Shrinkage Alert: Plastic radiator cover -- save yours!
#1
Eurotrash
Thread Starter
Shrinkage Alert: Plastic radiator cover -- save yours!
Short version: Before yours breaks off like mine did due to normal age and heat shrinkage, undo the outer-most fastener at each end of the radiator cover.
On my 01 CL-S at 115k I had been keeping this plastic radiator cover trim (official term?) fairly well treated with Meguiar's over the past 12 years, but it shrunk enough that it stressed the left-most mounting hole, and cracked clean across the hole. (So clean I don't really notice it's there.) Then I found the right-most pin also hung against the hole and stressing it there, so I pulled that fastener and stuck it in behind the radiator cover. Looks OK.
On my 01 CL-S at 115k I had been keeping this plastic radiator cover trim (official term?) fairly well treated with Meguiar's over the past 12 years, but it shrunk enough that it stressed the left-most mounting hole, and cracked clean across the hole. (So clean I don't really notice it's there.) Then I found the right-most pin also hung against the hole and stressing it there, so I pulled that fastener and stuck it in behind the radiator cover. Looks OK.
#3
I Wanna Beer
Stuff like Armor All and Meguiar's aren't great for plastics. Likely the cause of your problem. Mine looks perfectly fine. Most of those products are silicon based which actually attracts dirt and dust.
#4
Eurotrash
Thread Starter
I've been using the Meguiar's stuff for longer than I've had this car, and I've been putting it on every accessible rubber and plastic surface. Only the radiator cover has shrunken, while everything else plastic looks new. So I ascribe the shrinking to engine heat and age, which on a long thin plastic part has lead to a crack.
You've been warned...
You've been warned...
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