What happened to radiator grilles?

[suffolkpete]

My daughter's just paid out nearly £800 to have the air conditioning condenser replaced on her two year old Clio after a stone (allegedly) punctured it. Who in the name of sanity decided to mount such a vulnerable component low down on the front of the car with such minimal protection against debris? The other problem with this model, and a lot of others, is that the condenser is part of the radiator. The whole assembly costs about £360 and you can't replace one without the other.

[Maaarrghk]

Might be worth having a word with the Renault mechanics (sorry, TECHNICIANS) to see if this is a common occurrence.

[Mitsuru]

Might be an idea to fabricate a guard to protect it form future debris damaging it.
When you look at some of these boy racer/decked out type hatchbacks on thing
I noticed is the wire mesh inserts they put into the body kit holes.

Although the boy racers are trying to copy real race and rally cars, the fact that
they are copying them means that there will be kits available to make decent a
looking protection grill guard.

As regarding getting the manufacturers to change the design on future vehicles,
you have a snowballs chance in hell of getting them to do that. How many years
have manufacturers known that if you place the air intake very low that the
suction from the engine will make the intake tube act like a straw and make the
water be sucked straight into the block!

Manufacturers do these things so the general public are forced to buy the
manufacturers parts only at a grossly over inflated price, so they can rack even
more money in off the gullable public!

[MidgetSaab]

I had a 2001 Honda Accord that was to all intents and purposes immaculate at 8 years old but the condensor come radiator below the bumper line could have been 20 years older.
There's lots of suppliers on ebay selling ally mesh that's easily cut to size, I used a dremel to cut mine to shape and cable tied it in place on the midget valance air intakes that serve the oil cooler. I bought mine at Race Retro last year, a good place for bits like that quite apart from the displays.

[Martin Evans]

I'm glad I don't own a modern I suppose when they cram more and more (Some may say gimmicky) things into cars, they have to find places to put them. As I understand it diesel Mondeos have some kind of ECU under the right front wheelarch, which doesn't seem an ideal place for such a unit (Said to cost £2500).

When the electric wondows go (Apparently Renault ones are not the best, inners aren't stainless steel), I know a man who fixes them He buys 90m at a time of bicycle brake outer cable from us (It's of a higher quality than OE) for use on electric windows.

The oil cooler on my MG Midget is in the aperture, under the front bumper (Aftermarket fitment), so I made a guard for it.