huge230

I would like to take my bumper support out to make fitting my IC easier but from all my searchign there does not seam to be a consensus. IS it really only for crashes 5-10mph or is it important in a major crash? I dont want to jeopardize safety but dont care much about what damage would happen from 10mph

Phillyhatch

If your talking about the styrofoam I wouldn't worry about it. If your talking about the steel reinforcment bar I wouldn't do it. There would be nothing there to protect from impact, even at 10-20 mph a front end crash with no reinforcement bar would probably ruin your whole front end, intercooler, turbo, manifold, radiator, motor mounts and possibly crack your block or head, if the engine gets shoved into the firewall kiss your intake mani good bye and it would rip your axles apart. If your lucky you won't be injured. Just something to think about if you were thinking of removing the steel bar, but like I said if your talking about the styrofoam go for it!

huge230

Thanks, I was talking about the steel bar as I see many people do it. I relieze the damage that could accur from a small crash but am still more worried about a more serious accident.

Phillyhatch

yeah, nobody plans on an accident but they happen. Just saw an EG hatch all smashed up in the front on my way home the other night. someone pulled right out in front of them and wham. Not worth the risk. good luck with the IC though

huge230

thanks, ya i had a 3rd gen integra and a woman pulled out in front of me and hit her at maybe 15mph and it f'ed up my front end pretty bad

hondapwr

I'm leaning towards removing it.

For an older car, they're probably going to declare it totaled for most crashes anyway. So it doesn't help there.

Also, most of the other vehicles on the road sit much higher than our Hondas so the point of impact is really the hood and headlights. I know from experience :-(

It would be nice if we could talk to a Honda engineer to explain why it's there and what it's function was supposed to be.

huge230

point of impact is a good point I guess

hondapwr

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by huge230 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">point of impact is a good point I guess</TD></TR></TABLE>

The support may still add to structural rigidity, so removing it may make the front end feel a bit looser when removed. Also, the extra rigidity may help keep the car together in a crash even if it's not the point of impact.

I'm just throwing some ideas out there.

Can you mount the IC at an angle so it's not so tall?

Syndacate

if the steel bar is what you're talking about (usually there's 2 of them from what I recall) you should really only take them out for drag racing purposes, those are the type of things that made 10 mph crashes total outs...

Rembember a friend of mine had an Lexus IS300, didn't have cross bar support in the front, some truck was leaking oil, 'caused his back end to come out when he slid on it, 15mph, utility pole got burried into the engine ~ totalled