Air Con Condenser damaged by stone

[golfdave]

Right then ................done some digging around via ETKA & partsbase

""""""My previous post

1K0 820 746 Grill
3D0 867 646 Clips 8 required

These parts need double checking if some one can do this................ """"""


Those two items are the stone guard grille & clips for the "Showa" branded condenser (code 1K0 820 411Q) as fitted to some MK7 Golfs (1KD chassis), Skoda Octavia Scout, MK6 Golfs, some A3's etc...............

However most newer mk7 Golfs with a AU chassis have a "Modine" branded condenser (5Q0 816 411M)...........

At the moment there is no grill for the Modine condenser according to ETKA, VWUK, etc.................& the "Showa" stone guard WILL NOT fit!!

Had a good measure with a mates MK6 (Showa) & my MK7 (Modine)......

The "Showa" condenser has 10 rows of fins per 10cm height, the Modine has 13 rows of fins per 10cm height, so the guard rails will not line up on the Modine horizontal bars/pipes!

BUGGER!!!!........

 

[Woo58]

Used the black plastic Gutter mesh cut to fit on my Saab 93 when the condenser on that got punctured, held it on with small tywraps.

Will probably do the same on the Golf though not sure how it will affect the warranty.

 

[Sandman GTI]

Got my car back yesterday and have to commend VW Chester on charging for the time it actually took them to do the job rather than the card rate. Still was approx £500 tho...

Having looked at the general damage caused to the condenser by flying objects in little more than 10k miles I have to say that I'm surprised there isn't more protection in front of it.

There is a gap in the plastic grill around the radar mount which is large enough to allow a fair sized stone to pass. It appears that this is what caused the damage to the condenser on my car. If it can happen once, it can happen again no doubt. I'll be looking to provide some more protection to the condenser behind the radar sensor if I can. See pics for details.

http://i.imgur.com/cAX9sA2.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/hGN3Kso.jpg

That radar hole is huge. That is not a good design!

 

[jwilkins88]

Damn... I never had any issues like that with my front mount on my Mazda, and it had a very similar grill design.

It had a few dings in it when the car was totaled, but nothing like that

 

[Midlifecrisis=GTi]

Yikes, in my area it's like driving on fire track the surface is soooo bad, I guess I'm going for the chav look and do a macgyver special, duct tape and chicken wire mesh anyone?

 

[lucyfek]

most of vehicles have lower grille with fairly large openings to improve cooling efficiency. Though, unless one was using AC - closing up the grille may streamline aerodynamics and improve efficiency (not sure about turbo-ed engine and it's increased dependence on cooling system). I never realized/elaborated over the fact that the front radiator is used by AC condenser. Never had worried about the rad debris but once I ran over a fox at 65+mph and even though the radiator bottom got bent a little (had to replace some plastic pieces of wind deflector as well) but the AC remains cold 10 years later. Not a VW but so what. I guess one more reason not to pay for extra features - it's the radar detector opening that increased the possibility of this kind of accidental damage and not the rest of the standard grille.

 

[mkygod]

Sorry to dig this therad back up, but I just wanna say that I just had mine dinged too. No leakage yet that I can see. I wonder if putting up some kind of mesh or chicken wire would be a good idea to save stones from hitting the condenser.

 

[ColinStone]

I fitted a fairly open diamond mesh, from eBay with holes roughly 12mm x 5 mm, to stop the larger stones that would damage the condenser on my MkIV Golf. As I had the front dismantled to replace condenser and radiator, it was easy to fit behind bumper grille. No affect on AC or mpg and I don't think that size mesh will have any affect on efficiency.
Was going to do the same on MKVII but Bluemotion has lamellae controlled by ECU. When closed nothing gets through. Might still do it when I work out how often lamellae are more than partly open.
Looking at 1 year old VW group cars on the forecourts the damage to condensers is shocking. Planned obsolescence.
Condenser should be around £100.

 

[marnie]

It would be nice if AC condensers were made of something other than cheese, considering how expensive they are.

 

[RadioFlyer]

thread revival

I got this panel in the mail today, plan to install it sooner than later:


I did the same thing for my wife's [new] CRV after reading about some unlucky driver got nicked.
The CRV had no protection whatsoever:

 

[Ghawkins]

It would be nice if AC condensers were made of something other than cheese, considering how expensive they are.

A/C condensers are made of folded aluminum not much heavier gauge than household foil. If they were made of heavier material, they would not be as efficient at rejecting heat from the refrigerant. As mentioned by others, any kind of protective mesh would lower the efficiency as well. Have had this happen a few times in the past. First experience was a '78 VW Scirocco. I found a generic condenser that bolted in. Total cost including charging the system was $55.00. Similar experiences since were more expensive.

 

[ColinStone]

The grill would lower the efficiency of the condenser, which raises emissions and lowers mpg. It's a compromise made by vw.

Don't think a mesh grille will have any affect at all. The Bluemotion has a set of lamellae behind the bumper grille and in front of the radiator and condenser. This open and closes depending on engine temp. Hoping that it stays shut or only partially open most of the time to deflect stones.

On my MkIV Golf I replaced condenser and while bumper was off fitted a mesh grille to catch the larger condenser damaging stones. Similar to www.ebay.co.uk item 330586124599. No discernible effect on anything.

Still might fit mesh to MKVII, and the bumper is still probably fairly simple to remove.

 

[The Fed]

I would only protect the area around and behind the radar emitter/receiver. That's where most of the fins are bent.