Hatchback Sport front lip is not built for speed

TLDR: Civic Hatchback Sport front lip cannot take the repeated downforce created by sustained 100+mph cruising.
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My 2017 Civic Hatchback Sport was in excellent condition. I've owned it since new and I am very anal about my cars. No dings, no scratches, no curbed wheels and I park very far away from other vehicles and curbs in every car I own. I live in Arizona, so it's actually very easy to park far from everyone else if you don't mind the exercise. The only reason I mention this is because I am certain my vehicle had no prior damage outside of rock chips.

I use the Civic as a commuter car and it does a LOT of freeway miles because my home is 30 miles one direction from where my office is. The car is 30 months old and it has 42,000+ miles on the odometer. In full disclosure, this car often experiences sustained speeds of 100+ mph (On the track). Yesterday, while cruising around 100mph (on the track) I felt and heard the front lip break away my front bumper. At the time there was nobody around me, and I had a clear view ahead, so I'm certain I did not run over anything or get impacted by anything. I pulled over and discovered that when the front lip clips pulled away from the brackets the bumper, it also ripped back a lot of the undercarriage plastic covers. The plastics protecting the underside of the Civic are also attached to the wheel well liners, and those were also destroyed and ripped away. The front lip breaking away at 100mph did a surprising amount of damage to the vehicle.

I wanted to share this because if there are other owners out there driving the piss out of their hatchback civic sport, you should install those tie-rods that reinforce the front lip.

Doubt it was anything to do with your speed. I’m sure it had to be some sort of damage to it to come off like that.

Agree with the post above. Mine saw top speed quite a few times, thousands of kms of driving at 150km/h and the lip is doing fine.

Thanks for the report - would be interesting to keep an eye out on how many similar cases are encountered by the community.

Not sure if that is the same as the modulo on mine, but I have at least a few section of at least 160kph everyday on my drive from work to home since break-in period (3 months so far). Some occasional 190-200. The chin/skirts is holding.

BogdanM said:

Agree with the post above. Mine saw top speed quite a few times, thousands of kms of driving at 150km/h and the lip is doing fine.

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That's what I would normally think too, but as I described the vehicle has never experienced any damage or impacts, which includes parking too close to a curb and running the lip up over the ledge (which is how most lips become loose). Additionally, I live alone and nobody has ever driven this vehicle without me inside the car. On top of all that, you can see from the photo my car is very clean because I hand washed the car just 24 hours prior. During my cleaning, I always inspect the vehicle for damage. I suppose anything is possible, but I am fairly certain there was no damage.

There's a reason those front lip tie-rods are sold and have a market. By the very definition of their purpose, they're literally pulling away from the vehicle with more force the faster you go. The purpose is to pull the car down, but at the same time, you're also putting stress on the brackets every mile. Perhaps my clips were faulty from the factory and this was a one-off case, but the front lip was not damaged.

At the end of the day, it's not a big deal because I have insurance and everything is being repaired. However, I just wanted to give everyone who drives fast a lot a heads-up that it's not a bad idea to check those clips every once in a while to make sure they're holding up ok.

Since I'm getting the Hatch myself I gotta ask... You said that you heard and felt when the lip fell off of your car, but did you hear or feel anything else before it fell off? Like vibrations or sounds from vibrations?

So what was the failure point? Was the plastic stretched? Cracks? Clips just missing?

Is it just me, or is anyone else surprised by the proximity of so much housing near "the track"?

CarNutAZ said:

it's not a big deal because I have insurance and everything is being repaired.

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Bull. You are either committing insurance fraud or you are lying. A normal policy will not cover damage caused by racing your car on a track.

Don't let the "sport" fool you. You do not own a sports car or a race car. The Civic is a compact economy car and does not belong on a track.

bugboy32337 said:

Is it just me, or is anyone else surprised by the proximity of so much housing near "the track"?

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I noticed that as well. No helmet in the shot and no number on the car either

choo said:

So what was the failure point? Was the plastic stretched? Cracks? Clips just missing?

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There are two sets of clips. One set runs along the front of the lip and clip to the bumper, and another set run along the back of lip and connect to a lot of the undercarriage plastics, and the undercarriage covers are also clipped to your wheel well liners. Failure point was all the front clips attached to the bumper. In fact, when the front clips broke free, the clips along the back of the lip held firm, and as a result of the force of the lip peeling back at 100mph also ripped down all those undercarriage plastics.

DarkKitarist said:

Since I'm getting the Hatch myself I gotta ask... You said that you heard and felt when the lip fell off of your car, but did you hear or feel anything else before it fell off? Like vibrations or sounds from vibrations?

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Nothing at all. It was very sudden as I was accelerating to a high rate of speed.

bugboy32337 said:

Is it just me, or is anyone else surprised by the proximity of so much housing near "the track"?

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What does it matter? I'm not going to condone, encourage, or admit to speeding. I know many of us do it, but the forum rules say we're not supposed to talk about illegal actions on the road. I'm trying to spread a little bit of awareness that this part CAN fail.... maybe it's a 1 in 100,000 unit defect, or maybe as these cars get older (I probably have one of the older Hatch Sports... purchased January 2nd, 2017, and is quickly approaching 45,000 miles) we'll see more and more of these happen. I also live in Arizona, and I park this car outside because it's just my beater commuter car. Temps here can get 115+, which I'm sure also weakens the plastic clips.

I work for BMW, so I spend a lot of time in those forums too. I'm sure the average age on BMW forums are significantly older than Honda, and it's fairly obvious. If I posted a "Just FYI, keep on the lookout for..." the community would just absorb the info as "noted." Maybe a few people would say "Sucks. Thanks for the heads up."... that's about it. With the younger forums (and I've been on a few), you get people who just want to argue and say things like "Wait a darn second..... I think he's lying about the track!!!" Lol. You're not getting that kinda junk in BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, etc.... People with real sh*t going on don't care.

CapnCarl said:

Bull. You are either committing insurance fraud or you are lying. A normal policy will not cover damage caused by racing your car on a track.

Don't let the "sport" fool you. You do not own a sports car or a race car. The Civic is a compact economy car and does not belong on a track.

I noticed that as well. No helmet in the shot and no number on the car either

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Again? Are you aware this kind of stuff doesn't happen in adult forums where people try to share information? What does it matter? Take the info or don't. Guy's over here analyzing photos for numbers and helmets.... Lol

And yes, I'm aware this is an Econobox... which is why I bought it to get to and from my office during my 60-mile daily commute. I'm also aware because the front lip broke off after 30 months and no damage. As I mentioned before, I work for BMW and I'm very aware the Civic is not a sports car.

lol guys, who cares what he did where as long as no one got hurt. If he wants to claim insurance on something that "didnt happen" thats up to him. But why would he come on here and tell us about the issue if he knows he hit something? Its possible that he did, but if he did I doubt he knows it.

CarNutAZ said:

There are two sets of clips. One set runs along the front of the lip and clip to the bumper, and another set run along the back of lip and connect to a lot of the undercarriage plastics, and the undercarriage covers are also clipped to your wheel well liners. Failure point was all the front clips attached to the bumper. In fact, when the front clips broke free, the clips along the back of the lip held firm, and as a result of the force of the lip peeling back at 100mph also ripped down all those undercarriage plastics.

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Thats pretty much what I was thinking. When I got my car I almost immediately replaced the fog lights with LED Morimoto's. When I was removing the bumper I noticed the clips and the three different ''layers'' of the bumper and undertray cover/mudflaps/lip things were not cinched together all the way. It was not installed correctly from the factory, and was kinda floppy. After I reinstalled the bumper cover with extreme attention to the clips, the whole front end felt alot more solid. I wonder if perhaps your car was incorrectly assembled as well. Or you were goin REALLY REALLY fast lol

Perhaps some giant heavy duty zipties are in order?

i have had my 2017 hatchback sport to 145 mph before and nothing like that has ever happened. my front spoiler is still in the same place as the day i bought the car.

so id assume something had to have fall off to even make it flex enough to rip off like that