2016 Chevrolet Colorado Z71 Diesel Update 4: Damn Air Dam

Over the past eight months and 23,000 miles, the MT Garage 2016 Chevrolet Colorado Z71 Duramax 4×4 has seen its fair share of off-roading. Although not designed to be as capable as the coming 2017 Chevy Colorado ZR2, our Colorado Z71 is outfitted with heavy-duty off-road-oriented shocks, an automatic locking rear differential, Kevlar-reinforced off-road tires, and some underbody armor, among other things.

It’s no Jeep, but the Colorado Z71 has largely been pretty damn capable everywhere I’ve taken it. A few months back my wife and I spent a long weekend with our dogs and the truck in Death Valley National Park, and we made it a point to avoid the tourist traps by taking the Colorado down rarely traveled off-road trails. The little(ish) Chevy truck took us the back way to Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America, via a long, washed-out trail through a dried-up salt lake. The road was at times slow going due to heavy ruts and deep sand, and it was fast at others with the Colorado leaving large rooster trails in its wake. We also took the Colorado down the Titus Canyon trail to check out the Leadfield Ghost Town (population: us), which is about 30 miles of off-roading through a narrow, rocky canyon.

The Colorado took the trails like a champ—except for the front air dam, which relentlessly scraped on the rocks and moguls we were climbing over. Not long after our Death Valley trip, the air dam officially broke at the hands of one of our photographers, who was using the Colorado Z71 as an off-road support vehicle for a photo shoot. After I balked at paying $130 to replace the black piece of plastic, our local Chevy dealer was kind enough to reattach the air dam for free. But that potential $130 bill hanging over my head was all the motivation I needed to remove the air dam for good.

A few weeks later I set myself up in the MT Garage to remove the air dam once and for all. Although I have access to power tools and a lift, I instead opted to remove the air dam the old-fashioned way—hand tools and elbow grease. The tools required are simple: You need a quarter-inch ratchet wrench, a 7mm socket, and a 1-inch-long T15 Torx bit.

The reason you need such a small ratchet is because of how the Colorado’s air dam is affixed to the body; although designed to be removable for off-road use—it says so in the owner’s manual—Chevy inexplicably mounts the 12 T15 Torx screws that hold the air dam onto the bumper with the head facing down instead of up.

That means in order to remove the air dam, you first need to remove Torx screws from each wheelwell liner then remove a triangular black plastic underbody panel from the left and right side of the front bumper with a 7mm screw and about six Torx screws, and only then can you have enough room to wedge your hand between the truck’s frame, bumper, and air dam. With you hand jammed in that tight space, its slow going removing the 12 Torx screws that hold the air dam on. After that, you’ve got to put the underbody pieces back on the truck and button up the wheelwell liner. The whole process took me about two long, frustrating hours. Plus another 10 minutes to remove the “off-road” side steps while I was down there. For a tall guy like myself, the side steps got in the way more often than not, though my 5-foot-2 wife sure misses them.

I haven’t yet had a chance to test the Colorado off-road since removing the air dam, but I have certainly noticed a fuel economy difference. With the truck soon scheduled for Real MPG testing without the air dam, I’ve also scheduled a call with Anita Burke, the chief vehicle engineer for the Chevrolet Colorado to discuss the removal process, potential cooling issues with the dam removed, and its effect on fuel economy. That will all have to wait until the next update. Hang tight.

Read more on our 2016 Chevrolet Colorado Z71 Diesel:

• Arrival
• Update 1: Personality Crisis
• Update 2: Driving in the Sierras
• Update 3: Long-Distance Tow Test

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