Originally Posted By: Falken
Just installed the gutter guard today. Really easy to do and barely noticeable. I bought a big bag of long black zip ties and a 6"x25' long roll of gutter guard at Canadian Tire.
I didn't jack it up and pop out push pins and unscrew the splash shield, the lower "grille" at the bottom that has the large openings was large enough that I could cut it to length and feed it in then bend the zip tie tips to form a hook to be able to quickly get the mesh attached.
I used a lot of zip ties all over the stock grille supports to make it really strong in case a large chunk of rock or ice in the winter goes flying into the lower bumper full force, so it can deflect it or at least slow it down enough to lessen the damage.
Remember, a rock the size of a large marble coming towards you quickly when you are traveling 120km / hr and lets say the rock is doing 40-50 km / hr the impact is around 160 km / hr so it has to be pretty strong. This is an impact that is strong enough to destroy the condenser in the first place, so make it solid.
I drove all the way to NDG today and it was 32 deg C today, so it was really hot. As soon as I stopped the car I popped the hood to see if it is abnormally hot under the hood, and everything seemed ok. I guess the mesh still lets enough air to pass that it doesn't overheat anything too much.
To get it all installed the way I wanted took about 20-25 mins. Very happy with the result and I am confident that it will protect the condenser well, and even stop 10 years of smaller stuff from eventually wearing out the condenser with hundreds of smaller rock and debris impacts.
OP here. I just did the same to my brand new Fit. Yes I picked it up last night and did the installation this morning while it has only 23 miles on it. I made 2 mistakes; not applying primer on the mesh and cut it perfectly straight instead of into a skirt shape. As the result, there is a quarter to half of an inch gap at the bottom edge on each side. The chance of having a rock or road debris sniping into the bottom edge is extremely slim but not impossible, just like Romey becoming VP for Obama and Hillary wins the the next Nobel Price on Family Value, all in the same term. If something does manage to come through either gap, it will land on the frame instead of radiator or condenser. I thought about adding a side pieces but do not have any small zip-ties to hold 2 mesh together.
By the way, my Accord does not have a grill protector either. It just that I never heard of such problem until I start reviewing the Fit.