No engine covers on most new cars now?

[ET16]

I looked at a few new cars today, and was surprised to see that none of them had engine covers. Coils and much of what is covered on all of my current cars were out in the open. Salesman said covers are only usually found now on upscale cars.

 

[ctechbob]

Gotta cut those costs. Ford put covers on the 2019 Rangers and then dropped the cover for 2020 along with a set of tie-downs in the bed and a few other things.

 

[Hall]

Saves the automaker $$ as well as reduces weight, which in turn improves fuel economy.

 

[blufeb95]

I'm fine with it, I hated the trend of building covers into important components, like the 2.4 GM ecotec where the beauty cover is integral to the intake plenum, which makes doing some diagnostic work quite annoying.

 

[Oliveoil2]

Most people never open the hood!

 

[WylieCoyote]

I'm fine with it, I hated the trend of building covers into important components, like the 2.4 GM ecotec where the beauty cover is integral to the intake plenum, which makes doing some diagnostic work quite annoying.

Ditto for the moronic cover on the V6 Canyon. I like the "finished" look of a cover, but this one I could do without. I can't think of a good reason to integrate the intake tube into the cover, besides, of course, that people won't endeavor to remove it and do their own work.

 

[wwillson]

I took the engine covers off both the Charger and the Durango. Mice love to build nests under the safety of the covers. I don't love it when mice build nests there by chewing on things under the hood.

 

[super20dan]

bound to help keep other plastic parts cooler and lasting longer

 

[OVERKILL]

I took the engine covers off both the Charger and the Durango. Mice love to build nests under the safety of the covers. I don't love it when mice build nests there by chewing on things under the hood.

My 6.4L only has the little coil covers, not sure how it would look with them off, lol.

 

[jhellwig]

I think most vehicles had them as sound deadening.

 

[MRC01]

Good riddance. Most engine covers are idiotic: they serve no useful function, other than obstructing access and making it harder to work on the engine. And it's just one more part that can break or fail. At least with an engine cover, when that happens you can throw it into the trash.

 

[Owen Lucas]

Meanwhile pop the hood on a high end German car. You can't see the engine or anything else with all of the plastic cladding other than a washer fluid reservoir cap.

 

[Soft Cars]

On my car GM calls it a fuel injector site shield.

I guess your average mechanically clueless normal person finds the sight of fuel injectors disturbing.

 

[edyvw]

Some companies use covers to retain heat. It is really not that idiotic, especially if one wants heat to start blowing fast. BMW covers are ridiculously effective when it comes to heat retention.

 

[proveitwithdata]

thermal efficiency is a thing every thing counts. from a service perspective, no beauty covers.

 

[fantastic]

I took the engine covers off both the Charger and the Durango. Mice love to build nests under the safety of the covers. I don't love it when mice build nests there by chewing on things under the hood.

Don't know how true it is but I've heard that these critters don't like something that smells good so I sprayed the insulation in the engine bay down with febreeze (actually great value LOL). The truck sits for several months now & is only used for the RV so mice have ample time to move in if they wanted to but I hope the "Fresh linen" smell keeps them out. Funny story is I about told the wife to select the "Pineapple" scent but then I came to my senses & realized that would probably not work to deter these pests. I don't want them nibbling on the wires thinking it's a pineapple.