How To - Fix The Windscreen Cowl creaks.

[J. Derek Riddell]

Originally Posted by FWH

My car has developed a metallic type rattle when the windscreen wipers are on, just when the blades are in the up position and change direction. Does that sound like the problem fixed by the windscreen cowl fix described here, or is it something different, like this?

Sounds like a windscreen wiper linkage issue - maybe just a loose bolt ...

[vtecspec]

Hi people, i'm new to this forum and also new to a owning a Civic Type R FN2. I''ve only had the car for about 3 weeks and absolutely love it. The only thing about the car that i'm trying to get use to is the hard ride lol. Anyway, just to let you peeps know i to had the windscreen cowl creak, so i decided after having a search through the net to see if i could find help about it i would have a go myself. Thanks to Munro's fix i sorted the problem. I placed some pieces of flat rubber about 100mm apart across the cowl, then took the car for a spin and hey presto the noise has vanished. Its amazing how quiet the car is now.

[Raw]

Hey all, just did the fix with tape from Halfords. Did the whole of the middle piece after removing the cowl. Did not do the two ends as could not see how to remove them and did not want to force them up and damage them. Now silence has broken out in the cabin ! Lovely fix and took about 20 mins maximum. Strongly recommend it if you have the problem. Ŷ

[paulgspence]

Originally Posted by elias

Thank God I found this page! I'm going to try what you guys have suggested as soon as I get back to the UK from my holiday. I thought I was going to need medication to prevent a nervous breakdown when I'm driving the car lol!

+1

The dreaded creak started a week ago for me. This page has saved me lots of heartache. I used a plastic scraper wrapped in cloth and some WD40 afterwards as a temporary fix until I have time to do it properly.

[Windlepoons]

bah, I tried putting little bits of felt between the cowl and the windscreen as I didnt want to take it off, and my local halfords doesnt sell the number plate tape.

Ended up pusing them in too far and they fell into the tray underneath lol.

[CCC]

I had a real bad windscreen creaking sound, it was so annoying and driving me mad. I read this thread and took a look, and resolve the problem. I placed a screw driver with a wet cloth around it and slid it along all the cowls and vertical rubber strips and cleaned all the grit out. I also place two plastic strips of foam (used for packing, but looks like laminate flooring underlay) behind the plastic near the wipers, this section does come away and are just clip down. Problem fixed! I found lots of grit long the front central cowl, this was rubbing against the glass. It may be an idea to make sure that you wash this section really well while washing the car.

[Seiphr]

I know this is an old thread. I just got round to sorting out some of my buzzes and creaks. I took some photos just in case it helped anyone else out.

I removed them centre cowl, but just lifted up the two side ones with a few screwdrivers. All went back together no problem, took me perhaps 30 minutes.

For the side cowls, I used a flat tipped screwdriver with some kitchen towel (to stop it scratching). There are three pop clips under the cowl, they popped out when I put the screwdriver in, which made it easy to get the tape underneath. Start at the edges (furthest from the centre) with two screwdrivers and work your way across at 2 inch intervals. That should get all three clips to pop out.

When taking off the centre cowl, the clips mentioned in the first post just pop out when you squeeze the bottom of the clip with a pair of pliers. For the other clips, there are two underneath the cowl that you have to pull forward and then lift up - they are attached to the metal tray.

There are also 3 more clips that are hidden inside the cowl (although you can see them if you remove the little cover on the left behind the washer jet) - these are pretty tight to get out, but a good tug perpendicular to the windscreen will get them out. If you look at the pictures, you can see the holes that they slotted into.

Then just do the reverse to get it all back on. Mine looks really neat, you wouldn't even know it was there (although the finished picture is rubbish...sorry )

I'll keep the radio off on the way to work tomorrow and see if the creaks are gone...

[ash_rage]

AHHHHH, could this be the other creak I have? Ill have a go tomorrow or tonight

[Typhoon Thompson]

My 2009 1.8 is having this problem.

I just contacted Honda and they are happy to look after it under warranty, but are 'not aware' of this fault. I tried to tell them about this thread and give them some suggestions as to what the fault was and they seemed less than interested.

Well its going into Cambridge Honda next Thursday hopefully (its only 5 minutes from home).

[SMRocket]

Hello everybody,

By placing tape or foam or whatever between the windscreen and the claw aren't we rising the claw so much that will cause a water leak under the bonet?

I've removed my central claw and it has some foam arround it but its very demaged. I can even see traces of a bad setup on the factory! What type of foam should i use to replace the original one?

Thanks....

[Munro]

Originally Posted by Munro

I have now used the 1mm rubber tape the full width of the windscreen cowl. The PVC tape was starting to come off so I needed something better. This time I took the whole cowl off to do a better job.

The cowl actually does have some felt on it as standard, but it is recessed so that it doesnt do a lot of good. The plastic still scrapes on the windscreen. The new 1mm rubber tape completely separates the cowl from the glass.

I have yet to drive the car to see if it is an improvement.

This is the tape I have used (cost @ £5 from halfords for 4m - ie plenty spare):
Attached Images

Originally Posted by SMRocket

Hello everybody,

By placing tape or foam or whatever between the windscreen and the claw aren't we rising the claw so much that will cause a water leak under the bonet?

I've removed my central claw and it has some foam arround it but its very demaged. I can even see traces of a bad setup on the factory! What type of foam should i use to replace the original one?

Thanks....

This is the tape I used. See posts 1 to 9 on this thread for the How To.

It has been on the car for 4 years now, with no problems.


.

[SMRocket]

Originally Posted by Munro

This is the tape I used. See posts 1 to 9 on this thread for the How To.

It has been on the car for 4 years now, with no problems.


.

Hello, yes i've read those posts carefully, i went a bit further and removed the wiper arms and the two lateral plastics that surround the central claw. The central claw and those two lateral plastics contains some foam that seems to be in bad shape. Look at this close pic - this is the foam from the central claw.


ImageUploadedByTapatalk1340611797.758066.jpg

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1340611822.358025.jpg

So i will apply the the tap fix to avoid the claw to touch directly on the windscreen, but first i woukd like to repair this foam. I just dont know what type of foam is this, does anyone know if she is a water insolation foam, or what foam can i use in this place?

Thanks.

[Munro]

Originally Posted by SMRocket

Hello, yes i've read those posts carefully, i went a bit further and removed the wiper arms and the two lateral plastics that surround the central claw. The central claw and those two lateral plastics contains some foam that seems to be in bad shape. Look at this close pic - this is the foam from the central claw.


Attachment 74236

Attachment 74237

So i will apply the the tap fix to avoid the claw to touch directly on the windscreen, but first i woukd like to repair this foam. I just dont know what type of foam is this, does anyone know if she is a water insolation foam, or what foam can i use in this place?

Thanks.

I just applied the double sided tape in the areas marked in red in post 7 of this thread. All the existing foam tape was left alone.

The foam tape in your pictures looks similar to draft excluder tape used on house doors. You can get that in DIY shops in the Uk and it might be ok if you have to replace it.
.

[SMRocket]

Hello,
I give it a go and i decide to go through with the replacement, as i told before the central claw foam was miss placed from the beginning.
I decided to buy tesa P format tape, is rubber based and they claim that it can handle direct sun, heat, direct rain. It's also very easy to get it feet over the corners. The result was very impressive, everything looked very tight.
When I was mounting my wiper arms I saw that the claw plastics where a bit more raised then in its normal position and because of that there is a gap between the three claw plastics. Since i’m not sure if this gap was there in the original foam version, so can someone please tell me if this gap normal (see my attached images please)?

Thanks…

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1340665195.666306.jpg

Central claw finish

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1340665224.456762.jpg

Small hole gap

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1340665287.925153.jpg

Gap between central claw and lateral and lateral plastics

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1340665342.454823.jpg

[amackayj]

posted in error - how do you delete a post?

[Syx]

Originally Posted by Munro

I just applied the double sided tape in the areas marked in red in post 7 of this thread. All the existing foam tape was left alone.

The foam tape in your pictures looks similar to draft excluder tape used on house doors. You can get that in DIY shops in the Uk and it might be ok if you have to replace it.
.

Just did this today - properly - after using a couple of strips of tape previously to bodge it. Took the centre cowl off and the glass underneath was very obviously damaged from the plastic edge... I was quite surprised!

[Typhoon Thompson]

Originally Posted by Typhoon Thompson

My 2009 1.8 is having this problem.

I just contacted Honda and they are happy to look after it under warranty, but are 'not aware' of this fault. I tried to tell them about this thread and give them some suggestions as to what the fault was and they seemed less than interested.

Well its going into Cambridge Honda next Thursday hopefully (its only 5 minutes from home).

Cambridge Honda were very nice and said they had never come across this problem. They were very happy to use the info I passed them from this thread and basically did the same fix as outlined on here. they also asked me to let them know if it did fix it so they can update the 'known' faults list they have.

Going for a long drive tomorrow so fingers crossed.

[RECKONING]

For any lazy asses, WD40 solved this for me, particularly on the drivers side I had it. If it doesn't Ill have a proper go using the methods in this thread

[Syx]

Originally Posted by RECKONING

For any lazy asses, WD40 solved this for me, particularly on the drivers side I had it. If it doesn't Ill have a proper go using the methods in this thread

That'll solve the noise for a while but won't stop the issue. I was really surprised by how deep the scarring was on the glass from the plastic cowl!
So far I've had absolute silence and a noise I was certain to be coming from the dash has disappeared...

[RECKONING]

Originally Posted by Syx

That'll solve the noise for a while but won't stop the issue. I was really surprised by how deep the scarring was on the glass from the plastic cowl!
So far I've had absolute silence and a noise I was certain to be coming from the dash has disappeared...

Sorry, 'solve' was a bad word to use. Like I say this is something I do want to do as I could see scarring from little stones and dirt too.