Back on Track

[optronix]

Oh I know, but having random and unexplainable dents on both sides of my car, I googled for how a dent like this could happen. The second thing that popped up was that thread. I didn’t use a brand preferenced search term, so the Honda part caught my attention.

On mine, there was no impact marking. Same size dents, and all relatively longitudinal. Hard to see in photos, but it looks like someone just took a minibat to the car.

I just can't explain how you dent that area without damaging the creased area or the roof, with such a weird dent pattern.

This forum's notifications are weird, I actually didn't see your post where you showed the dents... I thought you were just aimlessly wandering accord forums and stumbled across a dent thread lol.

That is crazy! But... there HAS to be some sort of explanation, right?

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[Victorofhavoc]

This forum's notifications are weird, I actually didn't see your post where you showed the dents... I thought you were just aimlessly wandering accord forums and stumbled across a dent thread lol.

That is crazy! But... there HAS to be some sort of explanation, right?

I'm all for finding an explanation. The last thing I want is to be spending $1k on dent popping any time the weather changes.

I just can't imagine how the dents got there. Either someone carefully hammered on my car with a nice rubber mallet and then carefully put a thin layer of dust evenly back onto the car so I wouldn't spot it or these dents resulted from the rapid temp change overnight and the sheet metal creasing in poorly reinforced areas. The temp did swing from high 80s the day before to mid 40s the morning of. The car was in an insulated garage, so it saw a fairly large temp swing instantly.

But yeah, I just can't explain it.

I wish it was just one random forum post, but I've found a few when searching "c pillar crease" or "c pillar dent". It was apparently "common" on civics from '16-'17 from what someone mentioned, but I haven't heard about it otherwise... For some it happened magically like mine and they sure do look awful similar and similarly located to mine...
https://www.civicx.com/forum/thread...illar-crease-dimple-dark-colored-civics.1756/

Mine looks like a much more extreme version of post 4 here...
https://www.CivicX.com/threads/mysterious-dents-rear-pillar.18497/

 

[IntegraKat]

It sounds like the sudden temperature swing caused the thin external sheet metal to contract faster (or too fast) compared to the internal frame metal, possibly exacerbated by the stress of forces acting on the area from movement/driving during the sudden shrinkage.

Hope you can get that fixed under warranty!

 

[Victorofhavoc]

Oil analysis came back. The virgin oil they deemed looks okay. It's interesting how much my oil degraded in weight in under 1800mi, but hey it's breaking in.

 

[Victorofhavoc]

I added the oem mudguard today. I lost my bottle of expensive ceramic somewhere so instead I did several layers of opticoat on them. This is my last bottle of OG formula opticoat from 12 years ago. I have 1oz of the stuff left, which is quite a bit, but every time I use it I get a little sad the supply is dwindling.

Also, dealership still hasn't followed up with me and it's been a week.

 

[Victorofhavoc]

My car might just be cursed...

Dropped it off at my ppf place this morning to fix a few issues and redo some areas, and when they did their walk around, they found a bunch of dents on both sides of the car on the structural roof pillar.

It wasn't there on the 24th when I washed the car after the day at i29 raceway, the dealer had it on the 26th, and other than sitting 5ft from other cars in a grass lot at a concert venue (next to a model y) on the 27th, it's been in my garage. I have no idea how so many dents got there and only affected the pillar. Their all pretty much longitudinal, and slightly angular. ‍

What has been seen cannot be unseen...

Now that I have been on the lookout for it, I have seen a large number of civics and accords with identical dents. Not really that many Integra that I spot around compared to Honda so the view is a bit narrow, but at this point I would anecdotally gauge 1 out of every 4 that I see as having the dents (to some degree), and primarily in the c pillar area. It's most evident on a clean car where you can see the reflections in the sun. No other car has been nearly as bad as mine has been, but none of them also looked like they had ppf where someone would have beared a bit of weight in that area when pulling film.

In fact, I saw one driver getting out of his car and asked if I may point something out (explaining I had issues and wondering if he'd noticed them on his accord). Poor guy's face sunk when I stepped him back and showed him the reflections in the sun. He immediately wanted to blame anyone or anything as the cause, but I pointed out the spontaneity of mine. Obviously he was livid, especially after I disclosed the cost to repair on my its. His words, "I'm not taking it to the dealer because they'll blame me and reduce my trade in value since then they'll know... I guess I'll just wait until the 3yr mark and trade it in for a Tacoma..."

I didn't have the heart to tell him how many paint issues and blown trans I've seen on Tacomas in recent years.

 

[Underdog]

What has been seen cannot be unseen...

Now that I have been on the lookout for it, I have seen a large number of civics and accords with identical dents. Not really that many Integra that I spot around compared to Honda so the view is a bit narrow, but at this point I would anecdotally gauge 1 out of every 4 that I see as having the dents (to some degree), and primarily in the c pillar area. It's most evident on a clean car where you can see the reflections in the sun. No other car has been nearly as bad as mine has been, but none of them also looked like they had ppf where someone would have beared a bit of weight in that area when pulling film.

In fact, I saw one driver getting out of his car and asked if I may point something out (explaining I had issues and wondering if he'd noticed them on his accord). Poor guy's face sunk when I stepped him back and showed him the reflections in the sun. He immediately wanted to blame anyone or anything as the cause, but I pointed out the spontaneity of mine. Obviously he was livid, especially after I disclosed the cost to repair on my its. His words, "I'm not taking it to the dealer because they'll blame me and reduce my trade in value since then they'll know... I guess I'll just wait until the 3yr mark and trade it in for a Tacoma..."

I didn't have the heart to tell him how many paint issues and blown trans I've seen on Tacomas in recent years.

If it makes you feel any better I discovered this dent… after a large branch fell across my roof in my driveway. 400 miles on the car and hadn’t made a payment yet. It’s going in to get PDR’d next week.

I hadn’t heard of it happening spontaneously - that’s concerning! What do you suppose the cause would be? Stresses in the metal?

 

[Victorofhavoc]

If it makes you feel any better I discovered this dent… after a large branch fell across my roof in my driveway. 400 miles on the car and hadn’t made a payment yet. It’s going in to get PDR’d next week.

I hadn’t heard of it happening spontaneously - that’s concerning! What do you suppose the cause would be? Stresses in the metal?

See your dent definitely looks impact related! The telltale sign is the edge of the dent near the crease. That takes a good amount of force to dent like that.

Mine are in areas and with shapes that you'd expect out of light force like hail, but strangely all directional and zero sign of impact.

My suspicion is that the hollow ladder bracing underneath that supports the structure as a rigid piece in the unibody has relief holes for strength and weight. Then the sheet metal on top is creased and pressed into shape to attach to the bracing structure. I believe the panel forming process was likely done at too low a temperature so it "wants" to return to its original shape, similar to how the little kid popper toys behave when you flip them and then they pop back into shape. I think with temp changes and some light pressure in that area provides the opportunity for the metal to pop back into its former flatter shape, but only in the sections where the ladder bracing has relief areas. With torsional stress, I bet it becomes more prominent. We'll see how the car does over winter in the Midwest...

 

[optronix]

I think you may be on to something... I remember seeing I think in the Savagegeese video in the factory, there's something going on with the way this car's roof is designed.

I'll check my car very closely when I get it back from the dealer tomorrow. It's currently there trying to get my mystery "wastegate" noise diagnosed.

My only context so far is the tech that rode with me agreed he didn't think it was related to the wastegate. But otherwise they've had it all day and the service advisor told me they'd get an update to me today- and I didn't get one. Ominous.

 

[Victorofhavoc]

So I somehow pulled off my lower air dam/splitter. Not sure how exactly. I only reversed over some leaves and my driveway curb. Oh well, it popped back in easily, but I also didn't have a clip at the edge. Maybe it broke off?

In any case, this looks like a fairly important aero piece that would reduce drag and improve front end down force. It also looks like it would easily get torn apart on track, especially if you're lowered! Good thing it's really cheap and easy to replace!! https://dreamshop.honda.com/s/product/spoiler-fr-lower/01t6g000005kkqPAAQ


Also, I finally settled on a shifter change and talked to Chris at lathewerks about a custom piece. He's booked out pretty far, so it'll be several weeks, but I'm excited for a little more heft!!

 

[ABPDE5]

So I somehow pulled off my lower air dam/splitter. Not sure how exactly. I only reversed over some leaves and my driveway curb. Oh well, it popped back in easily, but I also didn't have a clip at the edge. Maybe it broke off?

In any case, this looks like a fairly important aero piece that would reduce drag and improve front end down force. It also looks like it would easily get torn apart on track, especially if you're lowered! Good thing it's really cheap and easy to replace!! https://dreamshop.honda.com/s/product/spoiler-fr-lower/01t6g000005kkqPAAQ


Also, I finally settled on a shifter change and talked to Chris at lathewerks about a custom piece. He's booked out pretty far, so it'll be several weeks, but I'm excited for a little more heft!!

Chris did a custom piece for me, including a couple revisions re: fitment.
The quality of the finished piece (fit / finish, etc.) and customer service were second to none.

 

[StingertimeNC]

speaking of knobs, I actually just installed the skunk 2 and it's perfect in my opinion. Good size, good color, and heavier. Cheap too at $60 or so.

 

[Brittania]

So I somehow pulled off my lower air dam/splitter. Not sure how exactly. I only reversed over some leaves and my driveway curb. Oh well, it popped back in easily, but I also didn't have a clip at the edge. Maybe it broke off?

In any case, this looks like a fairly important aero piece that would reduce drag and improve front end down force. It also looks like it would easily get torn apart on track, especially if you're lowered! Good thing it's really cheap and easy to replace!! https://dreamshop.honda.com/s/product/spoiler-fr-lower/01t6g000005kkqPAAQ


Also, I finally settled on a shifter change and talked to Chris at lathewerks about a custom piece. He's booked out pretty far, so it'll be several weeks, but I'm excited for a little more heft!!

Can you post the part number for the lower air dam/splitter? The link just takes me to the main dreamshop search page.

 

[Victorofhavoc]

Chris did a custom piece for me, including a couple revisions re: fitment.
The quality of the finished piece (fit / finish, etc.) and customer service were second to none.

Yes, I've had a lathewerks knob in almost every car I've owned in the last 12 years. His work is definitely superb, I agree.

I won't give away too many details yet; I found the oem knob options too small but the ti one did feel nice. My target is roughly 350g in weight.

 

[Victorofhavoc]

Can you post the part number for the lower air dam/splitter? The link just takes me to the main dreamshop search page.

Sure thing!

71341-31M-A00

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