Grille shutters and their benefits

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My dart has grille shutters. Is their any practical benefit to this. When you get out of the car after driving under the hood is scorching hot. I actually hate how hot it gets and that can't be good for electronics under the hood or the fluids. Wouldn't he beat basically stress everything more than necessary? Has anyone successfully removed them? Do I have any options?
 
The shutters gain a fraction of a mile per gallon.Trucks have them now too.They should have a function that opens them upon engine shutdown...but...I'm no engineer I guess...
 
Just wait until they start to get stuck, and you get an engine light on the dash board. My 2013 would have this problem every once in a while. Couldn't tell it was due to those stupid things until after I went to dealer for the light.
 
My father picked up a 2015 ram 1500 with those shutters. I found that they shut when the engine is off.... unknown why.

I remember about 15 years ago seeing a guy restoring some old 1950's era Massey diesel tractors, scouring far and wide looking for factory shutters.
 
Uggh yes removing the grill shutters is one of first mods people do to their Focus ST. They even put them in front of the intercooler. Yeah lets go ahead and just defeat the purpose of the intercooler with these grill shutters. I ripped mine out awhile ago.

On the Focus if you take the grill shutter motor out, it will throw a check engine light. So most people remove the shutters but leave the motor plugged in to keep the engine light off.

On the Focus, the shutters are pretty flimsy and you can just take each one in your hand, bend it down in the middle and it pops right off the track. There are like 12 total, 6 on each side. It literally took me all of 40 seconds to do this.

You may want to check the Dart forums and see how everyone is removing theirs.
 
I can think of one reason they close when off. reducing multiple stop warm up times. keeping heat in the engine bay is benneficial in some ways.
 
Originally Posted By: NHGUY
The shutters gain a fraction of a mile per gallon.Trucks have them now too.They should have a function that opens them upon engine shutdown...but...I'm no engineer I guess...


Big trucks had them 60 years or more ago.
It wasn't for mileage then though, it was to control engine temperature.
 
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Quote:
Active grille shutter

Grille vents on the "" automatically adjust on the go, closing when the engine temperature is normal, reducing the amount of air entering the engine compartment and, in turn, reducing drag
 
Originally Posted By: BrianF
My father picked up a 2015 ram 1500 with those shutters. I found that they shut when the engine is off.... unknown why.



so the engine stays warm for longer and likely has some heat left when you start again...
 
pros:
Faster warmup, slower cooldown, better mpg.

Cons:
Just one more thing to break, costs $$$
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
What's old is new again. They used shutters before thermostats.my 62 Pete had shutters


Internationals too. I remember some trucks in the '60's and '70's having canvas curtains in front of the grille, they had domes, and they unclipped sections at a time.
 
For turbo cars, less condensation in the intercooler during cold weather. When the outside air is 20*F, blocking off the intercooler so the hotter, pressurized air has less of its water vapor condensed out into ice makes sense.

From what I've seen, grille shutters operate pretty much seamlessly and as they should. No reason why to rip them out.
 
AC condenser has to be real happy having airflow shut off to it while it's trying to do its job. I'd love to see the high-side pressures on a hot car with a cold engine while the AC is battling to cool that thing down with its intake choked by shutters.
 
Here is why a lot of Focus ST guys remove the shutters. Besides the fact they are a child of CAFE. I'm not saying this is common, actually I think its pretty rare but this is an example of problems you can have with shutters. This is from another Focus, not my own. This guy was having overheating problems. Turns out more than 2/3 of the shutters were disconnected from the motor and were stuck shut while driving. They are all supposed to be connected in unison. Either all shut or all open. Even the top and bottom set are supposed to be connected. You can see the intercooler behind the bottom set of shutters.

 
When I lived in Alaska, shutters were especially nice, and virtually essential for the serious cold in the interior of the state. I guess some think they should be removed. I wouldn't if I had a vehicle with them on. It has been shown from commercial truck studies done by the Technology Maintenance Council, that shutters and using winter fronts more frequently actually improve things overall on these new emission laden diesels. If one wants lower temps under the hood and lower temps of intake air even before the intercooler, put blanket on the turbos. I use blankets on every turbo I own. Keeps the heat from the exhaust side from affecting the intake side by a significant margin.
 
Are you talking about the pieces of cardboard folks jamb into grill with their vehicles instead of addressing cooling system issues in the winter?

I own a turbo car and never thought anything of temp under hood not cared as vehicle simply has worked for 200k miles /11 years with no issues except a leaking heater hose recently.(factory water pump too) If you have issues you have a warranty....
 
Originally Posted By: DoubleWasp
AC condenser has to be real happy having airflow shut off to it while it's trying to do its job. I'd love to see the high-side pressures on a hot car with a cold engine while the AC is battling to cool that thing down with its intake choked by shutters.


That's true. I would hope they'd open when the A/C is on. Otherwise wouldn't the compressor have to run more, thus using more fuel then the shutters would ever save?
 
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