Rubber surrounds around the hood hinges

[bigd65]

The rubber surrounds around the hood hinges, are the important. What is their real purpose. Mine were painted, when the truck was painted. Now I am cleaning up the cowl area before I re-install the cowl and was wondering if I need to replace or can I leave them off. I'm not real sure they even show much. But wondering their purpose

[Tx Firefighter]

The way I look at it, GM wouldn't have installed them on all the trucks if hey were unnecessary. That's a lot of trucks and a lot of money they could have saved by deleting them if they didn't serve a valid purpose. I'm sure Keith Seymore could offer some insight.

[bigd65]

I found on another post that were to divert water (rain) from going into the cowl area. Also to help seal out engine fumes from getting into the blower area so the fumes would not enter the cabin area.... Thanks though !!!!! I figured they had some intended purpose !

[tucsonjwt]

I bought replacement hinge pads from LMC and they are very thin and not very sturdy - nothing like the original pads. So, if you can find used pads with some life left in them, I would go that way. I don't think the LMC pads do very much good. I am getting a lot of rainwater in the cab after installing the LMC pads, so I don't know if they had anything to do with the leak. I have been disappointed with the poor quality of LMC parts lately.

[bigd65]

Mine are still together, just the guy PAINTED THEM !!!!!