2002 Civic air box screws

I have a 2002 Honda Civic and have run into a problem in replacing my
air filter. Two (2) of the seven (7) screws holding on the air box
cover are turning freely and not breaking loose. Is there a way to
hold down the lower air box section nut sleeve housing without tearing
up the rest of the air box? My only alternative now is to grind off
the heads of the two remaining screws.

 

I'm running into this issue as well, except all seven of my screws
simply spin in place. Let me know what you find out.

 

I have recently ran into the same problem, take a look at the bottom
encasing. The two holes for the screws to go in have broken off, I
enquired and found out that many hondas of the same make and year have
the same problem. They guessed because of the proximity to the engine
and the design was just changed that year. I am enquiring with
Richmond Honda about a fix. will post.

 

Hi,
I just bought a Honda Civic 2002 and I also am running into this
problem! Did you get an answer out of Richmond Honda? The plastic
holding the bolts in place is extremely weak. Is there any work
around or fix for this? I don't think it affects that much the air
intake but it still very annoying. Please let me know if you were
able to solve this issue and how.
Thanks,
Michael

 

I took my Civic to my mechanic on Tuesday, June 27th, for some new
tires. While I was there picking it up, I mentioned that I was unable
to get the cover off of my air filter. He volunteered to give it a
shot and told me it shouldn't take him long at all. Not to my
surprise, time quickly passed and a half-an-hour later, he was finally
making progress on the cover.

The problem appears to be exactly what mboscott suggested: the heat
from the engine has weakened the plastic around the bolts that hold
the screws in place. As a result, when you attempt to turn the screw,
the bolt isn't held stationary by the plastic as was intended.
Instead, the bolt spins, and in my case, this spinning caused the
plastic surrounding the bolt to split in places.

The solution is simple: find a new way to hold the bolt while
unscrewing the screw. My mechanic and I just broke off the plastic
around the screws enough that we could fit a wrench in to hold the
base. Of course, this won't fix the problem permanently, and will
only work if some of the screws are not suffering from this condition
(in my case, the screw in the center and the two screws on the side of
the box opposite the engine were still usable, and are now the only
screws that hold the lid down on my air filter). The only permanent
solution I can think of would be to replace the stock air filter box
completely with a box made of more durable plastic.

Hope this helps, good luck!