my_acura_tsx

Hey -

Can you please share your experience or pro's and con's of getting a OEM kit . I recently had a damage on my rear bumper and some users on the forum suggested on getting a OEM kit to cover it up. Any idea how much would it cost in all, parts and installation. Will acura dealer do this work or should go to bodyshop?

Thanks.

loxllxol

You can get it from Ebay for $900 painted. So it's dirt cheap for a body kit. There really is no downside other than the fact that everyone and their mom has that kit. So if you're goin for originality, you might want to look elsewhere.

kaliraver69

I would get the work done at a bodyshop if not do it yourself it looks pretty straight forward. I did the work on my front bumper for my 6th gen accord pretty easy just takes some time to do thats all.

tony4311

pros- looks good
cons- less money in your wallet

dzuy

well first you should be more specifiic on what kind of damage you had. the oem kit is not a bumper replacement if that's what you're asking.

looking back, i would have gotten the euro r kit instead of the oem one, but at the time, i didn't know about it.

the oem looks great tho, and i'm glad i made that choice to get it.

petra73

I am also looking at getting the kit, but I'm concerned about driving in the snow.

Should I be?

tony4311

nope.

knthornt

I have the body kit on mine, and I love the look. Like tony4311 said... it looks good, but less money in your wallet. However, if the damage is low enough on the bumper, the body kit may mask the damage and depending on the cost of the repair, you many not have too spend too much more to get the body kit.

nahooneyya

i want a OEM bodykit..

Tsx536

How much weight does a full OEM kit add? Does anyone know?

sauceman

If you're putting an OEM kit to cover damage you've made to your bumper, what do you think is gonna happen to your OEM kit?

mlabrie

One dowside of the body kit is that it may rattle...at least this is what I noticed in the last few windy day as a side wind will make the side piece vibrate.

Belzebutt

I wonder how much that wonderful 0.27 drag coefficient drops with the body kit...

xizor

i had this happen after having my body kit on for 6 months, i went under and tigtened the bolts that holt it on the underside of the chasis and it stopped the rattling.

sauceman

I've always wondered this myself too.

mlabrie

Thanks for the tip...I will take a look at it this week end!

Belzebutt

Did you ever take a look to see if the rear spoiler blocks the tail end of the diffuser? I don't think the front is too bad because it's not really much lower than the stock bumper. I think mostly the body kit sticks out to the sides.

If you look at the infiniti.ca page, the areo kit for the G35 actually lowers the drag coefficient from .27 to .26. It's still kind of pointless to me though, why pay hundreds of $$$ for something you don't really see, and probably won't ever feel either.

sauceman

For me personally, a body kit would be a waste, because I'm pretty sure 2 weeks later, I'd bottom it out and tear or badly scratch it.

But: I find it interesting in the sense that maybe the body kit could serve as a base for fabricating an aluminum flat undercarriage that could make the underside of the car real slick and smooth. Now that would really help improve the Cd efficiency. But that would also mean that some sort of device inside the hood could be necessary to channel the airflow, and I'm not sure how that would be done.

slobeatz

I installed the body kit and my car has been lowered on Eibach pros. I've had no problem with bottoming out, and with the snow yet (but we've only had about 3 inches so far).

Belzebutt

You'd have to drive into a snow bank for the body kit to make any difference, and you'd be screwed with or without it. I took a look after I got into work today. In the rear, the body kit lowers by 1/2" at the most, you can still clearly see the exit of the diffuser (I still can't believe how cool it is that this car has a diffuser!)

In the front, it looks low but it's only by about 1" on the sides, in front of the wheels. For about 70% of the front area, the body kit raises up by at least 1/2" or more so you get almost the same clearance. The difference is that the bottom of the bumper is "pointy" as opposed to the rounded bottom you get with the plain bumper. I think the sides is where most of the lowering occurs, probably about 1", tops. But that's between the wheels so it doesn't affect your ability to driver over things.

tony4311

actually this was brought up on another site......assuming you meant the rear kit piece not the spoiler on the trunk.


looks like it does

Belzebutt

I meant the rear kit piece, but the picture you posted there is not of the OEM body kit. I just went to the garage to take a look at mine and it's totally different from this one. If you look straight back with your face at exhaust-height, you can see the entire diffuser, including the "exit" part of it. If I slide my hand along these diffuser channels, the OEM kit only creates about a 1/2" lip, if that.

By the way, that is one damn clean undercarriage!

Tsx536

What kind of exhaust is that?

slo007

Dumb question: what's a diffuser, in this context?

ClutchPerformer

The black thing between the muffler canisters. It's meant to straighten and smooth airflow coming from under your car.

tony4311

bah you're right sorry. I didn't even check it against mine.