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jimbo

Broken Intercooler air scoop

174 posts in this topic

I was under a friend's smart this weekend and noticed that his has a 8 inch piece of rubber near the rear of the car on the left side that funnels air to the small intercooler radiator in the engine compartment. I thought that it was odd because I had never seen this part on my car. I looked underneath my car again and could see that mine has snapped off, probably very early on after I bought the car. I'd like to know how important this is to the turbo on the car and whether or not I can get it repaired on warrenty. Has anyone else had experience with this part breaking off? When I look at the poor method that was chosen to mount the part, it is mounted on brittle plastic the breaks very easily, I would think that many cars would have the same problem.

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Yep. The break on mine is a little more artistic (jagged, like the rocky mountains), but that's the spot exactly. There must be another earlier thread about this or you've been waiting for one, because that picture was posted so quickly my head is spinning.

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Imagine my horror today when I looked under my car and found this as well.......... Im wondering if this is causing some of my recent problems....loss of power on extended highway drives (safe mode??) On a trip to Grove City Pensylvannia last weekend I had to stop once both ways due to power loss.......... turn the car off wait for the reset then power it back on.........and all is well again........unless you push the car too hard.....

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Hmm, is your car remapped? I wouldn't have thought that a stock car would throw a limp mode due to a missing intercooler scoop, but maybe it could.

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no remap..............if you push the car for extended periods it happens highway driving.........

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One way to find out....snag Jillian's scoop and go for a LONG drive ;)

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I just had a look at mine....its still there...but it seems to be a rubbery piece that "clips" onto the vertical piece. It wouldnt take much...like snow to peel that right off! there is nothing holding it other than friction...from what I could see!as the French say....c'est fromage!

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I'm getting a price right now from MB Oakville Autohaus - if it's more than like $40 or something I'm just going to rig up my own with some plastic sheet and zipties.-Iain

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I wonder how effective this one is with all the brake lines hanging in front of it like that anyways.

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- it's designed to come off if it's hit hard. Imagine the alternative... - a 5-10% obstruction in the airflow by cables etc won't matter.Bil :sun:

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yeah but the interesting thing is how does hitting something that is enough to peel off the rubber flap....not tear out the brakelines at the same time.If you look at the scoop head on its a 5-10% obstruction... but its also going to act like a dam and deflect more than 5-10% or the airflow into the scoop. or not? not sure!

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I'm guessing mine dissapeared last winter in snow, there were several times when I "floated" across thick, heavy snow at 100 km/h +. I'm sure all 4 wheels were off the pavement and I was riding on the underbelly! :lol:-Iain

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Price is $52 for the new entire cover piece w. flap, installation cost negligible (quoted as 0.2 hours).-Iain

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I am assuming that mine came off while snowbound as well........ I find it interesting though that it wasn't noticed or mentioned when the intercooler was just replaced......

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Well. I checked mine last night and I had difficulty even finding where it should have been! Mine was broken off exactly like the photos, with a smooth eliptical break to the vertical inlet wall. I know I got stuck on several snow ridges last winter so it probably came off then but it could even have been the previous winter. I have tried to be careful about mounting snow as I was worried about breaking the undertray but what concerns me now is that the car has had regular servicing from MB and they have not noticed the missing/damaged part!On the plus side of things I haven't noticed any tendancy to go to limp mode or associated loss of power. I'll let you know if anything turns up during our Tennesse cruise.

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I talked with Hyatt Auto in Calgary today and they told me to bring the car in so that they can see the problem and order the part for the intercooler air scoop. Hopefully they'll replace it as a warrenty item, but even if they do, I can see this part breaking again in short order. It's not robust enough given it's location and exposure to harse conditions (snow and ice, speed bumps ect...). I'm thinking of re-enforcing the plastic with galvanized metal clading or sandwiching more plastic with epoxy glue to make it more durable. Perhaps the rubber part could be fixed so that if it does get hit hard, it would peel off and not break the plastic it's attached to. If this happened, and it did peel off, it could have short retaining wires so that the part would not be lost and could be reattached easily. The original design it pretty poor to begin with. It does the job but very flimsy and cheap.

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I would imagine making a stiffer, harder reinforced air scoop might lead to worse breaks deeper in the engine compartment, or worse yet, the whole duct being torn off.Why not design a hinged part that's designed to "break away" when it comes in contact with snow/ice/speed bumps and then springs back into position?

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This is one of several features of the fortwo that are not 100% suitable for Canadian weather and road conditions as compared to European or UK conditions.If you have devised a creative workaround, please share with the community!B:sun:

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I've been thinking about a spring loaded hinged mechanism as well. Probably trickier to design and implement, but definitely the best solution to the problem. I'll post the results if I have a chance to do something over the coming weeks.

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Once again, you live in a fantasyland of perfect weather and perfect roads. Some parts of the country actually get four distinct seasons, with snow in three of them and road construction in the remaining one.

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OK so I really hadn't had the chance to monitor the car or the inlet air temp as I have been on holidays I but have been back to work now the last two days. Highway speeds without driving the car hard AKA sticking to the speed limit have resulted in the air temp hovering in and around 44 to 45 degrees. Tonight I bodged together two pieces of packing material (ABS packing corners) that I had lying around the house and bolted them together and then bolted them to what was left of the intercooler housing. They are quite rigid and will suit the purpose for testing tomorrow to see how or what affect they produce on the car............ didn't think of taking pictures and dont feel like lifting the car again, maybe tomorrow if the results are favourable....... but I will let you know how it goes..... I would probably be more inclined to reuse what is left of the intercooler housing to make a more Canadian environment friendly solution......... rather than installing a new "same" part which will probably just result in the same breakage again later

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I think if a hinged scoup could be frabricated at a reasonable price , it would certainly be an item that is marketable???I know I would be interested in one if it wasn't too terribly expensive.Be better to fix and solve the issue before it becomes a problem for thosr of us that haven't broke it YET. :dunno:

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