Last week I was driving home from work in traffic when the guy infront of me drifted in to the shoulder and hit a deer carcus. The carcus came at me and I had no choice but to run over it. My car isn't lowered but it still managed to destroy my intercooler:



which got shoved back in to the condensor and radiator breaking the lower radiator tab.



I've ordered a new intercooler; however, I was hoping I could repair the radiator as it's only the tab that is broken, the plastic tank was not compromised. I was thinking of using plastix to weld the plastic but also use the indentation on the tank side to reinforce it with a bolt I will cut to size and JB weld that in place. Hopefully then it should mount back up properly and be as strong, if not stronger, than new.

I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts, suggestions of experience with this. Thanks!

 

The exact same thing happened to me in 2009, then I hit a raccoon. My insurance company and the dealership body shop didn't see that my radiator had that broken tab, and I didn't notice it for 2 years. I just left it that way and haven't had any issues. I kept telling myself I would buy a new radiator one of these days, but never have.

 

Wow exact same thing happened to me last season, put the car away for the winter and just discovered the problem now. My ic looks identical... damn coons ! How did your job turn out?

 

I completely replaced the intercooler with a Hahn unit. I ended up JB Welding the radiator mount, I've since put about 1000 miles on the car and it's been fine. The real test will be the first track day this year...

 

How did the hahn fit? I'm seriously considering it even with its price but I've heard some people complain they dont fit so good

 

Everything fit just fine for me. The upper charge piping did hit but it was because I didn't have it seated all the way. But I checked for this before driving.



Also, the intercooler uses the stock brackets. I needed to bend them and work it a bit to get that mounted but they hold great and everything lines up perfect as you can see below:

 

perfect! your running the same set up as me so good to know for sure. For some reason I had problems trying to get the hahn cold side charge pipe to line up on my intercooler, but now that I have it all appart I'm hoping it goes smooth on round 2. Thanks for your imput. good luck at the track this summer

 

Make sure the lower elbow is facing the right direction. I had the same problem, it was coming over too far, then I realized I had it backwards. One side is longer than the other on that section of pipe. The longer section faces the turbo and the shorter section faces the intercooler IIRC.