So, living up here in the snow belt, I removed the plastic undercarriage covers so that I can Fluid Film the undercarriage on my newly aquired 2013 CRV. This is usually a once a year task if you want to prevent rot. The underside was in good shape to begin with, for an eight year old car. Much better than Ford and Chevy pickups if they never got rust prevention. I know that these underpanels are installed by the designers primarily for aerodynamics for better fuel mileage but also figure that it can't hurt in keeping down the salty road splash in the winter, so maybe that's why the car"s in pretty good shape. When I went to clean these plastic panels, as they were pretty filthy from 8 years of road grime, I was surprised to find those white padded inserts that are found in other parts of the car, like part of the inside of the fuse panel lid. I'm guessing these things are for sound deadening or maybe insulation, but I can't understand why they would put them on the underside of these plastic panels, because they only act as sponges attracting water. They are taking a long time to dry out before I install them back on the car and I'm just wondering if I should just remove them from the panels or coat them with something like FlexSeal after they dry? I always hate to deviate from what the manufacturer intended and they haven't seemed to do damage to the underside before, except for some surface rust, so what's anyone's opinion?
Stephen
Stephen
