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balmybaldwin

Member Since: 17 Apr 2021
Location: Surrey
Posts: 186

2002 Defender 90 Td5 CSW Buckingham Blue

Problems fitting new intercooler

Hello, after a week or so of looking at it, I took the plunge to change my intercooler this weekend.

It has proved somewhat problematic which is a surprise given how many people say it just drops in

Basically eveything came out ok, I then removed the plastic lugs on the radiator as per the alive fitting instructions.

After an hour wrestling with hoses I got the new intercooler in. However I'm not happy with how it fits.

It took substantial jiggling of the bonnet catch, and the "A" bar supports in to order that they don't touch the new intercooler. (0.5-1mm gap!) this is probably now "OK"

Despite removal and reassembly several times there is something on the nearsside wrong...The bracket on the nearside of the intercooler was fouling the intercooler slightly so I removed a bit of it with an angle grinder to allow clearance, but while it will now fit on the bracket, the intercooler sticks out too far forwards for me to tighten the support (a)bars and I've had to shim it at the top to make it possible to even get the bar on as it was specifically the bottom corner that was sticking out too much.

For now I've got a bit of cardboard to stop rubbing, and the plan is to take it to local specialist with tail between my legs on Tuesday.

Despite this it all works and is an improvement on my old deformed one, but I'm wondering if what ever deformed the intercooler (before I bought it) bent the bracket some how but nothing else seems out of whack

It is also possible I've screwed up somewhere as getting the fan cover on was much harder than getting it off.

Overall I would say the intercooler is 5mm too far forward on the nearside only. I can't see that anything is backwards or that I've used the wrong holes etc.

Any ideas?

This is the offending bracket that seems to be causing the issues:

Click image to enlarge

My temp solution to get me to garage:

Click image to enlarge

I'm sure the plastic cover didn't have a gap to the slam bar before:

Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge

Old intercooler

Click image to enlarge

17th Apr 2022 5:42pm

Screbble

Member Since: 26 Apr 2015
Location: Lancashire
Posts: 2033

2004 Defender 90 Td5 XS CSW Zambezi Silver

I can’t help personally as I have yet to replace mine, but I agree that something isn’t quite right -especially as others report it’s a quick and easy ‘swap.’

Let’s hope someone pops along shortly with the inevitable sound advice we come to expect on this forum 👍

Good luck.

18th Apr 2022 10:18am

Scotm

Member Since: 28 Feb 2014
Location: Aberdeenshire
Posts: 640

2012 Defender 110 Puma 2.2 SW Orkney Grey

I had similar issue with fitting a Serck intercooler on my tdci a couple of years ago.

I had to shim the a-bar supports with washers at the bottom mount to clear intercooler and have similar gap with the cowling.

I had no problem with the bonnet catch.

One of the upper pins sheared but has been fine since replacing with a nut/bolt.

18th Apr 2022 12:26pm

balmybaldwin

Member Since: 17 Apr 2021
Location: Surrey
Posts: 186

Thanks, i seems such a nice fit on the drivers side, but just can't figure out what I've done wrong as everything else (including bonnet) fits.

I can see some scope for "adjusting" the bracket with a hammer/vice, but don't want to go down this route without confirmation from a pro, so will pootle over to garage at lunch time tomorrow

18th Apr 2022 1:51pm

LandymanStefan

Member Since: 30 Aug 2017
Location: Surrey
Posts: 861

I have recently fitted my BAS one and its huge. It comes with shims for he bottom of the a bars, and even then i had to add a couple more washers. The top of the a supports were still touching and i had to have one person pulling the bars and the top panel forward while i tightened it. It took me ages to get it right.

19th Apr 2022 3:42pm

balmybaldwin

Member Since: 17 Apr 2021
Location: Surrey
Posts: 186

That sounds like what I did yesterday. I'm now much happier with clearance all around but fundamentally I have shimmed out one side, but not the other which seems wrong. Having said that it's all working, and def feels like it pulls better than the old deformed intercooler.

I would be curious to know what your BAS measures from front pin to front pin as it def feels like one of my brackets sticks out too much from the wing and some adjustment would help centre the pin on the intercoller with the hole

19th Apr 2022 4:03pm

balmybaldwin

Member Since: 17 Apr 2021
Location: Surrey
Posts: 186

So the verdict from my local specialist is:

"Oh, that's quite common. Looks ok as it, if I want to then "adjustment" of the bracket is probably the way to go"

So I'm happy to leave as it and add bracket adjustment to my "when I get the time" jobs list

21st Apr 2022 4:42pm

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