pos
Well-Known Member
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- 3,685
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- West Yorkshire
Hello. I made a rad muff for my 200tdi today to help combat the effects of the cold weather on the already over-efficient cooling system which prevents the engine from reaching its optimum operating temperature and it prevents the cab from heating up properly too. Anyone with either a 200 or a 300 tdi will no doubt experience similar over-cooling, and a rad-muff will help to quite a considerable extent, even if your thermostat is working properly. There are a few D-I-Y guides on the Internet if you don't want to shell out the usual £35 for a 'proper' rad-muff but I think that they try to make what is essentially a very simple task into something un-necessarily faffy. Here is my simple, but effective solution at a cost of £5:
I started with a £4.89 universal rectangular car mat from Halfords. It has a fancy pattern on one side and a rough "dot-matrix" on the other. I am going to have the dotty side pointing outwards (I don't like the pattern on the other side).
Next, I marked out the dimensions of the flap. I just marked it up using the dots with a bit of chalk until I thought it looked right:
And then scored along the line along the bottom and both sides, but NOT the top!
Next, I used a crayon to draw around the dots to mark out where I needed to punch holes through to fit the button studs and pressers:
Fit the pressers to the bottom of the flap, ensuring that the 'socket' is facing up towards the surface, with the smooth back of the button (the bit that you will push on) towards the underside:
And fit a line of studs along the top of the flap and along the top edge of the muff:
And you should end up with something looking like this:
It's pretty obvious how it works really. Lift the flap up and you can fasten it into place half way or completely open:
Then I just punched a few more holes around the outer edge of the muff and tie-wrapped it straight onto the grill. It can be positioned exactly as you want it (I tidied mine up ad move it to the left a bit after the photo was taken):
Simple or what!
-Pos
I started with a £4.89 universal rectangular car mat from Halfords. It has a fancy pattern on one side and a rough "dot-matrix" on the other. I am going to have the dotty side pointing outwards (I don't like the pattern on the other side).
Next, I marked out the dimensions of the flap. I just marked it up using the dots with a bit of chalk until I thought it looked right:
And then scored along the line along the bottom and both sides, but NOT the top!
Next, I used a crayon to draw around the dots to mark out where I needed to punch holes through to fit the button studs and pressers:
Fit the pressers to the bottom of the flap, ensuring that the 'socket' is facing up towards the surface, with the smooth back of the button (the bit that you will push on) towards the underside:
And fit a line of studs along the top of the flap and along the top edge of the muff:
And you should end up with something looking like this:
It's pretty obvious how it works really. Lift the flap up and you can fasten it into place half way or completely open:
Then I just punched a few more holes around the outer edge of the muff and tie-wrapped it straight onto the grill. It can be positioned exactly as you want it (I tidied mine up ad move it to the left a bit after the photo was taken):
Simple or what!
-Pos
