Ok, first of all, I know pics will help but I dont have the ability at the moment.

About a year ago, I mentioned the same thing, ripples around the body part, (shock towers?) that hold the front shocks in place... it was called a natural factory weld by many.. Lots of people have these in their civics, they showed same pics, some worse, some not so bad.

Well reciently I had to turn hard, and hit a pothole in the same day. And I am finding out that that factory weld stuff is BS... my right side way more than my left, but really both, have rippled MUCH more... I just looked tonight, and I would say the ripples on the right side went from 1/10th if that of an inch in height if you want to call it that, to maybe 1/4th inch... the left is a little less... This is a major change, and just over the last few days.. I know because ive been looking due to my recient vandelism to my car destroying my hood...

Is this dangerous now? or is it ok still... (I know better with pics, ill see what I can do thursday night) If it is ok... It obviously needs reinforced, so I was thinking the neuspeed front shock tower brace.. Do you think this will help the problem? or is perhaps something else the cause... also... how will I get it on if it's changed too much of the distance between the two points?

Thank you... any and ALL help is greatly appreciated.

 

bump 1 of max 2 for the night.

 

so they are bending inward toward the engine?? a strut brace will help it severly. i dont think you will be able to get a brace that is exact fit. probably have to get and adjustable one (cheapo from ebay) since it is no longer at stock spec

 

it looks like it might be going inward some, but the ripples are almost twisted... I read a little while ago, someone had to jack their car up to get a bar in there. maybe because of the same problem... I really dont want an adjustable one, because of reviews, and the Neuspeed one has great reviews on here.

I know I cannot do this until the car comes back from the shop being repaired, and probably not until summer after school in the warm, ... I guess ill have to drive reallllly slow in corners and such until then....

Please keep adding to the info, because of the recient change, I believe this is a serious problem.

 

adjustable ones arent that bad really. i have them and no problems either (knock on wood) they serve the same purpose but the adjustable one can fit on a not so perfect car where the neuspeed would have to be perfect really. but hey its your car your choice

 

Is your car lowered?

If so, it may be possible your upper arms are hitting the chassis. Are the bumps on the fender side of the shock tower? I have seen people with airbags that actually cut holes in this area for the upper arms to peek through. This allows the car to go rediculously low (to the ground). If your springs are too soft, or you don't have bump stops, this may be your problem...

 

no, no lowering, completely stock suspension... its on the inside in the engine bay, on the shock towers, it looks like ripples... when you see it from the top, the towers look like squares more or less right? well around the edges of that square, there are ripples, almost like the metal was bent and twisted and stretched... yes... like stretching a plastic bag or plastiwrap.. its like those ripples that occur after its released.. grr.. but like I said Ill try to get a pic thursday. After the insurance adjuster comes...

Should I make sure they check that just in case it is dangerous? I mean, its not like im racing, and I only turned hard once, to avoid a pothole and hot one fairly large pothole... So it doesnt seem like it would be my fault... I have not done anything that the car should have trouble with... otherwise, I doubt these cars would last so long with a little TLC...

 

i've heard of the frame/body ripping there before in old threads....

 

ok, as I said, here is a pic of the bend as of last night, I dont have a good pic of the before, but it is worse than before. It is not inserted because it is a large pic so you can get a good look.

http://gozips.uakron.edu/%7Eda...d.jpg

What do you think? something to worry about? or just put my Neuspeed bar on as I was going to eventually, and just let it all be.

 

Maybe it's just me, but I don't see what you're talking about. Are you talking about the crack looking things? Nothing out of the oridinary if you ask me.

 

I see exactly what you're talking about. Was the car ever in an accident that you know of?

 

They arent cracks but I guess they could look like that. It is the ripples in the metal around the outside of the tower where it mounts to the rest of the car. While it looks like others, It used to have only small ripples, that I just noticed one day, then just reciently, they became large. In carfax, the car never was in a wreck, it was a lease to a buisness, and returned around 49,990 miles with little more than a scratch were someone opened a door or two into the guard.

So the major difference between my ripples and those you see on many civics, is that mine are getting noticably worse, even to the eye, they are getting worse.

 

Dude, I know what you're talking about, and I don't think these are normal. My 97's body doesn't look anything like this, I'll take a pic if I can.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CycloneBlue_1.6EL &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Dude, I know what you're talking about, and I don't think these are normal. My 97's body doesn't look anything like this, I'll take a pic if I can.</TD></TR></TABLE>

thank you, does it have any imperfections around that area? or is it smooth and looking nice like most?

The only thing I can think of is it is bad metal.. but I can figure.. that it is neither covered by honda warranty anymore, nor insurance... they would just say I drove it hard... which is not the way it is... even if I did... its supposed to be able to swerve to avoid crashes at least once in a while...

 

Okay, I had a nice close look at mine today and saw the same thing (not as bad though) and I figured out what it is. The ripples you're seeing are actually in a thin piece of sheet metal that is pressure fitted to the shape of the shock tower mount and spot welded on top of the tower by the robots at the factory in Alliston. I remember you compared it to looking like a piece of plastic that has been stretched, well essentially, this thin sheet metal is stretched over the shape of the shock tower and tacked in place. It's only there to further reinforce the structure of this high stress area, and prevent corrosion from entering the engine compartment (to help keep it looking nice.) I would say mine is normal, but if yours is getting worse, your body might be cracked on both sides which is putting more stress on the thin sheet metal that you see in the engine compartment. I would say take the wheels off and have a very detailed look inside the top of the wheel wells with a powerful light, and something to get all the rustproofing off and clean it. Inspect for obvious damage or cracking.

 

Take off the quarter panel too.

 

thank you, Ill do that in the morning. If I cannot find anything Ill still take it to a body shop, ive already contacted a local one and they agreed to take a good look at it for free.