Fitting "The Mouse Mat Mod"

[PeteH]

I captured this yesterday, after two hot laps of Cadwell. I don't actually know what oil temperature I run, but the coolers are certainly getting hot!

[Lemon]

giving this a try as we are getting into the negatives round these parts.

oddly i found the drivers side one is rucking up a bit even though i cut them to the same width.

[bigpete8]

I don't think you should block both coolers even in winter...

[Hopkins]

An obvious question that has not yet been explicitly asked: why not just use slightly less viscous oil? Is it only because there may be residual water in the system which needs to be boiled off? I haven't ever noticed "mayonnaise" on my dip stick!

[Honkytonk]

Hopefully a stupid question for fitting this- if fitted with what I believe are OEM grilles, do I need to drop the bumper off to fit the mousemat? I can't feel an obvious way these detach and don't want to go tearing out something as I'd like to refit the grille afterwards if possible. It looks like a hook at the top and some pins at the bottom but can't find this bit on the EPC or technical manuals.

I've got a nice fine mesh to go between mousemat and cooler, as the poor thing's seen better days.

[warpc0il]

Those are the PZ grills, unique to that model.

I believe you would have to remove the bumper to get them off.

Not a big job, takes about 20 minutes, and a bit longer to replace, if the fog light connections don't cooperate.

You could fit a mouse mat in front of the grill, held in place by small cable ties punched through the mat and looped through the grill mesh.

You'd have to cut to match the shape.

Looking at the photos, it's surprising how much damage there is to the front of the cooler fins, despite the grill.

I wonder if this is from pressure washing rather than stones.

Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk

[Honkytonk]

Thanks Dave, it makes sense it being a PZ part with it not appearing on the EPC.

I think I can probably feed it down behind the grill over the top, but am worried about melting/setting fire to the foamy plastic without something between it and the cooler to prevent any direct touching (and also want to fit that finer mesh to stop whatever has caused that damage - I've never pressure washed the car so can't comment on whether that's caused it).

I've not tried to burn a plastic foam mouse mat before (there's always time), but hopefully the cooler wouldn't get much over 100-120C in normal use? I doubt that's hot enough to combust said mat, but it may well melt it to a point where it's more inclined to catch. I was hoping this'd be a work carpark jobbie but if I'll have to drop the nose off to do it properly, it'll wait.

[warpc0il]

My mouse mats are fitted directly against the core of the cooler(s) and have never had any problems with heat damage.

This despite me forgetting to remove one before a track session, when I didn't notice until the lunch break, and was pleasantly surprised that it hadn't caused any cooling problems during so much flat-out running, albeit on a fairly chilly day, and the other side was open.

[Honkytonk]

Tuck it up against the coolers it is then. Thanks Dave!

*Queue my next post being "Slightly Fire Damaged PZ for sale" *

[Honkytonk]

Just to end the 'story', tucking the mat over the top proved to be near impossible, so off the nose will come next chance I get to do some work on the car.

For anyone in my position (i.e. with a PZ) coming to this thread later, Racing beat have a handy how to pdf for removing the nose.