Circuit Sports Hood Lift Dampers

Correction made - New mounting positions.

I was not looking hard enough. Turns out there's another mounting hole covered behind the plastic fender protector on the same metal brace.

Left side


Right side.


Now the top plastic facia cover is flush.

Cheers,
Bill

I just installed mine. I got it back in April/May when this thread started but lethargy got the best of me. I saw the package on my shelf in the den and got ambitious.

It was super easy and the only caveats I would add are fairly few and minor. Took me about half an hour except that I couldn't find a 10mm socket.

First, they have already added the 3M double sided tape to the "nut" which goes under the crosspiece at the front, so it is fairly simple to insert a skinny long screwdriver through the nut, pass it through the hole from the bottom and pull it tight.

Second, make sure you have a 10mm socket to tighten the bolt on the forward most bracket. Otherwise you will end up with a box wrench making tiny little annoying movements and taking 10 minutes to really tighten the bolt as the space is quite congested. It would have taken 10 seconds with a socket.

Third, you don't really have to remove anything on the passenger side front, you just have to remove two more clips (definitely remove the large panel covering the front behind the grille). Those clips hold the air intake hose, which is rubber and then you can pull it up and bend it over giving you plenty of room to reach under to make sure your nut is placed properly.

Fourth, be careful with that little piece of wire that keeps the ball in the socket. If you aren't careful it will pop out when you are removing it and it is a bear to find on an asphalt driveway. Tiny and gray. Also, rather than try to insert it upside down, insert the one (forward or back) which is rightside up last. Do the one that will end up being upside down while the other end is loose and you can swing the damper wherever you need to in order to insert that circular pin more easily.

Fifth, when you have everything done, carefully, but with strength pull the hood down. I was afraid there was something I forgot to remove it was so hard to close the hood, but after a few seconds it popped and came down and started working perfectly.

Oh, one other thing, when you are tightening the upper bracket, that goes on one of the screws from the hood hinge, try to keep the double sided tape away from the hood so that it will only come in contact as it is almost tight, otherwise it will shift, but grudgingly if you push the tape together and then tighten the bolt. No big deal, but probably a better connection.

I really like this mod. Certainly not flashy, and most people would never notice it, but it is well built and seems to be of good quality.

Thanks for the instructions.

Thanks for sharing. This is a super cool and much needed mod. But I do have a major concern. I was examining the hood of the CT200h and was wondering if the dampers were purposely ommitted due to crush zone requirements as dictated by the NHSTA here in the US. BTW these dampers are OEM in Japanese market Lexus. I just do not want expose myself to insurance liability in the unlikely hood of a frontal collision and then find out that I did a mod to jeopardize the structural integrity of the vehicle. CT200h was well rated for sustaining frontal impact without damages to the cabin. There must be a reason other than economical to eliminate the dampers. They did not shave in cost by putting all those ridiculous plastic cover plates in the engine compartment. I do not believe an average Lexus owner will ever open the hood, as matte rof fact this was the highly promoted when I got my rx300 some ten years ago.

I remember similar story with Peugeot 505 sedan in the 70's where the windshield dropped after sustaining a frontal collision decapitating all four members of the family in the car. Peugeot like the dead family, never survived this incident and pulled out of the US market, and they have yet to come back.

There are lots of reasons why Peugot (and Renault) are not in the US market, including some incredible interior convenience decisions. I once had a Renault dealership for a client and got a demo, which my wife drove. It had the "full convenience and power" package, and among many, many ideosincrasies, it included power windows for only the front doors. Yes, the ones she could reach she could lower from her seat, the ones in the back she couldn't. It also had serious reliability issues and when she got stranded in Overtown, the area where the riots occurred during the super Bowl, we gave back the demo and bought a (different) car. I enjoyed driving some of their cars, and they were really interesting but they were not built for the American drivers. You had to check the fluid levels regularly, etc. Things many of our neighbors choose not to do. I always wanted one of those slick Citroen's you see the bad guys driving in old European movies.

To address your specific comment, I can't imagine that something that thin, which compresses to half it's length would have any effect on the crushability.

let me first say that i'm not criticizing anyone for doing this mod. we all like to customize our cars or else we wouldn't be here. if you find value in hood dampers or just think it's cool more power to you.

i have certain criteria for modding my car. a mod has to be something that i use regularly or can be seen regularly (alters appearance for the better). below is list of mods i use regularly:

backup cam: used almost daily
tpms light bypass: removes annoying tpms light that i would see everyday in the winter
led interior lights: daily/nightly
underseat lights: only noticed by backseat passengers at night. but noticed EVERYTIME they enter the car.
shark fin antenna: pending - would be seen daily
hids: pending - would use nightly
sound system upgrade: pending - would use daily

i'm glad you get a lot of use out of your dampers. that certainly makes the mod worthwhile. however, most people will not get as much use out of this as you do. 90% of people will only see the engine bay 2x / year IF they do their own maintenance.

it's your car. everyone has different values. i'm not poo poo-ing anyone for doing this mod.

good tip about wiping the plastics. i handwash my car as well and never thought to clean up the plastics.

i'll agree with you on the windshield fluid statement. i think most people would interpret what i said about 2x/year as routine scheduled maintenance. in my case it's every 6 months or 8000kms (5000 miles). it goes without saying that you need to go in there to replace wiper fluid because that is NOT a schedulable maintenance item. you don't know when you'll run out.

as for checking oil... i stand by my 2x / year comment. that IS a schedulable maintenance item. i don't check my oil in between oil changes because i don't need to. a properly maintained car should never consume or leak oil. if your car was aging and you know it to be a risk, then sure, check it. but on my brand new CT? give me a break.

you don't have to open your hood to check for "loose things" or "oil level" any more than your maintenance schedule. that's why the schedule exists. can you check those things more often than your schedule suggests? sure. do you have to? no. does you owner's manual recommend you check fluids more often than your scheduled service checks. yes. do you have to in order to maintain your warranty? no.

so my update: 2x/year + 6 times/yr to replace the wiper fluid if you used a ton of fluid. that's about once every 6 weeks. or every 2 months if you don't do your own maintenance. more like every 4 months considering lexus will top up the fluid for you during service checks.

just keeping it real. hood dampers that i only use every 2 months? i'm gonna pass but if i used it every week it would be different.