It took an hour to put a guard on the fuel tank_vehicles, vehicles

It took an hour to put a guard on the fuel tank

September 4, 2024

Because our Sharan wants to ensure that the second and third rows of seats are flat after being laid down, we sacrifice the regular fuel tank installation position to expose the large fuel tank under the car. At the same time, in order to ensure the capacity of the fuel tank, we still use a 74L large-capacity fuel tank. There is no such low-floor models as the Odyssey that use small-capacity fuel tanks.
But Sharan’s big fuel tank exposed under the car has always been a worry to me. It is the lowest point of the chassis. If there is a foreign matter on the road scratching the chassis, the fuel tank will not escape.
In fact, I have long noticed that the Sharan fuel tank guard I bought online is made of aluminum. It is more than 400 yuan. The reason why I haven’t sold it is because I am afraid that if I install this thing, the chassis height will be lower and the image will be passable. Second, Volkswagen’s fuel tanks are not so bad and should not be so easily scratched.
Then why buy it now? The main reason is that I am worried that a model like Sharan will be discontinued. In the future, fewer and fewer parts will be made for it. It seems that only Gangcheng Automobile Products sells this fuel tank guard. If people stop making it, they won’t be able to buy it. Oh! So I bought it.
The fuel tank guard I received is a big thing. Although it is made of aluminum, it still has a bit of weight.

The workmanship is still okay, and it can really protect the fuel tank.
Although the surface of the guard plate was already covered with protective paint, I still sprayed it with chassis armor to prevent scratching. The black color looked better than the original yellow one

Drive the car into the gutter in the unit garage and install it yourself.

Pre-prepared original Volkswagen bolts and washers
The guard comes with stainless steel bolts, which should not rust. I am mainly worried about its strength. The original bolts are more at ease.

Apply relaxing agent to all the bolts

Install several brackets first. These brackets are also made of aluminum. I don’t think aluminum brackets are suitable and their strength is not as good as iron ones.

After the bracket is installed, the guard plate will be installed
The installation was not too troublesome. It may be due to transportation and the guard plate was a little deformed, so the installation took some time and effort. It took an hour to complete the installation.

I still feel relieved after installing the guard plate. Ordinary scratches with this thing really won’t hurt the fuel tank.

Neither the bolts nor the guard plate will rust, but the rivet nuts should rust, so I applied some butter on the bolts after tightening them

The steam filter is blocked by one-third of the guard plate. When replacing the steam filter, one side of the guard plate must be removed before replacing it. Fortunately, this thing is good and only needs to be replaced this year.

Although the original fuel tank fixing screws are used to fix the guard plate, they do not reflect the fixation of the fuel tank at all. Instead, the fuel tank is covered with such a large shell, making the fuel tank more stable.

The thickness of this thing is not much, no more than 10 mm, and it does not have much image of the chassis height. In the future, if there is a chance to replace the rear shock absorber spring with a 10 mm GTS booster pad to increase the height by 5 mm, this height will be compensated for.

Looking at the side, Sharan’s height from the ground is still not low, higher than many SUVs, but when you squat down and look, you can see that the bulging fuel tank underneath lowers the ground clearance a lot. I measured it to be about 150 mm, which is also higher than most cars.