Skid Plate and Heavy Rain

We had some major rain this last weekend and while driving down the freeway, there was some really loud noises coming from the front underside. It sounded like water was splashing against the skidplate or some other metal piece. Anyone have/had this issue?

 

don't think so - and I'm super OCD about every sound, vibration, etc. I would check to see if everything's bolted down tight and there's nothing where it shouldn't be or something stuck up in there.

 

I wouldn’t call it an issue, but yes, when you drive through water at speed it splashes.

 

For sure I would expect to have water splashing up against the underbody of the car, but it's really loud. To a point where it drowns out the radio

 

Do you have side steps, the tube style? Water is really loud splashing on tube steps on my other truck.

 

Yup, I do have the tube style side steps. Thanks, I'll see if I can narrow it down to this.

 

If you only hear it in rain, I wouldn't worry about it.

 

I haven't experienced what you describe myself, but the skid plate forms a resonant cavity. Therefore, it's conceivable that getting it splashed may be audible under some circumstances.

 

What skid plate(s) do you have?

 

I only hear the water hitting the plastic wheel well. I don't think I've noticed any concerning metal sound from skids. Only hear plastic sounds.

 

Is this happening when you splash through a deep puddle and water ends up spraying out forcefully? If that’s what you mean, that’s always loud event on any car I’ve driven. Water is pretty “hard”when it’s moving fast.

If you mean it’s just generally loud on wet roads, the theory about tube steps is a good one. I have sliders that tend to catch gravel, so I imagine they are going to get hit with water and make some noise. If you have tube steps that are not thick steel sliders, it might make more noise, since they are often bigger-round, and thinner steel.

If you have tires that extend wider than the wheel well, that could also cause noises just from water hitting body panels.

On wet roads, I don’t have any odd noises other than the sound of the tires themselves as they clear water.

 

Rival skid plate

 

It definitely sounds like its hitting metal as the sound is higher pitched then if hitting a plastic wheel well.

 

Any other changes from stock? Do you have mudflaps?

 

Everything else stock. Including mudflaps