Page 1 of 3

Oil Cooler Duct/Air Guide

Posted: Sat Dec 28, 2019 7:57 pm
by Mɐʇʇ
How much of your plastic is broken? Every time I even looked at the oil cooler plastic, another piece falls off - it's made of such crap plastic.
I decided I didn't want to put a POS like that back on, nor did I want to give audi 180 quid for another bit to fall apart.
So I made a new one out of 1.5mm NS4 aluminium.

Total cost - £27.66 for a sheet of 1.5mm thick 900x300 NS4 ali from https://www.merlinmotorsport.co.uk/
Plus a few 3.2mm rivets and 4x 5mm bolts, nuts & washers.

Mostly went OK, although I am a bit miffed that the lower panel isn't exactly true - has a very slight curve in where it's pulled by the brace.

Sizing up the old POS:
20191227_231147968_iOS.jpg
Making a kit of the parts:
20191228_132013515_iOS.jpg
Trial fit with skin pins
20191228_150036114_iOS.jpg
Looks alright
20191228_163247416_iOS.jpg
Final fit
20191228_182231184_iOS.jpg
20191228_182248077_iOS.jpg

Re: Oil Cooler Duct/Air Guide

Posted: Sat Dec 28, 2019 8:06 pm
by Shoppinit
Very tidy. :thumbs:

For your next challenge: undertray.

Re: Oil Cooler Duct/Air Guide

Posted: Sat Dec 28, 2019 9:03 pm
by Mɐʇʇ
Doable, I'm sure. But on a cost benefit basis, an undertray is 250 quid which looks like decent value compared to 180 for the small thing above.

Re: Oil Cooler Duct/Air Guide

Posted: Sun Dec 29, 2019 10:19 am
by IchBautAuto
SRS recently had a batch of under trays made up for the B5 RS4 in GRP. They look quite swish so perhaps someone local could look at the same thing. Freight would kill it for me, if I needed one.

Re: Oil Cooler Duct/Air Guide

Posted: Sun Dec 29, 2019 10:22 am
by Mɐʇʇ
My other hobby is boats (building powerboats) - so I could do a GRP one no problem.
Cost/benefit though - while it's available from Audi for 250GBP, the cost & effort of making the mould for a low volume run just doesn't stack up.

Re: Oil Cooler Duct/Air Guide

Posted: Sun Dec 29, 2019 11:44 am
by Shoppinit
I thought they were NLA, then they became A again, but with terrible build quality. And possibly now NLA again anyway.

Re: Oil Cooler Duct/Air Guide

Posted: Sun Dec 29, 2019 2:01 pm
by Mɐʇʇ
I saw the part number was dropped and is now superceded.

Apparently they've decided brake pads might not be NLA either - and that there was stock in Germany all along, despite being listed as NLA. Pretty frustrating, but they're only interested in new stuff, of course. A customer ordering by part number - well - I'm a bit of a dinosaur I guess.

Re: Oil Cooler Duct/Air Guide

Posted: Mon Jan 13, 2020 2:56 pm
by airtite
This will be my next project, just enquired today how much an air duct was from my local dealer. Its crazy expensive.

Re: Oil Cooler Duct/Air Guide

Posted: Mon Jan 13, 2020 3:02 pm
by Mɐʇʇ
It fits well. Some other pics of it here : viewtopic.php?f=2&t=113332&p=928673#p928673

Re: Oil Cooler Duct/Air Guide

Posted: Mon Jan 13, 2020 3:17 pm
by airtite
hey Matt, you dont still have the dimensions of the pieces you cut? My OEM one is pretty much completely destroyed so not much I can use.

Re: Oil Cooler Duct/Air Guide

Posted: Mon Jan 13, 2020 3:22 pm
by Mɐʇʇ
I'm sorry, I didn't, I didn't think about it until too late (bumper is now back on).

Re: Oil Cooler Duct/Air Guide

Posted: Mon Jan 13, 2020 3:30 pm
by airtite
no problem.

Re: Oil Cooler Duct/Air Guide

Posted: Mon Jan 13, 2020 3:36 pm
by Mɐʇʇ
You can see how many bits my old plastic one was in - so I kinda just had to guess a bit on the new ali one.

Re: Oil Cooler Duct/Air Guide

Posted: Mon Jan 13, 2020 3:39 pm
by Shoppinit
Suppose the downside to this is that if you have a small shunt you might push the fins into the cooler. Avoid running into things is the solution I guess.

Re: Oil Cooler Duct/Air Guide

Posted: Mon Jan 13, 2020 4:15 pm
by Mɐʇʇ
I take your point, but I'd also argue such a marginal difference though. If you have a chance to design the crash so that a "plastic" crash doesn't damage the cooler, you'd be as well off to design not crashing. I've always felt the best way to avoid damaging things in a crash is to try and avoid crashing as much as possible. I've not always been successful at that, admittedly, though.

I did actually consider making a carbon fibre one - I have a bit of spare carbon sheet and aluminium angle kicking around I could have used - but I think by and large aluminium suits the car better (mine is an aluminium interior trim one, not carbon). Plus you can "tweak" aluminium to fit a bit.