I just got a 2001 limited with 87k miles. When doing some maintenance I saw a thing laying on my front suspension. It's like a thick felt fabric under the motor it was held up with plastic push buttons things but the felt ripped where the buttons are and its now laying on front axle and suspension. What is this felt thing for? Is it a air dam? Would removing it affect cooling, mpg, or water and stuff kicking up into engine bay? Should I try to put it back up or rip it out?

 

rip it out

 

It's like a splash guard for the engine bay. It's almost useless, just rip it out, it won't affect cooling or Mpgs.

 

Only rip it out if you never go off in some mud or water. Otherwise, enjoy replacing your alternator every other weekend. I made one out of a semi truck mud flap. Works pretty good

 

keep it if you can i dont have one and when i hit deep water on the roads my alt stops working for a few min.

 

Rip it out. It's already torn. It supposed to help protect the alternator and lower engine but it really does crap. If you're offriading in mud/water, one little piece of felt isn't gonna save your rig. If you really want to protect the alternator, get some duelextruc grease in a spray can.

 

hey man, won't that turn your alt into a dust/dirt magnet?

 

Nope. Pull the alt and remove the back cover. Spray the inner coils and ypu'll be good to go. Crossed rivers, drove through mud, ran it through dirt, sprayed it down with a powrr washer - did this after getting it rebuilt 3 years ago and I haven't had a single issue.

 

Do u have any pics of that

 

I've ran thru rivers, creeks, ponds and another body of water and mud. I have never had a problem with dead altiernaters.

 

Pics of driving through everything or the alternator? The alternator, no. Like I said, just pull the back cover off (like you're gonna rebuild it), spray some dielectric grease in the inner coils, then put the cover back on. You don't want to coat it real heavily, just a quick spray.

 

Good to know, mine is torn and sagging all over too. Time to rip it out when I install my lift this weekend!