Not a car guy. Honda Fit 2020 3rd generation. When I went to check the engine air filter under the hood I had to unclip the 4 brackets holding down the engine air filter housing. One of the clips fell off of the metal bracket but I caught it before it fell into the engine bay. I need to put the plastic clip back on the last bracket in order to make a tight seal and I am having trouble. Is there a trick to getting the clip back into that bracket or is it just perseverance and I need to use enough force? TIA

*AI said this when I asked "if the seal is tight with only 3 clips, can I drive around like this" and was told that's not a good idea.

"You need to replace the missing clip ASAP. The clips help maintain proper sealing pressure on the oil filter housing."

So any of you drive around with only 3 of the 4 clips or is AI spot on with this one.

 

I have had that happen on my 2010 Fit and remember that it was a bit of a bear to get the plastic section of the clip to snap back onto the metal section. I actually did it backwards the first time so I had to pop it back off and flip it around.

So, to answer your question, it will clip back on but it's a very tight connection (which makes sense as it's not meant to come apart easily) and does take some force.

My vague memory is that I worked from one side of the metal section and sort of rolled the plastic section back on. It's difficult to describe with words, but imagine the letter "Y," where the base is the metal section and one of the uprights at a 45 degree angle is the plastic section. Start pushing the corner of the opening on the plastic section onto the metal section and if you get it to start keep pushing as you roll the opening onto the metal section (so now the "Y", with only one upright of course, becomes and "I").

Not sure if that helped.

 

Thanks for replying.

>I have had that happen on my 2010 Fit and remember that it was a bit of a bear...and sort of rolled the plastic section back on. It's difficult to describe with words, but imagine the letter "Y..(so now the "Y", with only one upright of course, becomes and "I")

This Not a Car Guy" is so fuc*ed : )

 

Make sure that you don't have it reversed. Compare with the other clips.

Make sure that the filter and housing on top of it are actually all the way down. If one is sticking slightly up then it will be impossible to snap the clip tight.

Incidentally one of my clips fell off and dropped down to somewhere on the bottom of the engine compartment. Couldn't find it so I just ran with three clips for a few weeks. No big deal - the filter I had was pretty much air tight with no leakage around it as is.. My order with 4 new clips from AliExpress finally arrived and I finished the job. I later did recover the 4th clip I had dropped. The AliExpress clips were a perfect match to the Honda ones and now I'll always have extras. I believe the Honda part number is 17219-P65-000 for the GK Fits.

 

The clip on our 2013 always flies off, so I took a photo of it for reference. This won't help with your 2020, but perhaps it may help someone else.

 

Something I always need to keep on mind. Ty.

 

@woof
>Make sure that you don't have it reversed. Compare with the other clips.

Copy that. I was able to resolve it. The clip that I was trying to get 'clipped' was the back left one and there just was not a lot of room to work with. One of the tips I got from AI was in order to get more leverage in that tight spot and that I should use a small flat head screwdriver and lay the shaft of the screwdriver so that the bar of the clip had equal pressure and that worked great and produced a welcome snap in place sound when it went back in.

 

These clips are a pain. I had a Camry before this which had similar clips for the filter box but the Toyota clips were fully encased in plastic around the metal so that they simply couldn't fall off. I guess Honda felt that they could save 1/10¢ by cutting back on the plastic. Yeah Honda, your bean counters are the best!