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My daughter drives a Mazda Demio mainly around town. Underneath the engine bay was a plastic stone/dust guard (say 1.5m x 2.0m). This fell off and is lost. Is there any real harm with just carrying on without one ? I'd guess there is little risk of a stone damaging anything and the engine will get a bit dustier but it may not be worth the cost of finding/fitting a replacement.

Thanks

Are you sure about the dimensions of this cover, as that sounds enormous?
Obviously, the correct advice is that if the manufacturer put it there, it was for a reason. As you say, with it missing, there is an increased risk of damage, but as cars get older it's not uncommon for these things to be lost or damaged, and there would be a lot of cars running around with them missing.
If you can find a replacement at reasonable cost, it wouldn't be a bad idea to replace it, however, it should be OK in the mean time.

Thanks
You're probably right about the size - it was just a guess. Its lost on the road somewhere.