my undercarriage I will. My tunnel stay is crumpled, rusted and looks as though someone drove at high speeds over a consecutive series of speed **** (the more extreme speed bumps).