So now it time to work on meshing the slatted grill in the front wheel wells. The issue is stones being kicked up through them and finding their way into the cooling fan bearings. I went through my first fan at 2,000 miles.

Can't wait to see how you solve this one. Thanks for the time you invested to educate the community.

 

"Funny" that you should point this out.... I just recently became aware of the propensity for this to happen on our cars. In my other thread "Coolant System Failure" last week, the initial thought my dealer had was that some stones got up through those slatted vents (the friggin' slats are wide open!!) and caused one of the fans to stop or something like that!

In the end that wasn't my problem -- but it did get me on the path of coming up with a solution. Apparently the factory has changed or is in the process of changing those louvers in the front wheel-well as a result of this issue being reported more frequently, but for now a quick solution is to place fine-screen mesh. My SA told me that his shop said it has to be very fine mesh as the rocks that get caught in the fan are tiny little pieces of gravel that would go through normal "air duct" type mesh grills -- such as the one in this DIY.

 

You would you have to access the wheel well vents from behind to fasten a mesh correct?

How do you get to them? I don't think the back of the wheel wells are even visible with the front bumper off are they?

 

Wouldn't it look better, my opinion obviously, to remove the horizontal slats? i.e. GT3 look. Or is the reason for keeping the horizontal slats another way to deter those small rocks?!

 

Correct. You can't reach that area from the front. You will likely have to remove the wheel to work. Then loosen at least the front T-25 (or was it 27? - can't recall) connectors for the wheel well plastic cover and pull down to access. Might be easier to remove the liner entirely... I'll have to evaluate once I get into it. Interesting that the GT3 came up- my SA in mentioning how factory was already revising the design of this area to address the problem I think used the GT3 as example. Apparently they just changed the direction of the louvers in the liner. I don't have immediate access to a new GT3 (reason to buy one?) to take a look though. Lol

Tomorrow or Sat I'll prob have a few minutes to get into this further.

 

The front bumper cover may or may not have to be removed depending on how the screen mod is designed and fitted. The car should be on a lift. Remove front wheel and the slatted louvre is fully visible. If simply covering the louvre with fine mesh, the bumper cover does not have to removed.
However, the fan cannot be removed unless the front bumper is removed.

 

I thought installing a fine mesh screen behind the louvre would obviously look best.

You'd have to use an aluminum or stainless mesh of course, but with a tight pattern like window screen size.

How big of a risk are these stones? I can't believe this never came into consideration in the design process. The 991's tires kick up a lot of stones! Especially hitting those rear side mufflers.

 

First, the louvers are in the front wheel wheels. Second, I would first try to remove the louvre without removing the bumper cover. I simply don't remember if the louver could be removed independently of the bumper cover. If it cannot be removed for a "behind" mod, then take the bumper off. Personally, the louver's are not really visible unless you get on your knees and look for them, so I wouldn't waste the time to perform a mod behind them.
Third, I was a victim to the gravel & I live in an urban environment. My advice to all 991 drivers is STAY OFF GRAVEL ROADS. My service mechanic replaced three fans at three different times. The customer had a gravel driveway. They told him that he had to stay off gravel as they could not warranty it anymore.

 

I'm aware it's the front wheel wells and what they look like. I was just making a point that the wheels kick up stones, hence the potential issue.

Regardless, thanks for sharing this design problem. I'd personally like to be proactive and take care of it if I ever had to take the front wheels off at some point. Good info to know.

Thanks.

 

Why is there no snap in grill for the 991 S? I have seen one for the 4S.

This looks awesome but there is not what I am going to spend the time to do this.

Marc

 

This discussion has started talking about two different things, and I see it's getting confusing for those reading it as well. It's even confusing me!

I think the wheel well vents should be discussed elsewhere possibly?

 

I'll start a new thread....

 

It's your post, do what you want! Ha ha.

You have some great stuff on there and think it will get diluted with the wheel well issue. What do you think?

 

As far as mesh grills go, I ordered the ones from Rennline. Also have the mesh from custom car grills, but never used it.

Rennline bends/forms the pieces and then powder coats them afterwards. For example, on the side radiator one, it's bent up on all four sides and bowl shaped. Only by like 1/2" or so. Works better than flat pieces.


I had my body shop guy install them. The fit is perfect! They look awesome. He just had to improvise some of the fastening techniques. He figured out a few better ways to keep them in place. I think he used a bit of glue, and figured out a few ways for a cleaner install.

I would highly recommend them!

 

The Rennline site doesn't show them for 991s or I'm missing them.