What's with the Yaris hoods?

[BennyLava]

Originally Posted by yougojay

2013 Yaris L - 1/4'' gap between the hood & bumper cover neatly fitted with a factory weatherstrip to keep the engine compartment clean.
What year Yaris are you talking about here?
Welding on metal to make the hood longer? Sounds like a disaster to me. Can you loosen the hood nuts and adjust the hood closer to the bumper cover?

Welding on extra metal to fix factory defects is very commonplace in the autobody and automotive restoration world. You should see all the difference it can make. As for the 1/4 inch gap in your car, that's still way too wide. It should be half that. Seems they started putting that weatherstrip in there simply to try and address the issue. As and example, take a look at the gap between the doors in a 2010 dodge Challenger. That's what your gaps are supposed to look like these days. Very small. In modern cars the gaps are all getting smaller and smaller, because wider gaps have a big affect on aerodynamics, and thus gas mileage. So they're tightening up all the gaps as best as they can.

My car is a 2009, and is nearly black. So that weather strip will do the job for me. Until I finally sell the car. I hope that by the time I buy another yaris, Toyota will have fixed the issue.

Originally Posted by yougojay

I was assuming it was an older generation Yaris myself...I looked at my hood underneath where it bolts to the hinges & there does not look like there is any play at all to move the hood forward or back.
I'll have to take a look at an older Yar if I see one parked...I usually see them and they are driving by...

This is the first thing I did. Won't work. Hood is plain too short.