DIY/Review: FD Civic Hood/Bonnet Damper

Disclaimer: The following is provided as a GUIDE ONLY, and neither myself nor Ozhonda take any responsibility for the outcomes of someone else doing the following. You follow these steps at your own risk!

Aim: To install an Ixiz Concept hood damper set on a FD Civic.

Required:

(1) 1 set - Ixiz Concept hood damper (the set comes with the damper and 2 mounting brackets)
(2) 2 x 10mm open wrenches
(3) Flat head screw driver

Steps:

I saw this product from the 8th Civic forums. As teh product is direct bolt on / no drilling required as against other products that was installed by other 8th civic forumers, I thought I might give it a go.

I followed the installation instructions of the hood damper set that can be downloaded from the website of the seller. There are photos in the installation instructions so it was very easy to follow. I did this DIY to show that the hood damper set meant for the USDM (FA) Civic can be fitted on to our AuDM FD Civics. And to add some photos as well.

(1) Open the bonnet. You may need the help of a mate to hold the bonnet for you while undoing the hinge bolts and installing the upper bracket. Remove the lower bolt on the left hand bonnet hinge (would be the right hinge when facing the engine compartment; side where the battery is). Bolt in one hole of the bracket but don't tighten fully, i.e., bracket still free to rotate. Undo the upper bolt then bolt-in through the upper hole of the bracket. Here's a pic of the installed upper bracket.

http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...5/IMG_3102.jpg

(2) Assemble the lower bracket and the damper. You will need 2 x 10mm wrenches to tighten the nut on the lower end of the damper / fix the lower pivot onto the lower bracket. Here's a pic of the assembled damper & lower bracket. I deviated from the installation instructions on this step by compressing the damper a couple of times so that it's internals can get lubricated before installing in the car. The installation instructions didn't do this - it showed the damper installed to the car straight away then did the first compression of the damper by closing and opening the bonnet slowly the first time after installing it.

http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...5/IMG_3105.jpg

(3) Loosen the bolt shown on the pic (existing bolt in the car). Loosen it enough so that you can slide in the lower bracket, no need to remove the bolt. The end of the lower bracket has a slotted, open-end hole so you can easily slide it into the loosened bolt.

http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...5/IMG_3107.jpg

(4) Slide the lower bracket into the bolt. Tighten the bolt. Here's a couple of pics of the lower bracket fixed into place.

http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...5/IMG_3108.jpg

http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...5/IMG_3111.jpg

(5) Bolt in the upper pivot of the damper to the bracket that was fixed to the bonnet hinge. Again, you will need 2 x 10mm wrenches to do so. The help of a mate to hold the bonnet while you bolt-in the pivot onto the bracket would be needed. Sorry I missed to take a pic of this.

(6) Here's a couple of pics of the installed hood/boonet damper. I raised the bonnet stand on the 2nd pic to show that the damper actually opens the bonnet more (check out that gap between the bonnet and the bonnet stand). Don't forget to remove all tools and materials in the engine compartment before closing bonnet.

http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...5/IMG_3113.jpg

http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...5/IMG_3115.jpg

Comments:

The damper is actually cool - when you pop the bonnet and lift it slightly, the bonnet will actually raise by itself slowly with a nice "pisssshhhh" sound" from the damper. :D The bonnet is held securely by the damper while it's fully open. Also, as I mentioned above, the bonnet is opened by a further 10-15 degrees compared to the open position when held by the original bonnet stand so it will give you more space to work on the engeine compartment.

Good product. All hardware for installation is provided in the set. Very good installation instructions with pics as well.

good write-up! can i ask a few questions? (assuming yes =P)

Where abouts did you get your damper from and how much? And how long roughly did the whole install take? seems pretty easy and with your write-up should be a breeze

just a question - how do u close the bonnet lol. do u just push on it a bit and it'll slide in automatically? =/

sorry for the late reply guys.

@ .k.: this is the website of the seller whom i got it from: http://www.ixizconcept.com/Honda/ixi...d-civic_pd.htm you'll see the price there. the installation took aroung 10-15 minutes so yeah, easy. :D

@ claymore: i actually did that (masking tape mark on the bonnet around the hinge) before undoing the hinge bolts but forgot to put it in my write-up. will edit my post. thanks. :)

@ black8thgen: sice it's now supported by the damper, you would need to pull it down to around 200mm above closed position then drop it to close just like you would normally do to close it.