....I think it's academic and you're of course right when you (TT) say that we'll never know what was decided in Wolfsburg,
OK, agreed.
but whatever the actual reasons why open grills were later revised to closed grills in production, it seems we are agreed that open grills didn't result in anything worth doing. But by the same token, it doesn't necessarily follow that being open then created problems and hence that's the reason they were closed.
Not necessarily so. If open grilles gave no measureable advantage, AND no measureable disadvantage, then VW
would have left them identical to the pre-production and early batch production models. Afterall, the tooling was already created to make the "open" moulds.
I stand by my logic that VW altered the original grilles - and therefore redesigned the tooling to mould fully closed grilles, soley because the original open grilles were causing adverse or undesireable problems. Now, weather it was the DSG, or the front anchors, or some other component which was affected - well we wont know - but I'd put good money on
something being adversely affected by the open grilles.
The reason of production economics should not be discounted - We all know this well when it comes to VW.
And the same applies to all industrial corporations, and not just in the motor industry. But the simple fact remains, if the original open grilles worked flawlessly, why would VW spend money both redesigning and re-tooling for a revised part - if they really didn't need to?
And it's not down to asthetics either. I think that most sensible people will know that the "blue" halogen headlamp bulbs produce less ligh output than non-blue bulbs. Yet some people actually think that the blue bulbs look good. So VW officially supply them through their official channels. Using the same logic, where some peeps think the open fog grilles look "cool" or whatever other terminology for "desirable" - why don't VW offer these too?
Regarding the freezing of screen wash - Am I not correct in stating that screenwash as recommended by VW is able to function at temperatures down to minus-40C ? So whether the grill is open or not is surely not going to make any significant difference.
You are joking, right? Yes, the VW screenwash as mixed to their required dose will protect down to minus 40, and when used neat will protect down to minus 70.
However, you are clearly discounting a MASSIVE issue of the wind-chill factor - you know, the very same application of physics which cools the radiator, or the intercooler, or the air con condensor, or the sump, or the DSG box, or the gearbox and rear axle on an longitudinal car - with a flow of air over them.
Now I'm no meteorology expert, but I thought it was very much common knowledge that the wind-chill factor is considerably worse than static air temperatures. Any BBC weather forecast in the winter will show you static air temperatures, along with wind-chill temperatures, and even at air speeds as low as 20mph, it can be considerable. Therefore, even with a positive static air temperature, at 60mph, you will be looking at a massive cooling effect.
Sorry, but it is a very well known problem of screenwash resevoirs freezing due to wind-chill, particularly on cars where it is mounted in an air flow - usually behind and/or below headlamps.
Threrefore, open fog light grilles will have a MASSIVE effect on the screenwash resevoir.
Aerodynamics? - How critical can just partially (not fully) open fog grills be on a 145 mph max hatchback?
I'm sorry, but you really must be taking the pi$$.
On ANY kind of road car, aerodynamics play a MASSIVE part of autombile dynamics, starting at speeds as low as 30mph. Why do you think the co-efficient of drag is such a major factor in automobile design.
And regarding what you imply are relatively small openings in the fog grilles and their potential effects on aerodynamic attributes - think about the problems which arise when you get a noisy door seal. The actual gap may be less than half a millimetre, and be incredibly irritating at speeds as low as forty mph. Or look at another angle - remember when Ford released the original RS Cosworth Escort? They quoted a certain figure for it's top speed, yet no car magazine or other similar tester could ever achieve anywhere near Fords claimed top speed figure. When Ford where challenged, they eventually fessed-up, stating that they had to remove the mud flaps from the production models to achieve their claimed top speed - mudflaps, FFS.
I really do think you have your head burried in the sand on this particular issue regarding aerodynamics!
My reference to my own case of a Mechatronics Module failing was only offered as contributing information and never intended to be a case to prove anything conclusively. Merely a living example (so far!) that open fog grills don't necessarily cause a failure.
And by the same logic, nor can they disprove anything either!
Just because yours hasn't failed, it doesn't mean that eveyone else who has open fog grilles wont fail due to overheating? Maybe you are just very lucky, and your new mechatronics module was built by Fritz - who happens to be VWs most careful of mechatronics module builders?
And forgive me if I'm wrong, but I thought you had previously posted that the mechatronics were heat sensative, and failures were caused by overheating of said mechatronics unit!
