What troubles can the driver expect from the protective mesh in the grille

Auto dealers are profit-driven, and car manufacturers indulge them by allowing them to do work on their products that is, at times, downright disastrous. All costs, of course, are borne by the car owner - first, by paying for an unnecessary option, and then, the repair to which it led. The AvtoVzglyad portal found out what threatens the installation of a seemingly useful radiator protection in the form of a grid.

When buying a new car, dealers impose a huge number of options. Let's leave out the fact that the price tag for which they sell them to new car owners and the cost of installation work go beyond all limits. Some of them are simply not needed, or even harm the car's systems.

Take, for example, one of the most trendy options - a mesh under the grille. Dealers swear by all the Gods that this is a great blessing that is worth the money invested in it, and this, by the way, is from 5 rubles and more, depending on the area of ​​\u000b\u300bprotection. And this is at the real price of the grating itself from 20 rubles per plate 100xXNUMX mm in size. The grille, they say, will protect the car's radiator from stones flying from under the wheels of cars in front. But it costs incomparably more than investments in "useful" tuning.

How not to get involved here. After all, the manager in paints talks about possible problems and the cost of replacing the radiator with a new one. In addition, often the future car owner simply has no choice - the grid has already been installed, and the car will not be sold without it. And if you insist on dismantling the option, then again you will have to pay for it at dealer, by no means humane, prices. And therefore they take it as it is, believing that there are only pluses from the grid under the grill. No matter how!

Yes, with regard to protection, dealers are not disingenuous here. The fine-mesh grille really will not allow large stones to fly into the engine compartment. But let's start with the fact that, as a rule, in front of the radiator of the engine cooling system, if the car is equipped with air conditioning or climate control, there is always an air conditioner radiator installed, which covers a large area of ​​the previous one, and acts as additional protection.

In addition to the fact that all radiators tolerate non-fatal jams without any problems (and most often, pebbles do not cause them much damage, and automakers are far from fools, making crystal radiators), the cost of an air conditioner radiator, even if it is damaged for write-off, times four times lower than the engine cooling radiator. And therefore, it is not even worth bathing.

Unless your daily journey is a gravel road with an active six-lane traffic, then you will have enough unprotected radiators for the entire period of ownership of the car, or even for the rest of the vehicle's days. But whether a car with a grid installed under the bars will survive to its natural death is a question.

The thing is that automakers are very careful about the issue of cooling the engine compartment and, in particular, the engine. To do this, specialists with higher education and aerodynamic engineers work for weeks to provide the car with air, especially in the heat of summer. And the decorative radiator grille plays an important role here - it should be such that incoming air flows easily pass through it, providing additional cooling to the engine and other vehicle components. The mesh installed under the grill significantly impairs the process of thermoregulation in the engine compartment.

Due to the fact that the pressure of the oncoming flow is greatly reduced, and much less fresh air gets under the hood, the engine temperature rises. To reduce it, the car's cooling system instructs the radiator cooling fan to turn on more frequently. Needless to say, that constant work in this mode is the path to the rapid wear of the elements of the system.

The air conditioning system also has a hard time. Freon pressure in the air conditioning system increases significantly, and does not fall. In other words, we again get long-term overloads, which, in turn, have a negative effect on the air conditioning compressor.

It is surprising that with the full connivance of automakers, their official dealers, without any tests, certifications and others confirming the safety of the mesh installed under the grille, impose this option on buyers without warning of possible negative consequences. And that's why you shouldn't go with them.