I'm getting ready to remove the plastic underbelly pan on my 2004 disco to hunt a small oil leak and it seems I'm going need to move the drag link and the steering damper to remove the cover. Does that sound right to you guys. Thanks

 

Heck no, these are made of plastic and are therefore flexible and can easily be manipulated out of there. Unless yours is different than my 2000.

 

Yeah I have this same pan and although I dont have to remove I would like to know how for the future. My 03 has it and it seems to be made of some type of composite fiber glass material (PLEASE CORRECT ME IF IM WRONG) I can see the fibers in it and i have tried "manipulating" somewhat but I keep running it into things and if it gets manipulated a little more I feel it will snap-crackle-pop.

Maybe we can cut a straight line down the middle of the pan then use small metal bracket plates to hold the two pieces together...making it easier to remove and install...???????

 

Why not just take it off and not worry about it?
I had one on my 2001 Montero and had to take it off everytime I changed the oil, it wasnt to bad though. Remove 2 bolts and loosen two others and it just fell to the ground.
I took it off and didnt look back. I put it back on when before I lost the truck.

 

Hold on, forgot to mention that my Disco is lifted and therefore has more room and play under there. So if you jack up the truck by the frame, you should get that room and play that I'm talking about. Make sure you do it securely.

 

I was thinking that too Spike, but it does a hell of a great job keeping the front bottom of the engine clean from mud splash etc.... Our pan has a oil filter access port that makes oil changes a breeze, but like transam Steve if you want to check out anything else but the filter the pan has to be removed...

=(

 

Mine is broken in half.. I'm thinking of taking it off to allow some more cooler air to come from underneath.

 

If you jack the vehicle up to where the front wheels are at the lowest point of travel, then unbolt the pan, move it to down and toward the passenger side, then rotate down and around the diff it should come out. You might have to slightly "bend" one corner to get it past the driver's side trailing arm, but it will come out.

 

Thanks for the tips, I tried to pull it the first time up on ramps which explains part of my problem. Looks like stands under the frame may be the easy answer. I'll try this wekend,Thanks to all.