Auto Hood-Liner
An automotive hoodliner is an essential piece of your car’s protective equipment. Attached to the underside of your car’s hood, the hoodliner prevents the extreme heat of the engine and other components in the engine compartment from transferring that heat to the hood, causing warping, paint and finish melting, and other safety issues. The hoodliner also acts as a heat disperser, helping the engine stay cool by drawing the engine’s heat into the hoodliner and dispersing it more effectively. A hoodliner is also an essential element in protecting the driver and passengers in the event of an engine fire, blocking flames and heat from reaching the car’s occupants. Most cars are also designed to allow the hoodliner’s attachments to quickly melt in the event of a fire, allowing the liner to fall onto the flames and help to smother them.
Hood-Liners and asbestos
Obviously, being exposed to high heat for prolonged periods of time requires special materials which are heat resistant, while at the same time being malleable enough to conform to the contours of the hoods of many different makes and models of automobiles and other vehicles. Prior to the mid-1980s, the material which fit the bill perfectly was asbestos.
Cheap, plentiful, and extremely heat-resistant, asbestos allowed automotive and auto parts manufacturers to provide all the protective benefits of a hoodliner, while keeping costs low. Comprised of millions of tiny fibers, asbestos also allows itself to be easily combined with other materials and formed into any number of desired molds or shapes, making it an ideal material to conform to the vastly varying contours of different makes and models of automobiles.
But it’s also those very fibers that makes asbestos so dangerous to those who work or live in close contact with them. When a hoodliner begins to wear out, is removed, or even scraped or abraded during something as simple as a typical oil check, those tiny, lightweight fibers can easily become airborne, and be inhaled by anyone in the area. This means that even if you are not a professional mechanic, any time you check your oil, radiator fluid, or windshield washer fluid, anytime your battery terminals need cleaning or your car needs a jump, you are in danger of releasing and inhaling tiny particles from the hoodliner.
Last modified: December 28, 2010.
