k-man

I just bought my 04 LX coupe about a week ago and today i noticed that looking through my front wheel wells i can see my engine bay??

since when did honda start doing this?? isnt this a bit strange? my old prelude had gaurds in the wheel wells and couldnt see into the engine bay...

Mr.Modify

iTrader: (3)

ummm there suppose to come with them.....i think you got ****ed.

abmerop18

iTrader: (26)

wtf mate? you got screwed. go back to honda ASAP before they thing you did something

Got Boost???

yea you are supposed to have em

GaryC17

K-man, that is normal if you look perpendicularly to your wheel when they point straight. That gap is to accomodate the tie rods which are located onto the shocks rather than the knuckles in the other generations of Hondas. I only encoutered a case of wheel well totally looked missing when I splashed into a huge puddle of water in a thunderstorm. The water forced the front portion of my wheel well to bend inwards. For a moment I thought they droppped, but all I had to do was pull them out with some force.

jkob2k1

i dont know thats wierd!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

k-man

interesting, well im going to the dealer on tuesday, i'll get to the bottom of this!

thanks guys!

k-man

well i went back to the dealer today, No 04+ civic's have them!!!!!!

I didnt beleive the guy and checked out a few cars on the lot! its true!

its pretty stupid, im gonna contact honda about this one, would like them to explain why!

4drcivic2k1

iTrader: (2)

There are suspension parts in the way, specifically the steering tie rods.


And whats the big deal about it? So what if it doesn't. Wash out the engine bay. Its simple. I'm not trying to rag on ya but it seems a little stupid to get worked up over something as dumb as a shield for the engine bay. What are you trying to accomplish by doing this? Honda is not going to one-off you a splash guard just so you'll be happy.

k-man

to each their own, i just wanted a proper explaination why

where exactly do you live???

i live in canada where it snows, im not sure if you've heard of that and they salt the road HEAVILY, id rather not have all that up in my engine bay

even the service manager said it was pretty stupid and a design flaw, my friend who is a mechanic was the first to notice and he was surprised by it..............good enough for you buddy?

TeLLy

iTrader: (23)

I agree k-man, it's rather silly to have done it the way they did. I first noticed it when I was washing my wheels a week after I got the car. It's no big deal really, I mean, I live near Toronto, lots of snow up here. Not as much as you but I swear they salt the roads more...look at my HOOD! Ha ha. Anyway, design flaw or not, the reason (from my sales guy AND service manager at Acura Woodbine where I got the car) is simply that in our current design the tie rods that connect to the strut assemblies go right through that area. There is a lot of clearance for the tie rod because of the amount of suspension travel, and perhaps this is the one area where Honda unconsciously provided for modifications, as when you lower, the tie rods do tend to move upwards. It's no biggy at all, I've been driving around for 2 years and all I do in tthe spring and fall is get some simple green in there and do some spraying about, then cleaning it off. If you're really worried about it, you can apply a little grease to worrisome parts. The only parts I grease are any wiring connections going into or out of the battery and ground points (to prevent corrosion). I hope this helps.

4drcivic2k1

iTrader: (2)

I live in nebraska, and it snows here ALOT. I know how to deal with the snow just as much as you in canada.

BamBam

I agree that this design has drawbacks in dusty, rainy and snowy regions. Once, I drove in particularly "slushy" near freezing point weather, and the gas pedal linkage on my 2002 Civic got frozen stiff overnight !

As I checked under the hood, I saw puddles of slush on the engine, mostly near the wheel wells area, and found an icy mass on the throttle and cruise control cables that I had to de-ice with a hair dryer before getting to start the engine !

What's more is that I live in a rainy place and often have to drive on dusty unpaved roads. After 6 months of driving, my 9000 km EX's engine compartment was as dirty as a 5 year old car. There were sand and salty deposits everywhere under the hood in a car that I nonetheless considered almost brand new.

So, when I bought my 2004 Civic Si, I ventured to do something about it. I got hold of a large piece of that thick rubber material used to make garden fish pools, and managed to cut, fit and secure a customized piece of it in the wells on each side of the engine compartment. I only had to cut a 6 inch vertical slit in both rubber protectors to accomodate the vertical movement of the tie rods, and believe you me, after 16 500 km, my engine compartment is so spotlessly clean that you'd think it just got freshly out of the factory !

And it only cost me 5 bucks (canadian!...). I wonder why Honda (especially Honda Canada) doesn't adopt such a cheap solution to what can become a problem in certain "extreme" driving conditions.

BamBam