Just had the vrs back from the 'fixers' and I am a tad concerned . The radiator appears to be fitted on the skew. Must admit, never really looked at how it was fixed before but I noticed through the front grille that it didnt look quite right so investigated further by lifting the bonnet. Can anyone tell me if the radiator is supposed to be perpendicular to the front of the car? Also is there supposed to be a cover over the area in front of the radiator when the bonnet is lifted? If not there is a huge space (just waiting for a FMIC no doubt!). Have done a search under 'radiator' and 'engine bay' looking for pics but no joy. Pics would be good (from above) but any advice would be most welcome - cheers.

No cover but the rad should be straight.

thought so - common sense says that the airflow will be better if its totally 'face on' to the front of the car - leading to better cooling but i wonder if the angle is adjustable and theyve simply adjusted it wrongly. Or am i looking at a bit of an a**e of a repair job :eek:

I would have thought they have missed one of the pegs in the lower mounting.

could I fix this? dont fancy letting the car go back for another session of a couple of days if it would take an amateur a couple of mins. The nearside is about an inch or two (thats about a little finger length for those of you on metric) backward.Would it involve lengthening/shortening pipework ??:confused:

noticed that with my rad the other day just had another look, looks normal. as you look at it from the front, the right side is about half inch back all other parts around itt fit so would say its normal.

Interesting...Car drives very well , no problems there at all but having had the car from new, this doesn't seem quite right - if yours is a half an inch out and mine is a couple of inches out then maybe there is an adjustment that is very easy to tweek???Noticed also that one of the screws holding the bonnet catch on wasnt even finger-tight. What should I do?:eek:

Do it up.lol

My rad is also on the wonkey. Ita about 1 inch difference from one end to the other.

thanks for the in-depth advice regarding the screw !! I'll do a cost/benefit analysis on whether or not to 'do it up' and get back to you on that one . As regards the wonky radiator I wonder if this is a common finding on our cars - is it just a vrs thing? perhaps a poll is in order?

i would say it is normal, my thinking is if it was square on, it could act as an air dam, at a slight angle it cant! might be wrong but sounds good to me.

okay, so a poll would have been a bit sad:(. (Not as sad as yours truly checking out every fabia parked within a mile to see if wonky is normal). Let me now reveal the result of this sadness. If you have a straight radiator, you are in a massive minority (actually haven't seen a straight one yet). Those of you who have fitted FMIC must surely have noticed this anomaly. To be wonky is good. Loud and proud - I HAVE A WONKY RADIATOR AND I DON'T GIVE A SH**T. In fact I feel more of a vrs owner because of it and am very content with my ownership. Let the world now know - WONKY IS GOOOOD! Straight radiators -PAH! who do they think they are? They just haven't got it yet have they? only got three things to look forward to in life- DEATH, TAXES and WONKY RADIATORS! Tell me I'm wrong, please !

glad that ones sorted, one less thing to fix!