I was wondering. I purchased the Moss Mini stainless steel skid plate to help protect the power steering fan. I now see that Moss has a Cobalt PS fan cover that fits directly on the fan housing itself. So.... what about useing both? Overkill I realize but seeing as I have both what do you all think. Any possible problems with not getting enough air to the unit causing it to burn out? Thanks for the feedback!

JimC
DS/B "S"

 

Who here has had the PS fan fail - what caused it? Was it a rock hitting the fan?

I talked to my friendly local dealer tech yesterday about this - he told me that the fan can fail by having dust blown up from the road, collecting into the motor itself. I don't think either the skid plate or the fan protection grid would prevent a failure of this type.

Anyone else with experience?

 

It hasn't happened to me but I've read that it usually happens when a car runs over a plastic bag and it gets sucked up and stuck onto the PS unit, causing it to overheat and blow its fuse. The aux engine cooling fan (I think) is also on this same fuse, so when all this happens the car eventually overheats and stops. I guess REALLY bad things like a seized engine or blown head gasket and warped head are possible results. The cover prevents things like pastic bags, but not dust, from getting to the PS unit.

_________________
Scott in ATL.
2002 Mini Cooper S Chili Red/White.
1998 Mercedes ML320.

 

How many people have actually had a plastic bag cause this sort of damage? It seems to be an unlikely event not worth worrying about. If the car overheat, I'll pull over and let roadside worry about it.

So I will taunt the MINI gods and say "This will never happen to me so I'm not going to worry about it"

 

Seems like the people it happened to didn't realize it until it was too late and lots of damage had been done. There are some threads on it somewhere here on MCO or on MINI2. You could do a search to get the exact story.

 

Let's face it, this is JUST a simple 92mm computer fan. Don't waste your hard earned $50 for a guard. Order a $10, at most, 92mm computer fan guard and install it. For $50, I will take my chances. For $10, I will protect it.

GMG

 

Hmm... are you talking about a computer fan guard that goes inside a PC? The ones inside my PCs aren't near as big as what I've seen advertised in the catalogs. Even so, it may be possible to just make your own fan guard cheaply.

 

It does look like a real big computer fan! I just put on one of the Moss Cobalt PS fan covers - real quick and easy, weighs a lot less than a skid plate, and I figure it's cheap enuf protection as long as I'm heading up to Seattle and back. You never know.

BCNU,
Rob in Dago

 

>>Hmm... are you talking about a computer fan guard that goes inside a PC? The ones inside my PCs aren't near as big as what I've seen advertised in the catalogs.

You are right. Yes, it is the same size as a standard server computer fan. The ones that are normally in your PC are 80mm fans. The Mini fan is 92mm which is the next step up. Search for 92mm fan guards. Even your local PC shop may have one.

BTW - if you go this route, you will have to drill four holes to mount it. Not a big deal really.

 

Not as nice as the $40 Moss jobbie


but hey, it was only a buck-fifty.


I went to the "nitty gritty" electronics store. You know, the kind that sells resistors and capacitors, etc. I'm sure Frys has a great selection too. They had all kinds of fan grilles, round, cross-hatched, etc but I think the parallel layout is most clog resistant. There was one more row of bars on either side that were bent all funny for screw mounting that I had to cut off. I drilled holes in the bracket and used pop rivets. The square fan and round bracket don't leave many good drilling locations so thorough planning is necessary. Behind the pop rivets are spacer washers to allow the grille to clear the flares in the bracket. The fan is very easy to remove and you could even do it in the parking lot -- just remove the two nuts at the bottom and then unplug the cord.

Fans are measured by the length of one side of the square housing.
By that system, the MINI fan is around 100mm. From my photo it looks as if you can drill and rivet wherever you like but the diagonally mounted fan housing on the other side actually makes the search for a suitable drilling location pretty tough. I used a 120mm grille as you can see in the photo with 4.7" as the longest dimension but note that the grille is not centered front to rear. A round grille would require a bit of very careful bending of the mounting legs.

 

Seems like I read somewhere that the Moss cover hangs down a little so that even if a plastic bag gets held by suction onto the cover, some cooling air will still get around it and onto the fan. A DIYer could probably do that too though.

 

OK. Just did mine. One 92mm fan guard with two legs snipped off, 2 M4x10 screws and 2 M4 nuts. M4, because I had them.

Pretty easy and cheap. :smile:



I can help with a procedure if needed.

GMG

 

Looks good Gogo. What are the two round thingies on the left?

 

because I had to cut two mounting legs off the guard (overhung to fan mount), I want to make sure it did not rattle. So, I added two adhesive rubber pads. They are the kind that you put on the bottom of lamp and such.

GMG

 

Here's my solution. It's not as heavy as the computer screen metal but I think it'll do a better job keeping stuff out....and it's only $37.50 cheaper than the one from Moss.

 

I always love it when you can make mods from hardware and junkyard parts!

Much better than a custom forged or billet piece, regardless of how cool such things might be.