Jack B
12-19-2016, 11:00 PM
I have had the cowl cover at the bottom of the windshield off several times in the past. However, I took the cover off a couple of weeks ago and saw something strange that I had never previously noticed . This is sort of hard to convey, however, the air box for the heat and AC is on the passenger side and is fastened to the body. There are also two clips on the rear of the air box that are used to fasten the box to the base of the windshield.
This is all pretty simple, however, the two clips at the back of the air box sort of look like they are used to fasten the cowl cover. The point is, at the factory this can confuse the assembler, they think the clips are for the screws that hold down the cowl, but, they are not, they are to secure the back of the air box to base of the windshield. The point is, my air box was not fastened at the rear, if my car came that way, there may be others the same way.
What does this hurt, early on probably nothing, eventually though, it could crack the air box, since the box is cantilevered without the fasteners at the base of the windshield. At a minimum it can cause squeaks or rattles. On the other hand maybe my car is the only one that came this way, I doubt it though, the placement of the box and fasteners sort of hides the need to fasten the box to the windshield base.
This is all pretty simple, however, the two clips at the back of the air box sort of look like they are used to fasten the cowl cover. The point is, at the factory this can confuse the assembler, they think the clips are for the screws that hold down the cowl, but, they are not, they are to secure the back of the air box to base of the windshield. The point is, my air box was not fastened at the rear, if my car came that way, there may be others the same way.
What does this hurt, early on probably nothing, eventually though, it could crack the air box, since the box is cantilevered without the fasteners at the base of the windshield. At a minimum it can cause squeaks or rattles. On the other hand maybe my car is the only one that came this way, I doubt it though, the placement of the box and fasteners sort of hides the need to fasten the box to the windshield base.