AC Condenser stone damage

[guest733]

The ac on my 56 plate jazz has stopped working. As its still under warranty I took it in to the dealer. They informed me that a stone had damaged the condenser and it wasn't covered by the warranty. They also wanted £90 for the cost of finding the fault. As the condenser is just below the front number plate and is exposed to everything thrown up from the road I would have thought a grille on the intake was essential. Has anyone else had this problem?

[culzean]

As soon as I got my Jazz I fitted a (home made) expanded aluminium metal grill over both apertures in the front bumper.  This has stopped any damage to the radiators and kept all sorts of dead insects and other crap out of them.  You can get suitable material from Halfords B&Q and custom car shops.  I don't know if any after market grill is available.

The Civic I had previously was the same, I had to fit my own grill - seems like a blind spot with Honda that they never seem to fit grills to any of their cars.

[guest174]

"56 plate jazz"? Is that a GD or a GE? I have not heard of any GD having this problem. But seems like many GE have that. I have checked my GD1 Jazz and it have some minor marks of small stones and lots of flies in it. The metal it is made of seems very soft, you could bend the fins just by touching them...

I have had my GD1 for a little over 2 years and driven about 33000km with it. Some of it on gravel roads. Still no real damage to the AC condenser.

[culzean]

Fonix - GE Jazz did not appear till late 2008 so 56 plate would have to be a GD.

Don't take too much comfort in the fact that you have only 'small stone damage and insects' in the radiators. As we all know, stones come in all different sizes and you have just been lucky that nothing bigger than a pea or a butterfly has come your way up to now.  Keeping a reasonable distance from the vehicles in front will help, but you can't avoid on-coming vehicles which lob stones your way.

[guest174]

Fonix - GE Jazz did not appear till late 2008 so 56 plate would have to be a GD

Sorry, I'm not from UK so I don't know what type of car you have when you say "56 plate"
I could say I am from the ZH-area, and you probably dont know what I'm taking about

Back to the AC. I have looked closer to the AC condenser today and I may change my oppinion about it. I have no real damage to it, but I can see it being very vulnerable as it now a bit unprotected. A simple metal grille behind the lower plastic grille I think would do fine. That would be easyer to repair than a new AC condenser...
Since I have added a new "Mugen style" grille (top part) I may put a metal grille behind that too.

[culzean]

Fonix - You are correct, I don't know where ZH area is !

Look on clubjazz home page about half way down on the right hand side under heading 'popular pages',  click on the 'where was my jazz registered' and it explains in detail about the registration plates that UK cars carry, where the year of registration is shown on the plate.

[bill888]

As soon as I got my Jazz I fitted a (home made) expanded aluminium metal grill over both apertures in the front bumper.  

I once got stuck behind a road gritter on a motorway and my condenser was plastered with rock salt impact craters.  Fortunately, it wasn't holed.

I notice on Halfords website, they appear to sell Ripspeed Black Stretch Grid Competition Mesh for hefty £25, finished in black.  B&Q and Wickes appear to sell galvanised mesh for around £8.

Excuse my ignorance, but can you explain how you attached your DIY grill to your Jazz?  
ie. did u somehow attach it to the rear of the front plastic bumper, or did you bolt it to the car's chassis?

[guest806]

Please attach details as it seems a good idea to attempt it rather then pay for anew A/C unit