I assume that you have the "deutz" fastener in the skirt.
Willie
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01 MT "Little Red Rocket"
The first "TURBOCHARGED" Hybrid, Insight G1- (01/2003)
MaxIMA Battery (Serial #2), on 8/25/12 @ 301,520 miles
Use: 320,000 mi. @ 57.8 LMPG
The Dzus fasteners that Willie mentioned have heads that look like a standard screw but their shafts aren't threaded like a standard screw. They turn only 1/4 of a revolution to tighten or loosen completely. There should be 2 of these attaching each skirt in the lower 2 corners. These or their mating clips on the fender can come loose or fall out which could cause the skirt to sag or even fall off.
Some Insight owners have lost these Dzus fasteners and have replaced them with tie wraps which might not hold the skirts as tight as they should be.
When attaching each skirt, one must take care to slide each slot in the skirt into its mating tab on the fender. Doing this correctly so that all tabs are securely in their mating slots is not a slam-dunk, so you might take of each skirt and carefully reattach them. If they are correctly attached and fastened and still sag, then AbCaRed00's remedy might fix the problem.
Whatever you do, don't rely on anyone else (e.g., mechanics) to do this correctly.
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Aloha,
Art Isbell
2000 Insight A/C #559
Genesis One MIMA+FAS and grid charger, OBDIIC&C, Rostra, Fumoto, DEFA engine block heater, Philips LED DRL's, Honda security system
Replacing the skirts won't help the problem. It is more likely the tabs and/or the brackets that the dzus fasteners connect to that are the problem.
You might look at the brackets and see if they are bent at all. Bending them outward slightly should change the geometry enough to tighten the fit significantly.
Hello,
I had the same issue with both of mine up until the beginning of last summer.
Every third month or so prior to this i saw either one or the other sagging, and hanging down low when i got out of the car. Usually I would just get aggravated and jam them back up in there, only to have them fall out again.
My solution was to take a minute, and realize where the inner clips were. It turned out that i had my buddy help me because there are several places you must apply pressure in toward the vehicle as you lift up and pop it into place. If I were an octopus it would have been easy to do alone, however this is not the case so i had to find an extra set of hands to get the job done right. I have not had one issue since then.
So, inspect the clips (or lack of clips in which case i suppose you need to get more) and find a friend or wife, or kid to apply some pressure in the some spots while you lift up or visa-versa. If memory serves me i remember there was a spot toward the front edge and back edge a few inches up and a couple inches in where there were clips as well as one around 3 and 9 O'clock which needed the push in. Hope this helps
Good luck
Hm thanks for all the help guys! Hopefully this weekend I'll get some free time to take them off and see what's behind!
Here all, take a look at a pic of them Dzus fasteners:HONDA INSIGHT 2000 - Wheel Skirt fa$tener picture by AbCaRed00 - Photobucket
I've just removed them all because of bigger snow tires and can say after their removal that the real clamping force is done at the tabs all installed properly as indicated above.
If by sagging you mean that the whole piece is sliding down towards the ground then there is an issue with one or both of the dzus fasteners.
If you mean that the panel is allowed to pull away from the car, then it is the 6 or so tabs that are not engauging.
My 2001 was ten years old when I got it and the covers did not fit real well. I put my head on the ground and used a flashlight to check on the tabs. A few of them were not mating, and no matter what I tried I could not get them to mate. I believe they never mated when new from the factory. I used a screwdriver to bend the tab out slightly, now they all mate correctly.
Every time I take one off I double check using a flashlight. It is a pain in the but to see up into the wheel well but I don't want to risk loosing one.
__________________
2001 Red CVT
19,351 miles lmpg 19.0 as of Oct 7, 2011
Best tank 78.9 MPG, 738.9 miles
Email dave@groe.us
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Skirts keep sagging
