Front Air Dam?
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jun 2002
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From: Richmond Texas
Front Air Dam?
Do i really need that black plastic piece on the front of my dad's car? It scrapes going in and out of our driveway no matter what angle we come in at. It also scrapes on some of the roads right around home. Would taking it off hurt anything? I was wondering if it deflected air up into the radiator or something. If it doesn't do anyting and doesn't hurt anything, then how do you take it off? I would really like to lower my dad's vette but can't do it cause of that stupid thing. Does messing with those bolts void warranty? Can you only lower it 1/4"? Maybe 1/2"? I don't need an inch, just a little lower. Thanks.
Melting Slicks
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Re: Front Air Dam? (BigBlue)
I cut 1.5" off mine, and IMO it looks better :D
Maybe lower it about 3/4" to 1" and trim a little off of the air dam.
No the warranty will not be affected by this.
Maybe lower it about 3/4" to 1" and trim a little off of the air dam.
No the warranty will not be affected by this.
Melting Slicks
Joined: Feb 2000
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From: Newcastle
Re: Front Air Dam? (BigBlue)
The center section of the stock "air dam" deflects air up to the radiator, and it's designed to flex when you rub on something (so don't take it off).
The factory adjuster bolts are put there for ride height adjustment, so technically you should be able to go anywhere within the range of the bolt without voiding the warranty. :yesnod:
Take 'er DOWN!!! :cheers:
The factory adjuster bolts are put there for ride height adjustment, so technically you should be able to go anywhere within the range of the bolt without voiding the warranty. :yesnod:
Take 'er DOWN!!! :cheers:
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jul 2002
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From: Nashville TN
Re: Front Air Dam? (jawski)
Don't take it off. Years ago I had an '88 Trans Am GTA that had a similar air dam. I was about 30 miles away from home on the interstate when I hit a large section of truck retread that the truck in front of me had straddled. ( Yes I know, I should not have been so close to the truck to where I couldn't avoid hitting what he straddled. You would think I would have remembered this from riding bikes years before. ) Anyway it ripped the air dam almost off, and I had to stop and pull it off completely so I could drive the car. I only made it about two miles before the car started overheating. I had to make several stops on the way home to let it cool down. Once I got off the interstate and drove at 30 -- 40 mph the car did not overheat! I got on a road that I could drive 50 -- 55 mph and it started overheating again. So, unless you never want to drive more than about 40 mph, don't take it off! :nono: :cheers:
Melting Slicks
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Re: Front Air Dam? (1g1yy)
Ther are several C5's running around without the center air scoop, not overheating :eek:
Having said that, I still would not remove it :)
Having said that, I still would not remove it :)
Don't take it off. Years ago I had an '88 Trans Am GTA that had a similar air dam. I was about 30 miles away from home on the interstate when I hit a large section of truck retread that the truck in front of me had straddled. ( Yes I know, I should not have been so close to the truck to where I couldn't avoid hitting what he straddled. You would think I would have remembered this from riding bikes years before. ) Anyway it ripped the air dam almost off, and I had to stop and pull it off completely so I could drive the car. I only made it about two miles before the car started overheating. I had to make several stops on the way home to let it cool down. Once I got off the interstate and drove at 30 -- 40 mph the car did not overheat! I got on a road that I could drive 50 -- 55 mph and it started overheating again. So, unless you never want to drive more than about 40 mph, don't take it off! :nono: :cheers:
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jun 2002
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From: Richmond Texas
Re: Front Air Dam? (Flyin'Brian)
Alright. Just thought I would ask yall before I did something like that. I may have to play with the car the next time I have it all day. Do you have to have the jacking pucks to jack the car up and to get underneath it for the bolts or is there another way?
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Re: Front Air Dam? (BigBlue)
Since I just picked up my first C5 a couple days ago, I happened to be reading up on the owners manual. (I think this the first car I actually needed to look at the manual to figure some things out).
It says in there the air dam is actually hinged :confused: and is designed to flex and scrape and take this sort of abuse. Mine lightly scrapes if I don't take my driveway at an extreme angle, but I still plan to lower it after installing framesavers and rocker rails.
I used to have a lowered VW Corrado with a similar black lower airdam lip that scraped going in and out of my driveway every single day for the last 3+ years....the black airdam still looks fine.
If this is all you are scraping, I wouldn't worry about it. I would think potential overheating problems would be far more annoying than occasionaly scraping a flexible piece of plastic that is designed to be scraped.
:cheers:
It says in there the air dam is actually hinged :confused: and is designed to flex and scrape and take this sort of abuse. Mine lightly scrapes if I don't take my driveway at an extreme angle, but I still plan to lower it after installing framesavers and rocker rails.
I used to have a lowered VW Corrado with a similar black lower airdam lip that scraped going in and out of my driveway every single day for the last 3+ years....the black airdam still looks fine.
If this is all you are scraping, I wouldn't worry about it. I would think potential overheating problems would be far more annoying than occasionaly scraping a flexible piece of plastic that is designed to be scraped.
:cheers:
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Re: Front Air Dam? (QuickSilver97)
Exactly Y2Kvert, it's hinged. So even though it's scrapeing it's really not hurting anything. It is there to direct air, so I would leave it alone.
The only problem I had with it was the bolt heads were too small for the diamiter of the plastic it went into and on a good scrape the air dam would dislodge. Some bolts with larger heads fixed that though.
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Re: Front Air Dam? (The^Nomad)
It also keeps too much air from getting under your car at VERY high speed. Look up some videos of mid 90's mercedes LMP cars to find out what can happen if too much air gets under the car. :nonod: Dad wouldn't be happy..
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Re: Front Air Dam? (BQuicksilver)
It also keeps too much air from getting under your car at VERY high speed. Look up some videos of mid 90's mercedes LMP cars to find out what can happen if too much air gets under the car. :nonod: Dad wouldn't be happy..
Melting Slicks
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Re: Front Air Dam? (BQuicksilver)
It also keeps too much air from getting under your car at VERY high speed. Look up some videos of mid 90's mercedes LMP cars to find out what can happen if too much air gets under the car. :nonod: Dad wouldn't be happy..
So I'm not worried about too much air getting under my car :p:
Burning Brakes
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From: Annapolis, MD USA
Re: Front Air Dam? (BigBlue)
Big B - I just saw your post so let me point out what others hopefully have already said: the air dam keeps the high speed aerodynamics of the car intact. That is, at high speeds it deflects air from flowing underneath the car which could produce tons of lift from high pressure and make your car very light (something you definitely do not want).
Look at the front air dams/spoilers on some of the dedicated race cars such as the Trans Am Corvettes. They have lips which are almost on the track (and probably are at some points). A small part of this is probably to help airflow through the radiator, but it is mainly to keep the car on the road at high speeds. Even with this, they have rear spoilers to help. Believe me, you do not want to remove the front air dam.
Look at the front air dams/spoilers on some of the dedicated race cars such as the Trans Am Corvettes. They have lips which are almost on the track (and probably are at some points). A small part of this is probably to help airflow through the radiator, but it is mainly to keep the car on the road at high speeds. Even with this, they have rear spoilers to help. Believe me, you do not want to remove the front air dam.
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Re: Front Air Dam? (BQuicksilver)
It also keeps too much air from getting under your car at VERY high speed. Look up some videos of mid 90's mercedes LMP cars to find out what can happen if too much air gets under the car. :nonod:
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Re: Front Air Dam? (FNC80)
Search for "mercedes" in Kazaa, there are several copies of those videos that are about 900k in size. I believe that it happened more than once that year. :eek: