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I don't want to start another tread on what is the best, how to install or what best shapes of a grill guard. I want to know if your grill guard really is stopping the bent fins on the evaporator on the front of the car? Does anyone have pictures before guards installed and after install with a few thousand miles?
GM knew they were exposing the condenser fins to road debris when they designed the car. And expressly have said it is a serviceable as is. We live where street rocks, bugs, blowing green waste etc. is minimal. Maybe the occasional Kit Kat wrapper? Or the unfortunate insect that we find DOA. So we are not too terribly concerned with this issue. If something gets stuck, I'll use a toothbrush to remove it with the next wash cycle. For those **** retentives and there are a legion of them here, it is a big deal for sure.
Last edited by papillion; Feb 26, 2021 at 09:48 AM.
To a degree, particles smaller than the opening in the guards will still pass though but larger particles (rocks) that could potentially damage the grill will be stopped or deflected.
Don't have enough miles on mine to say. But I did it much more for the cosmetic improvement. Mesh screens on the front of the car match the one in the rear facia.
I ran 800 miles from delivery to home in December..... very low traffic and no bugs and stayed way back from traffic and had what I considered unreasonable damage for such a short trip.....so I did the grills and wrapped the back in vinyl mesh. I have another 1800 miles on the car and certainly a lot less damage. Unfortunately there is no way to get a good picture but I will try. No issues with overheating yet....but it just turned warm here. I had the same netting on my radiator on a 16 z and never overheated even in the track. I cant imagine if you do noting there wont be an issue down the road.
As far as gm engineering......I doubt they would do anything at all to protect the radiators after the overheating issues with the c7s.
ok took some pictures as I suspected you can’t see much with pictures but with the naked eye they look brand new..... here’s what I took. Lot of crap on the outside which did not make it to the radiators... I’ll see what happens when it starts cooking here in the south. But if I have no overheating issues I’m happy.
Here are the bare grills after the 800 mile trip home. I took a dental scraper to align the bent fins. A fin brush won’t work. Close up. Another close up Debries not on the fins
Last edited by Greg00Coupe; Feb 26, 2021 at 11:09 AM.
I have 2000 miles and they look fine. My biggest concern was a rock hitting and causing a hole in the AC Condenser, which is NOT cover by warranty. Cheap $70 insurance.
It depends on where you live, I have a ton of large bugs (grasshoppers etc.) here and I had dented fins in the first 60 miles of driving. When I look through the screens at 2,000 miles I don't see any additional damage.
6000 miles and minimal damage. I have something similar on my motorcycle with almost 40k miles and it is directly behind the front tire, minimal damage.
GM knew they were exposing the condenser fins to road debris when they designed the car. And expressly have said it is a serviceable as is. We live where street rocks, bugs, blowing green waste etc. is minimal. Maybe the occasional Kit Kat wrapper? Or the unfortunate insect that we find DOA. So we are not too terribly concerned with this issue. If something gets stuck, I'll use a toothbrush to remove it with the next wash cycle. For those **** retentives and there are a legion of them here, it is a big deal for sure.
Your toothbrush will bend those fins. They are very delicate.
I ran 800 miles from delivery to home in December..... very low traffic and no bugs and stayed way back from traffic and had what I considered unreasonable damage for such a short trip.....so I did the grills and wrapped the back in vinyl mesh. I have another 1800 miles on the car and certainly a lot less damage. Unfortunately there is no way to get a good picture but I will try. No issues with overheating yet....but it just turned warm here. I had the same netting on my radiator on a 16 z and never overheated even in the track. I cant imagine if you do noting there wont be an issue down the road.
As far as gm engineering......I doubt they would do anything at all to protect the radiators after the overheating issues with the c7s.
ok took some pictures as I suspected you can’t see much with pictures but with the naked eye they look brand new..... here’s what I took. Lot of crap on the outside which did not make it to the radiators... I’ll see what happens when it starts cooking here in the south. But if I have no overheating issues I’m happy.
Here are the bare grills after the 800 mile trip home. I took a dental scraper to align the bent fins. A fin brush won’t work.
Close up.
Another close up
Debries not on the fins
Well you certainly took things to the extreme, that looks to be very restrictive. Probably wont make a difference unless the car is tracked and creating a lot of heat.
Well you certainly took things to the extreme, that looks to be very restrictive. Probably wont make a difference unless the car is tracked and creating a lot of heat.
Yep, looks like the coarser mesh is what many of us used from Custom Car Grills. It's made from thin aluminum (not heavier plastic) and allows 77% of air to pass through (CCG info.) That fine mesh behind reduces it much more.
This is an issue with all cars NOT just the C8. Heck I installed aftermarket mesh on my C6 AFTER I replaced the AC Condenser because of a hole the dealer said GM won't cover because it was "probably" caused by a rock. I paid the $800 for the replacement then bought the aftermarket mesh. Fortunately investigated, wrote a report that showed it was a manufacturing defect- got my $800 fully refunded.
The correct answer is - they will reduce the amount of potential damage, but not completely eliminate it. I believe any reduction in damage is better than no reduction, so I ordered them. Just waiting for a reasonably warm day to install them.
Grill guards effectiveness.. Do they work?
