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Well, I installed my rear mud flaps yesterday - it's really a no-brainer, but if no-brainer describes you like it usually does me, here's some tips:
-Not having a short screwdriver, I took off the tires, which made things quite simple, plus you get to see those monster springs behind the tire.
-tire jack subthread: here's something worth knowing
when in the jack compartment, the jack is expanded
a bit to keep it from rattling around. The guy at
the shop who put this in is named Vinnie, and he
works out a lot. A pair of vise grips helped loosen
mine, so if you want to avoid a surprise on a dark
rainy night as you're changing a tire, go out and
loosen yours up.
-The flaps are held on by 3 screws, 2 existing and one supplied. They also give you a clip for the self-tapping screw. If you forget to put the clip on before you put the other screws in, then you get to take them off again. This is OK, more up-close-and-personal time with your MDX.
-Putting the flaps on takes just a few minutes, most of the time is in taking the tires on and off, and looking for the screws when you're dropped them and don't know where the heck they're rolled off to. Sometimes you then find them in your pocket.
-We hit an unheard-of 40 degrees the past two days, after an 18 inch snow dump last weekend, water and mud is everywhere. My newly-flapped and washed MDX was immaculate for like 2 minutes. But this did give me a chance to see how they work. Under pre-flap conditions, the entire back panel got muddy; post-flap, the forward half of the panel is protected, the back half about the same as it was (what did you expect, miracles?). But, it will intercept those large rocks that will do the real damage.
So that's it - I'm a sucker for this black on silver, these add a bit more of that. Now to think about those sidesteps...
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Thanks Ghost for the tips on installation. Guess I will be doing this myself since no drilling required. Why don't they come standard on the back, they come on the front!!??
Another way to squeeze the buyer and pad the dealer's profit margin. |
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Here's another tip. I didn't have a car stand so I did the mud flaps and running boards without lifting the car up.
But I had a problem with the mud flaps. Like people said, it is very hard to screw in the last screw withhh the tire on there, there's only a few inches of space. The stubby philips that I bought for the job can't even fit in.
So after squeezing my brains, I saw the little screwdriver BIT that came with my ratchet set. With that, i was able to get in the space and easily screw in the last screw. Holy screw.
Hope that helps.
-t
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I just installed the rear mud guards in about twenty minutes. I would suggest pre-punching and pre-threading (not all the way) the screws provided on each mud guard before attaching the guards themselves. I used a Phillips head bit from my power drill held at 90 degrees with a pair pliers to drive the babies home. (I didn't have a ratchet wrench with a short enough Phillips attachment.) The other two screws were easily set with a stubby screwdriver.
The dealer wanted $36 to install! They would have picked my pockets while my guards were down :-) |
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I installed the rear mud flaps too.
I took the rear tires off and it was CAKE !
Done in minutes.
Stubby screwdriver was not small enough.
Rear Flaps keep A LOT of crap from flying on the rear panels.
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| Awfully easy. Even taking the tires off. Also, remember that its better to use the screw that comes with the kit on the inside fender. You reuse one of the existing screws in the new hole with the clip. |
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| Here's another tip for those who haven't done it yet...You'll get plenty of access room if you jack the car up to the point where the wheel is just about to come off the ground. You can then use a full sized screwdriver on the two top screws, and a stubby (or a driver tip and pliers) on the lower screw. Saves a lot of time, and potential lug-wrench dings on your wheels. |
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| For some reasons, the two screws which I reused is not the same as the ones which come with the rear splash guard. They do not have the washer and they are shorter in length. It is important to have the washer in between else the screw will smear its surrounding plastic. Did any one observe this ? |
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I just installed the rear mudguards this weekend. It was easy once I decided to take off the wheels. I drilled a pilot hole through the dimple for the 3rd screw because I didn't want to just crank it through the plastic.
I was happy to find that on such a large vehicle, tire changes aren't any more difficult than on my Civic...well, aside from the tire being about 3 times bigger that is.
Does anyone know offhand what the Acura service guys torque the lugnuts to with their impact wrenches? I've always done it by feel, but I just got a new torque wrench and thought this would be a good application to try it out! |
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| msu79gt82 |
... so I used a screwdriver bit locked into a set of vicegrips:D
This actually works better than a stubby screwdriver. |
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