How to Replace Cowl Cover 2005-11 Honda Civic
Created on: 2017-12-06
How to repair, install, fix, change or replace a cracked or broken hood cowl on 2008 Honda Civic.
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step 1 :Removing the Cowl Cover
- Open the hood
- Prop the hood in the maintenance position
- Pull the weather seal off the cowl cover
- Remove the three plastic pins from the cowl cover with trim tools or needle nose pliers
- Pop the cowl cover out of the cowl
- Disconnect the windshield washer house coupler
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step 2 :Removing the Cowl
- Apply rust penetrant to the 10mm bolt on each side of the cowl
- Remove the 10mm bolt from front of each side of the cowl
- Apply rust penetrant to the two 12mm bolts on each side of the cowl
- Remove the two 12mm bolts on each side of the cowl
- Apply rust penetrant to the 10mm bolt on the rear of each side of the cowl
- Remove the 10mm bolt on the top of each side of the cowl
- Apply rust penetrant to the 10mm bolt in the middle of the cowl
- Remove the 10mm bolt in the middle of the cowl
- Pull the cowl forward and out of the engine bay
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step 3 :Installing the Cowl
- Put the cowl into place
- Install the 10mm bolt on the front of each side of the cowl
- Use masking tape to hold a 10mm bolt in your socket
- Install the 10mm bolt in the middle of the cowl
- Install the 10mm bolt at the rear of each side of the cowl
- Insert the two 12mm bolts on each side of the cowl
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step 4 :Installing the Cowl Cover
- Clean the bottom of the windshield with glass cleaner
- Connect the windshield washer hose coupler
- Put the cowl cover into place
- Pop in the cowl cover clips
- Push the three plastic pins into the cowl cover
- Push the weather seal onto the cowl cover
Tools needed
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12mm Socket
Socket Extensions
Painter's Tape
10mm Socket
Ratchet
Needle nose pliers
Trim Tool Set
Hi. I'm Mike from 1AAuto. We've been selling auto parts for over 30 years!
Open the hood. There are two positions for the prop rod. There's a normal position and then there's also a further maintenance position, so I'm going to set it in that one. Get a little more access to get this cowl panel off.
You'll start by removing this weather seal, simply just lift it and pull it right off. We're going to put that aside so we can reuse it.
To remove this upper part of the cowl cover there's three clips. There's one here, one in the center, and then one on the passenger's side. I'm going to use a clip prying tool. Slide it under there and you can kind of feel the clip underneath. Just try to pop it up. I'm actually going to use some needle-nose pliers to squeeze the clip together underneath and pop it up. I’m going to lift up this center part and just kind of pull it off of the metal and pull it out and up. It's got clips to it. Lift it straight out. It's got a bunch of clips. Get the other side free. This one's just kind of stuck in it. Push down here, and kind of lift up here, there we go.
Roll it forward because the window washer hose is underneath. Pop it out. Let's see. The easiest way is: there is coupler right here, so I will disconnect it right here. Clip that back in. And you can see all of the clips that are holding this in. Now we can take this out.
To remove this metal cowl piece that's underneath the plastic, there are two 12-millimeter bolts on both the driver's and the passenger's side. And then a 10-millimeter bolt in front of those on both the driver and the passenger's side. I'm going to start with the 10-millimeter bolt. Put that bolt aside. These look a little bit rusty so I'm going to spray some rust penetrant on them. Again, I'm working on the 10-millimeter one first. Switch to a 12-millimeter socket to remove these two bolts.
I'm going to spray some rust penetrant on these. Now that I moved them out a little bit. I'm going to turn them back in because I want to work the rust penetrant into the threads. Now I'm going to start turning them back out. I may have to repeat this a couple times to get them to come out smoothly. I've gotten it out without breaking it. Do the same over here with some rust penetrant. We're going to just do the same thing, go in and out applying rust penetrant. I’m just trying to work it in the threads so that these bolts come out smoothly.
In addition to these bolts, there's one bolt at the rear that's sort of vertical on either side, both the driver's and the passenger's side. I'm going to spray some rust penetrant on that one because I can see the back side of it. This is a 10-millimeter. I’ve got it broken free. I’m going to reach in there and remove it with my hand. Do the same for the bolt on the other side.
There’s one final 10-millimeter bolt directly in the middle. Spray some rust penetrant in there as best I can. I was trying to get that bolt out and to fall at least on this cowl piece. It didn't sound like it went all the way down, so maybe it's still caught on the cowl piece. I'm going to carefully pull the cowl piece out. Actually, I can see the bolt fell down here under the wiper transmission, so I've got it. You want to be careful removing this, it's got some thin edges on here. You could cut your hands, so just be careful takings this out of here and handling it. We're going to put it aside because we can definitely reuse this obviously, but now we have access to the back of the engine.
Reinstall the lower cowl piece. Set that right into place. I'm going to start by installing the 10-millimeter bolts back in place.
Since the bolt in the middle is really in there deep and I don't want to drop it, I'm going to take some masking tape and just stick it on the bolt head, it just helps the bolt stay in there. I'm going to use a driver handle with my extension. It's a little more control on it. I'm going to have to move this around a bit. If the tape stayed there no big deal. I'm going to install this one that's in here. Now I'm going to work on the 12-millimeter bolts that were in here.
Before I put the plastic trim back, I'm just going to take some glass cleaner and just clean up the base of the windshield. Reinstall the plastic trim. Don't forget to reconnect your windshield washers, because otherwise they won't work for you. It will just be spraying windshield washer fluid underneath here. Plug the connector back in.
Flip this back up. Get lined up in place. Push the clips down and get this side lined up. You’ve got to reinstall the clips: one on the outside there, one in the middle, and one here on the driver's side.
Now we're just going to reinstall our under hood seal. You can see it's been contoured and it matches up with the contour of this. I’m going to put it in the same exact way. It just pushes right down over the plastic. Just go along, push it in place.
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