2008 Buick Enclave: Oh Yeah, Much Better Engine Cover Location

WHHHAAA? I have no idea why an engine cover would bother someone this bad. It was placed there for a reason but evidently nobody wants to believe that...

Sure, James. Blame it on the new guy! j/k

Maybe he is/was trying to trick someone into thinking the enclave is rear engined :)

James, can you hear any difference in sound with the cover off? I doubt it.

A hard plastic shell isn't good at absorbing sound.

It is good at being in the way and hiding cheap workmanship.

Apparently Riswick thinks that the non-dairy creamer cap should be left on. How Canadian!

In any case, this picture should be planting seeds among GM product planners. Rear-engine Lambda CUV, anyone?

-Sadlier

"Its cabin is insulated from noise by a lot of sound-deadening foam, while the fire wall is made of sound-absorbing laminated steel (so-called "quiet steel"). The engine cover provides extra noise insulation while low-noise tensioner is used for cam-drive chain."

Anyone else think that's a really small trunk? I feel like my Fit has more space than that.

its not like the engine was nice looking ethier. Just put the cover back on.

Well that is room behind the 3rd row seats, so it doesn't seem terrible. Looks pretty average to me. And while the fit is room, the 3rd row seat probably has just about as much room as the back seats in the fit.

It is a small trunk, but it's actually a little better than most three-row crossovers. I believe there's a tiny compartment beneath that floor, right? But, if you actually need three rows frequently, these type of vehicles are all but useless.

Sadlier is a damn barbarian! I bet he chews his pen tops too.

Admit it, Josh, you're the type of guy who looses the twisty tie to the loaf bread. Then you twist the bag and tuck it under. That's not good enough! The weight of the remaining bread can't keep out the air and that's why it goes stale!

Someone is gonna get PTSD from your antics.

Before you put that cover back on, hose it off. And yes, it is really anal to be annoyed so much by an engine cover that you'd take it off.

Why is he making such a big deal out of an engine cover? It's present on almost everything single car? So what if it is only held down by the oil cap, it stayed on securely until now, he'd be blissfully ignorant of that fact until he had to add oil to it. I think it's silly the stuff he complains about.

They'll be stripping out the CTS's engiine compartment next.

If the excuse of the cover's usefulness is to dampen engine noise isn't believed, what about stripping out all the plastic from the CTS's engine bay helps with it's weight distribution?

Come on folks. Put the cover back on. It's not like you see it every day. If it gets in the way of your DIY oil changes, invest in a funnel.

"I think it's silly the stuff he complains about."

It's the same as when people complain about hard plastic in the interior. Hard or soft, it doesn't actually matter to the function of the car but it bugs you because you feel the manufactor cheaped out.

I feel the same way about engine covers. I don't want my engine to look like something Fisher Price made.

No it's NOT, you live in the interior, you don't live inside the engine bay. You rarely should see the engine bay. The interior on the other hand, is all you should see if you drive your car from inside the cabin and not from inside the engine bay.

Hard plastic should bug people when you have to constantly see it or come in contact with it, and it looks/feels cheap.

The cover serves more than one purpose anyway.

Who knew small plastic parts could elicit such emotional responses!?

Regarding hard/soft plastic materials in the interior, firstwagon is way off base regarding interior material hardness. Harder plastics have a tendency to squeak more as they vibrate/rub/shake against other materials. Look at the interior of the first generation Mercedes M Class, then see how they significantly reduced the harder plastics in subsequent designs. Mercedes marketed the new interior materials heavily when the second generation came out.

Next topic: if an editor is want to remove parts from an engine bay due solely to his/her perceived aesthetic merit, I would seriously question the judgment of this person. To throw the offending item in the back without any comment or warning to the next driver is irresponsible bordering on criminal.

The engine cover was designed, manufactured, and installed for a reason. One commenter here has suggested it covers up cheap workmanship. I do not equate a design feature that exploits a less-costly manufacturing process as cheap workmanship. I equate poorly designed, unreliable components haphazardly constructed as cheap workmanship.

I would counter the cover allows for reduced design and manufacturing costs which in turn helps to lower the price point at which the car is sold.

If this is one way to help American manufacturers offset the tremendous cost advantage enjoyed my foreign manufacturers, I say bully for GM!

I think it could make a nice plant potter or recycle bin filler. It has no reason to be in the engine bay.

I think all of this is hilarious. The Riz continues to generate discussion with his blog posts.

Am i the only one with engine cover envy here? I open my hood to my legacy and gasp for horror every time... the boxer motor in all it's grandess is actually hideous looking! there are wires all over the place... I would love a big plastic cover to cover that whole mess... then if a tree hugger asks me to see the engine maybe I can trick them into believing it's a battery pack!

How could I be wrong or off base on my opinion? It's my opinion and it based on how I see a car.

I'm an Engineer and a car guy. I see a car as a machine, not a living room. I appreciate the mechanical bits much more the fluff inside. Especially the fluff that does nothing like plastic trim bits.

When I open the hood of my car (which I do more then rarely before I look after it myself), I appreciate a clean, well thought out design.

That's my opinion... and I'm never wrong. :)

Because firstwagon, you made a statement of fact that hard or soft doesn't actually matter to the function of the car. You left the realm of opinion by making a definitive, false statement.

No problem here if your opinion is never wrong.

I learned many years ago that good education helps to minimize the spreading of incorrect opinions (see: middle ages and flat earth theory).

tinyelvis

How is it a false statement? It's completely true. Hard or soft plastic is just personal preference. The car will work as normal even if you took all the trim out. No different then my preference for well designed engine bay.

As for your comments on education and the middle ages...... it would seem to me that comparing the belief that the earth is flat to the trival matter of what type of plastic is used in trim in cars really brings into question your education, not mine.

It is a false statement because harder interior materials lead to squeaks and creaks. That's basic physics. You were wrong, I'm sure it's happened before and it will probably happen again.

You also completely missed the boat on my education comment: it had to do with the formulation of opinions and how people present their opinions as facts, which you did. My comparison also reminds us how dangerous it can be for opinion to overrule facts.

Finally, I did not attack your lack of education, I simply stated how educating one's self leads to conclusions based on facts, not opinion. Now you'd better sit down for this one: learning facts can actually change opinions!

Tinyelvis,

Those SNL sketches were ridiculous, but I still thought Nick Cage was funny in them. They made no sense, but I still grin every time I think about them. Anyway, just wanted to say that...

As I recall, there was a theme song that ended with:

It's Tiny Elviiiiiiiissss !