Have sport owners notice an annoying little nook in the rear tires well? It's this little pocket in the well frame in front of the tires where as much as a cup of sand or whatever can accumulate in a hurry. I can't imagine that'll be good for anything over time. There's no other way to clean it out except to blast it out with hose water. Did no one realize that would be a sand collection point when designing that area? Annoying....and weird.



Dan

 

That happens in a lot of cars. I've noticed it in pretty much any car that has optional side skirts, like the Fit Sport. It is kind of annoying but I think it's fairly harmless. Since the side skirts are made out of plastic you don't have to worry about rust. The last Hondas that I know about that suffered rust issues because of a design flaw were the 2nd gen CRX and 4th gen Civic (rear quarter panel).

 

Yeah I agree 100%.

It it has a knack of filling up with salt, sand, rocks, pebbles, asphalt, everything, I keep hosing it out to keep it clean.

Someone mentioned that they filled it up with something, forgot what it was though, and which thread it was in, cause it was a while ago.

 

Maybe you could fill it with rubberized undercoating.

 

I undercoated that area on my base Fit. Would take a lot of material to actually fill it so it was no longer a cavity. Looks like it could use a fender liner of some sort there.

 

IIRC, both my previous cars ('96 and '02 Dodge Neon) had similar areas in the fender wells. I think most cars do. My Neons were showing rust when I sold them, but not from that area. If it bothers you, spray some undercoating over the area.

I haven't driven the Fit through a winter yet, but I'll keep an eye on it. I'm not going to lose sleep over it at this point. Actually, I'd be afraid to try to fill the area, for fear water would accumulate behind the fill and cause a worse problem than your're trying to prevent. I just plan to keep mine clean in that area as best I can.

 

That salt-collecting pocket has also bugged me from day one. Many cars have a similar design, but on the Fit the pocket is particularly big, and there's a plastic insert in the bottom of it that further blocks dirt/sand/salt from escaping easily.

I agree that filling it may do more harm than good if any water can ever get behind the fill. Some cars, even economy cars, have a plastic fender liner at the front of the rear wheel well, like the liner the Fit has at the back of the wheel well. I wish Honda had engineered something like that for the Fit.

 

Can you fill it with Great Stuff spray foam? Not sure how than handles water though, maybe you would need to undercoat it or something after you foam it.

 

I thought about the Great Stuff yesterday, when I was insulating around a window on the house. As I already said, I'd be afraid it really wouldn't seal, trapping moisture behind it and making things worse.

As it is, at least it's accessible, and can be easily washed out.

 

i let mine be. no issue, just wash it out during my regular wash. it's not really a design flaw, just the way it is wrapping panels around the rear fender well.

 

Is it really all plastic? I'll have to take a look. I just cleaned it without taking notice. The biggest pain is in the winter when my hose isn't available. That's a long time to not be able to clean it out, and there's no way to clean it out other than blasting it out. I'll take a look at it and if it's really all plastic, perhaps a fill like great stuff could work. I'd love to let it be but I can see that spot filling up and staying filled up over the winter. Too bad there isn't some kind of insert that kinda of slopes down to fill the gap and run off water.

Dan

 

no, i think there is metal there too.