Do FMICs get serious stone damage?

[JaseYpk]

ive got a question about fmics in general - would it not be beneficial to have some mesh in front of it to prevent stone damage? i mean if a stone put a hole in it there would be pressure loss.. or is this just me over reacting? i dont have n fmic so dont know how strong they are against stones lol.

I'm bringing this up because i know a lot of people dont mesh up in front of their intercoolers.. as it looks a lot better without.. however the question still stands..

will stones chip and damage an fmic, as they do a radiator, creating pressure loss?

cheers

 

[DeanS15]

of course any hole in the intercooler will result in pressure loss and a boost leak, but the chances of a stone large enough or travelling quick enough to hole the core are pretty slim.....the worst i'd expect up and down motorways and normal roads etc would be minor damage where kamikaze flies bend the cooling fins but even this doesnt have a noticeable negative affect

go for something like the apex performance type 1 mate, they are cheap to begin with and if ever the core got badly damaged you could probably have a new core delivered the next day

 

[craig8585]

I think you would have to get a very fine mesh to stop even big-ish stones and it'd have to be a fairly heafty one to do any serious damage to a cooler. My Punto doesn't have mesh over it's piddly little cooler from factory and it's done moon miles without any problems so I really wouldn't worry/bother about it

 

[EMAGDNIM]

I've never run anything in front of any of my boosted cars and I've never had any real damage to my FMIC due to stones on the highway...

 

[Darren_S15]

Only thing my FMIC gets is flys.

If you think about how often do you get stones hit the windscreen, not very, and most of them do no damage.

Think your worrying about nothing personally, like you say looks sommuch better without mesh.

 

[Auss15]

I've had mine on for 6 years and its still as good as the day it was fitted. There not that soft say compared to a radiator. I'd say you would need half a brick to hit it to do any damage

 

[Toby]

I popped some black mesh infront of my FMIC just to smarten it all up. It certainly keep half the flys out!

 

[craig8585]

They must be big flys! Or birds!?

 

[EMAGDNIM]

Ugh I always hated wiping down the IC after a long trip. Soooo many gross bugs splattered around the front....eeeewwwwwww...

 

[craig8585]

Moths are the worst because their body gets wedged into the fins, and when you pull the wings to get them out they just break off and turn to dust. Mingin'!!

 

[JaseYpk]

Cheers guys, thats made me feel a bit better haha.

Moths are the worst because their body gets wedged into the fins, and when you pull the wings to get them out they just break off and turn to dust. Mingin'!!

Try pressure washing it? thats sure to blast them all away

 

[craig8585]

But then it'll get wet and go dull!

 

[Darren_S15]

But then it'll get wet and go dull!

Hate to be the one to tell you this but when you drive in the wet your FMIC gets wet too :rotfl:

 

[craig8585]

I don't drive it in the wet Apart from once when I got caught out!!

 

[Darren_S15]

These cars are most fun in the wet though

 

[DeanS15]

these cars are really twitchy in the wet i think, thats why i dont bother, the risk of binning it is multiplied. as for the other thing - rust - these will happily rot in the dry so again driving in the rain will accelerate it

 

[Darren_S15]

All cars will rust mate, even UK spec cars.

Its just a case of how well you clean then up and look after them I think.

Rust will get you eventually no matter how careful you are.

Not going to stop me driving in the wet, cars are for driving and enjoying.

 

[JaseYpk]

All cars will rust mate, even UK spec cars.

Its just a case of how well you clean then up and look after them I think.

Rust will get you eventually no matter how careful you are.

Not going to stop me driving in the wet, cars are for driving and enjoying.

*Likes*

My S15 is my daily drive car, and having '2 homes' so to speak, being 280miles away from each other, i do a fair bit of mileage in it too!!
It is SO MUCH FUN in the snow by the way!! me and my mate went out to a large concrete area near us (private land) and well.. had some fun drifting without wearing out the tyres!! plus you get a massive snow cloud behind you

 

[LuPix_S15]

Rain??

I love mine in the SNOW lmao


Take year before when it snowed... I decided to put foot down with two kids in the S15 on the school run cos I couldn't be arsed sorting out alternative transport. As long as she can just about get out of the estate it's fine by me haha. So I give it some on the straight road out of my estate and she spins 180 going backwards and I can't stop cos it's covered in snow that's been compacted by other cars :wack:

Manage to stop going backwards after ABS is going mental. Kids in the car just shout 'do it again daddy!!!' LOVE IT

 

[TurboAL]

i've driven mine in all weathers and whilst running silly camber on the rear its an absolute bitch putting any power down. i don't know what all the other drives must think when i'm zig zagging up the road. but i love it. keeps you on your toes! snow yep same here james, boss at work didn't understand when i said i wouldn't be able to make it into work beacause of the snow last winter, just because he drive a 4x4 doesn't mean we all do! i pritty much acted as a snow plough for all the other road uses. was a lot of fun though but was just getting use to the car at the time so was very nervious. o and in answer to the op, nothings good for the intercooler, as things hitting it in excess of 100 will more than likely do it some damage, especially badgers! that reminds me still got to locate that blinking boost leak!