Is this a "costly disaster wiating to happen"?

Check out the attached picture below first and tell me what you see.
 

Thumbnail Image


An Outie, right? Ok, fine. But now, look below the "Outlander" frontal plate. Look to the right.... do you see that metallic "thing" in front of the radiator? Can you see (even in this small pic) the open grill showing the ATF cooler line (or the A/C line - cannot recall which one that is)?

Does it bother you that, this line is completely exposed and vulnerable to a rock flying off behind a truck could bust this? I had this happen in a Miata and it was $600 to replace the radiator and $75 for the additional part!!
 
I already have a small dent on my lower part of the radiator, clearly from a flying rock.  Should I risk another one that could hit the line and bust it?

So, I got some hardware cloth (1/4" and galvanized) and cut it to fit and am working on putting it in the area to enable airflow and offer protection against the rocks, but only until the aftermarket part comes out. What would you do to fix this problem? How would you handle it?

Have you seen any aftermarket (or manufacturer's part) to cover this grill and protect it from flying rocks and yet still let enough air flow through?? When I say "cover" I don't mean block airflow. I mean kinda like a "net" which enables air to pass through.

Seriously dude, I feel sorry for your dealership! What if you were to run over a nail and burst an exposed tire, what if a rock hit your brake line somewhere underneath or burst your fuel tank!

quote:

ORIGINAL: zontarh

Seriously dude, I feel sorry for your dealership!

Exactly Z....wow dood seriously.
 

you're really picking the fly crap out of the pepper with this one.

im not sure if you realize it, but ALL cars have their radiators or a/c condensors exposed. 
you may as well complain about the fact that your windowshield could be chipped by a rock, because its located up front.

  Had the Lancer Ralliart since it came out, pretty much the same setup(lower right lines exposed), I drove a lot on the highway, making long trips from NC to Miami FL. The radiator had signs of bombardment from small rocks and I'm sure at some point those lines got hit... and gues what? nothing happened. I'm sure they had this in mind when they put that honeycomb grill in there, since anything that makes it through it is not likely to do any serious damage, but anything large enough to will be stoped by it. Of course theres always the once in a blue moon situations were anything can happen, but hey thats life.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Manybrews

you're really picking the fly crap out of the pepper with this one.

im not sure if you realize it, but ALL cars have their radiators or a/c condensors exposed. 
you may as well complain about the fact that your windowshield could be chipped by a rock, because its located up front.

Hahahaha....

HAHAHAHAHA I think he just said picking fly crap out of pepper!!!!
 
Also if lines that need air flow to cool them down are hidden and wrapped in some kind of protectant then how would they cool down? These lines are designed to be in the direct flow of the air. Have you ever driven or owned a car that caught a rock to any line on your car and broke it?

LOL, that is the funniest thing I have ever read.
No seriously, christian, You worry to much, go to your doctor, and get put on some zoloft dude.
It will come you down, and help with the free-floating anxiety thing you have going on. Its a non-issue. The canches of you ever hitting that piece are slim to none, and just to go a step further, I went outside, and checked my own, the only part of it showing is the huge thick machined aluminum connector, the chance of that getting puntured is about a zillion to one.
Also, your all worried about the a/c line, and havent said a word about all those holes in the grill that are just open. I mean damn, the radiator is right behind that, what if a rock comes through there and punctures your radiator. Or worse, right behind that is the motor, what if a rock flies through there at mach 9, shatters the radiator in a million pieces, splits the fan blade in half, and goes right into the oil filter thats on the front of the block, holy ****.
MITSU, MITSUBISHI.... GOD-DAM-NIT, WHERE THE HELL ARE THEY, GOD-DAM-NIT  KYLE YOU FUC-KIN JEW. MITSUBISHI, IS JEOPARDIZING THE FATE OF THE WORLD. THEY HAVE TO FIX THIS RADIATOR THING NOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.

Speaking of worries, I dont wana start a new thread for this so I'll go a bit off topic on this one. Has any one noticed the steering to be a bit harder on our vehicles than most? I mean like when you turn the steering weel it feels a bit harder to turn than lets say my old lancer RA, I know its a bigger car, but is this normal? or should I have it cheked? 

I did notice the steering was different than the first gen outlander..but I really like that's it's stiff when you turn.

Steering is looser in 2WD and tighter in 4WD. And that's the only reason I ever use 2WD.
However, even in 2WD steering is much harder than my Sienna. Steering ratio and turns lock to lock seem similar (15.97 vs 15.5 and 3.16 vs 3.4), so I'm not sure what's the difference, 18" vs. 16" maybe?

quote:

ORIGINAL: OTO27

Speaking of worries, I dont wana start a new thread for this so I'll go a bit off topic on this one. Has any one noticed the steering to be a bit harder on our vehicles than most? I mean like when you turn the steering weel it feels a bit harder to turn than lets say my old lancer RA, I know its a bigger car, but is this normal? or should I have it cheked? 

Christian,

I kinda with you on this one. The holes in the grill are much too large. I already have a number of small dings on my radiator.
I have seen similar issues on other vehicles, and the mods normally involved hardware wires or mesh (small mesh chicken wire or large mesh mosquito net). These are normally cut to size, painted and attached over the existing grille. I guess similar to what you're doing now. Because the existing grille holes are so large, a slight reduction should not affect air flow.
The only after market grilles I've seen made explicitly for this type of application are for show cars, and they normally look like small mesh chicken wire.

quote:

ORIGINAL: maharajah

Christian,

I kinda with you on this one. The holes in the grill are much too large. I already have a number of small dings on my radiator.
I have seen similar issues on other vehicles, and the mods normally involved hardware wires or mesh (small mesh chicken wire or large mesh mosquito net). These are normally cut to size, painted and attached over the existing grille. I guess similar to what you're doing now. Because the existing grille holes are so large, a slight reduction should not affect air flow.
The only after market grilles I've seen made explicitly for this type of application are for show cars, and they normally look like small mesh chicken wire.

The upper and lower sports mesh grill is available in Europe. As far as I'm aware it's purely for cosmetic purposes although it would do the job.

Which is why it's so frustrating here in the states. It seems Australia, Europe, and Japan have all the nice accessories for the Outlander, and here we can't even get rubber floor mats.

Yeah but we're the ones paying double what you guys pay in the states, $49,257 to be precise. sh*t happens! 

49k! Where do you live? I would of bought one for 30k here and sold it to you for 40k , you still save 10k.

I went down to my local hardware store and bought a  3' sq. piece of bulk window screen.  I rough measured about 28" W X 25" L and fitted the screen down through the top of the radiator support, of course, in front of the a/c condensor.  I had to remove the air cleaner intake from the box to the inlet.  Just two small plastic screws and plastic bushings hold the front of the air snorkel to support.  I used some safety wire and attached the screen to holes in the top of the radiator support.  I didn't attach the bottom, but it extends a little further than the a/c condenser by about 2 to 3".   Putting the air cleaner snorkel back in was a little bit of a snag, with the screen material being in close proximity, but just take your time.  Putting the airbox back together correctly was the hardest part.  The bottom has two square pegs that fit into associated holes and the top has only two snaps.  I found the only way to really know both of the bottom pegs were in was to take the air filter out  put the bottom together first then like a clamshell, open the top and fit the airfilter down in making sure the bottom stays together.   No big deal,  only cost me about $5.   Cheap way to keep bugs and other debris from impacting and or clogging the condenser and thus cutting down airflow to the radiator.  And no,  I didn't notice my temperature running any hotter or electric cooling fans turning on any sooner. 
 
 
2007 Outlander XLS AWD
 
 
JH

quote:

ORIGINAL: antlip

49k! Where do you live? I would of bought one for 30k here and sold it to you for 40k , you still save 10k.

 
 
UK. You don't get all the goodies and your steering wheel is on the wrong side lol. The Japanese had to do all that work to put it on the other side for you guys and yet you still get it dirt cheap, not fair.

quote:

ORIGINAL: antlip

Also if lines that need air flow to cool them down are hidden and wrapped in some kind of protectant then how would they cool down? These lines are designed to be in the direct flow of the air. Have you ever driven or owned a car that caught a rock to any line on your car and broke it?

    Yes, I have had that happen before. $600 + $70 to fix it.     I know all cars have that issue with the lower area being totally exposed, but really, in the Mitsu the lines are totally out in front of the radiator, while in many other (if not all) other vehicles I have owned, the lines were inside or behind the radiator.  Thank God, the only car that I have had an issue with was a '92 Miata.      You know, some people laughed, but really, it IS an issue and I will remedy it with 1/4" hardware cloth. I will take a pic of what I am using. It doesn't block air flow at all (we have tested it) and it would block the biggest rocks... yes the small ones would get through, but no damage done (other than bending the radiator aluminum), but that is acceptable.     Don't get me wrong, I don't need my car to be inside a bubble, I know you can be hit with rocks on the windshield, matter of fact, that has happened once too often. But losing an A/C condenser line... that is REALLY messed up... and expensive!       I guess the joke is on people who KNOW about this and they get hit with a  rock on their A/C condenser and then they start yelling "fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck" for 1/2 an hour non-stop, while stopped on the side of the road and people driving by thinking "Geeez... another crack user... what is happening to our world".     I have actually seen it happen to someone else. This one guy had the same problem, but in a amateur track outside Orlando.... he wasn't too happy. I certainly could relate. I learned my lesson after that Miata... in fact people from my car club were like "dude, why didn't you put a net over or (not a pool screen, but the hardware cloth)"?   I felt stupid for not doing anything to prevent the time the rock busted my A/C condensor... but lesson learned. I drove a month and a half without A/C and in FL that is not fun. Now I think I ought to tell you about the issue and let you decide whether or not to put some kind of net... which of course, should NOT restrict airflow... that is why Hardware cloth (1/4") seem to be the way to go.

quote:

ORIGINAL: zontarh

quote:

ORIGINAL: maharajah

Christian,

I kinda with you on this one. The holes in the grill are much too large. I already have a number of small dings on my radiator.
I have seen similar issues on other vehicles, and the mods normally involved hardware wires or mesh (small mesh chicken wire or large mesh mosquito net). These are normally cut to size, painted and attached over the existing grille. I guess similar to what you're doing now. Because the existing grille holes are so large, a slight reduction should not affect air flow.
The only after market grilles I've seen made explicitly for this type of application are for show cars, and they normally look like small mesh chicken wire.

The upper and lower sports mesh grill is available in Europe. As far as I'm aware it's purely for cosmetic purposes although it would do the job.

  Zontarh:   Oh, my radiator is getting dingged up as well... two small dings so far, but who knows what the future will hold for my radiator!  If I remember my Miata's radiator correctly, oit got so dinged up, my mechanic said I should either take a small knife and GENTLY straighten them out to ensure proper airflow or, since they had to replace the Condenser, we ended up replacing teh radiator, as it had a big hole in it.   Hey, those are some cool pics of that grill. I WISH they sold it here.... I have had no luck finding it on eBay and cannot seem to find that accessory anywhere else.   Do you have any website links for European Mistu dealers who sell that mesh grill?? I would get one for the lower part of the radiator in a heartbeat!!   Thanks for the great post! I definitely like the pics!

You need to start at the Ireland website under the "OWNING" tab and then go down to accessories. The Uk one isn't up to date yet, still struggling to get the car let alone the accessories, the outi was only released here on the 1st of this month, I think each dealership only has one outi each for demo's.  http://www.mitsubishi-motors.ie/contentv3/      After intro on this website go to "LOOKS" tab then choose accessories. Euro dealer locator tab at the bottom.  http://www.newoutlander.com/swf/index.jsp?language=default

Holy freakin crap. It just happened to me today, driving along with my wife and daughter on our way to lowes this morning, out of no-where, this big freading dump truck pulls out in front of me carrying a load of gravel, well what do you know. One dropped and hit the ground, bounced twice, and went right into this very line christian was talking bout. Do you guys think mitsu will cover this under warranty?

nah, I lied, I was just making that crap up, there is no way that would ever happen.
Hey, I do know a guy that did get his gas tank punctured driving down the interstate, and a rock, no **** really did fly up and pop a small hole in his fuel tank... Guess I'll go outside and add some 1 inch think steel armor plate under mine, dont want that happening.
Come to think of it, i had circuit city install a sub for me years back, they ran one of the screws through the 1/8 inch think cover for the spare tire, it went through that, and you guesses it, punctured the tire. While I'm out there armour plating my effen radiator, windshield, mirrors, and gas tank. I think I'll throw some around the spare too. Cant ever bee to safe now can you. Then again, I could just go buy a tank. that would solve alot of worries.

After that post this will happen to you for real lol

If Christian finds out where you live he'll be taking a hammer out to your AC line in the night lol