Oil Cooler Duct Maintenance
 

Not really meant as a tutorial, but more as a reminder to check the rubber portion of the oil cooler duct to see if it's broken or missing.

I had my bumper off to work on the AC, and decided to straighten the fins on the oil cooler. I removed the duct and the rubber portion started to fall away from the rivets in my hands. Without the rubber, the duct is much less effective. It completely fell off, and looked like the attached picture.

I went to the local hardware store, and got a scrap piece of pond liner material. It is very similar to the thickness and feel of the original rubber, and was free. I traced the original piece onto the new rubber and cut it out, punched the holes with a standard hole punch, slowly drilled out the old rivets, then riveted the new part onto the old duct using 3/16" (5mm) aluminum rivets AND washers.

Final product, like new and much more effective. Keep cool!

Installed! Ain't she purty?

This is a much more elegant solution than the black gorilla tape I used.

Vince

Nice! It's little things like this that make a big difference.

Dale

Nice. Why did Mazda put sheet rubber there, instead of making the whole thing plastic?

I was wondering the same thing myself. Definitely more expensive the way they did it...