LyfeIs

It seems that every time I back out of my driveway, my tl scrapes against the curb. I've looked for damage but I haven't noticed any. Dosent happen with my Passat.

Does anyone else experience this?

Is there anything I should worry about?

VQPower37

drive off the driveway sideways instead of straight back ... u should be fine

korrupted

You must have some big incline/decline if you're scraping when you back out.

lusid

It's probably the big plastic thing hanging down that it's hitting.. nothing you can do.

korrupted

LOL that big plastic thing......

sunny201

Yea it used to happened to me all the time, but then after a while I guess it wore down so it doesnt happen anymore. If you look under the bumper you can see a little plastic peice hanging down a little further back. I forget what its for, but some people here have told me before.

dudechewy

i have the same problem .........i try to take my car out sideways all slow but it still scrapes

LyfeIs

I didn't think the tl was built that low to the ground. I know it has that long ass nose but it would still have to be pretty damn low to rub on the floor like that. I'm gonna try backing out at an angle to see if that helps. I'll also check to see if its some plastic cover that's rubbing, if so, as long as my bumper dosent fall off, I could care less what's scraping.

fish008

^^^This is the solution to the problem. You could be scraping the bottom of the from bumper or the bottom of the A-spec front lip if you have one. This scraping happens to me on occasion too. Look under the front bumper and see if you can see the plastic scratched. If thats not it where is the scraping sound coming from?

dudechewy

the only solution that i know if is to put down a piece of ply wood where the sidewalk meets the pavement.....my neighbor does this with the corvette.....but its a pain in the ass to get outta ur car and lay down the piece of wood....he takes his car out once a week so its good for him but its a pain the ass to do it everyday.

sunny201

This is why I dont have the drop that I want soooo bad

stillhere153

iTrader: (1)

the piece thats scraping is the piece that hangs lower that is there so your bumper doesnt rub... no worries if that is scraping better that than your bumper

lusid

thats all I could think of at the time.. But more specifically it appears to be some type of scrape guard that hangs down a few inches from the body of the car so it hits that before the actual body of the car.

lusid

#29.

korrupted

wow so if ur backing out of your driveway, it will scrape the front of your car!!!

KyTL

I believe that is called an air dam, and it is used to push the air from going up into the engine compartment from below (and bugs, rocks etc. that would accompany the air)

It makes a god-awful racket tho when it rubs...had a Mustang that did that on curbs too


btw ... Lusid, is there a link that has more of those schematics that you posted?

KJSmitty

Many of the air-dams are there to actually vector/force more air up and through the radiator. Given how the grills of today's cars are getting less and less in regards to front openings, the air-dams can be quite the necessity.

Like others have mentioned, better to scrape the air dam than the lower edge of the bumper....

lusid

KyTL-

You start out by going to a link on this site,

http://www.acuraoemparts.com/delray/...atcgry5=bumper

then you select a description, then click on View: »Diagrams

steve9207

Hmm...like others have said - you must really have HUGE curbs. Ours are pretty big around here, debated about getting the depressed curb when the city offered a discount since they were contracting with a company to do the sidewalks. But a new curb and front apron was more than the rest of the entire driveway (which is double the size)!!

Anyway, my CL would ALWAYS scrape if you backed straight out (most cars do). In fact, when someone came to test drive the CL when I was selling it basically floors it in reverse and all I heard was the LOUDEST METAL banging sound and all I could think is - this frickin guy just busted something on the car I'm trying to sell.

The TL has never scrapped on me yet, although I usually try to back out on an extreme angle if I pull in forward...most of the time I back the car into the garage though. On the few times I've had to back straight out, I haven't had any scrapping and I've got higher than average curbs.

fish008

I am pretty sure that the curbs have nothing to do with it. It is more about the angle of the end of the driveway. If they published approach and departure angles for our car you could find out what degree incline at the end of a driveway that would scrape.

LyfeIs

You guys were right. I backed out twice, at an angle, since my original post and it didn't scrape.

Thanks AZers!

Type-Superman

or you could just back into the driveway.

S PAW 1

It is a high performance F1 type diffuser that only extends at low speeds when it detects steeply graded driveways. At speeds over 100 mph, it retracts to increase aerodynamic force and stability at high speed.
Actually, refer to the scraping as rebound affect, and changing your angle will help a bunch, which you have found out.

Sorry, I just crack myself up

fish008

That actually wouldn’t work if you backed straight in if it is indeed the front bumper that scrapes. By backing in the front of the car still would have you hit the same angle and if it is the front bumper that scrapes the bumper would contact the street instead of the driveway; the angle remains the same. Like I said earlier it is about approach and departure angles.

chill_dog

Steeply graded driveways OR big curbs do it. Any car will scrape if backed straight out of my driveway, which is flat...the only thing that doesn't scrape are trucks, but they bounce like crazy. As others have said, going out slowly and at an angle solves it. One of these days, I'm going to ramp the curb in front of my driveway...just fill it in...the city's too damn cheap to replace the curb, even though it's over forty years old and ratty as hell.

shooter

I noticed I always hit something when I park and I was worried it was my front lower lips .... it turned out to be this plastic protector strip ... didn't know my TL was this low ... LOL

ggesq

iTrader: (1)

From the garage:

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=102174

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=100938

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=101955

Type-Superman

well if you're facing your lane when you shift into reverse, you're actually coming it at an angle. steve9207 backs into his garage and doesn't have any scraping problems. neither do i, for that matter, with teins and 19s although i have a really low driveway

fish008

Are you serious. Did you read what I wrote?
Take special note of "That actually wouldn’t work if you backed straight in."
The "backed straight" in is the key. That mean no angle. Or in other words zero angle.

If you go in at an angle either forwards or backwards it should work.