2004 Accord Hood Insulation and Rodent

Opened the hood last week to find a little ball of insulation sitting
on the battery. Apparently a rodent got up into the engine, stood on
the battery, and took swipes at the insulation. There is a
4-inch-diameter hole in the insulation there.

I took it to the dealer for service and had them look at it. They
recommended I replace all the insulation at a cost of $185 installed
before it gets cold.

Isn't the insulation there mainly for noise suppression? Or is it
there for startup engine heat return? In either case do I really need
to replace the missing insulation, and if I do can I fill it with other
insulation rather than replace the whole thing?

 

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The rodent wanted a warm place to retire to. The dealer is working on
the same plan.

Rodent is a much nicer word than 'rat'.

'Curly'

 

I wouldn't worry about it as long as there nothing to get loose fall
into something, like a belt or something.
Bg

 

It's there to prevent your paint job from looking like my twelve year old
Jeep does, in twelve years. Maybe I can get this buffed out, maybe not.
That and the reasons you mention. You can replace it with any kind of
insulation you want, as long as it is not flammable, and you can figure out
how to secure it in place. I once replaced all the engine insulation in a
1968 Dodge A100 van, with fiberglass building insulation, aluminum foil, and
aluminum window screen to keep it all in place.

For $185, I imagine you could get really creative.

Earle

 

4 inch hole missing? Forget about it.

 

Call around to local wrecking yards. This stuff will be ultra-cheap since
it is almost impossible to destroy even in a high-speed frontal collision.

If you do choose to drive around with a 4" mouse hole in your hood
insulation, you might suffer the horrible, deadly effects of having a hole
in your sound insulation! Y'might go deef! Or...worse.

 

As you have heard, the purpose of the insulation is to deaden the sound
and protect the paint on the hood. Hunt around for any kind of similar
fiberglass insulation (high density, approx 3/4 inch thick), cut it to
fit the hole(and maybe square off or trim the hole edges), put a little
construction adhesive on it and put it in place. If you do nothing, I
think the paint area on the hood where the insulation is gone will
eventually deteriorate.

Ken

 

Some insulation can burn. If he wants to replace it I would go with the
right stuff.

 

Well, sure, you can't beat the right stuff. I was thinking of the hd
fiberglass used to insulate oil fired boilers and water heaters--don't
believe this is flammable at underhood temperatures. I got the
impression that the original poster wasn't happy about the price the
dealer wanted to replace it all. He could look into the cost of buying
the blanket from parts and installing a piece (or all of it) himself.

 

Thanks everyone for your responses and ideas!