Fan shroud:

I am very glad I looked at the engine bay this morning... had done an oil check about a month ago, so I thought I should check it again today.

Well, oil level was fine, but I noticed the radiator fluid was low. I needed to add about 500 cc to bring it up to max. This was strange, never needed coolant, so looking around, I noticed that the fan shroud is not in place and is actually hitting the AC compressor, and the AC compressor had drilled a nice round hole right through it!!!



The bottom passenger side of the shroud had unhooked and the tabs were not in place.



I pulled up on the shroud and was able to kinda put it back in place (I am assuming the picture above shows it back in its place, the way it should be. )

The last person to do any work in there was the dealer working on it under warranty back before the 50k miles mark, from my notes then:

- they noticed cracks in the alternator belt and replaced it,
- they found the source of the rattle to be deflection pulley and idler pulley having excessive play, replaced both.


I am going to contact the dealer and see if they can replace the fan shroud and see if they accept responsibility for it. I am not sure if this is something that can come off on its own (any feedback on this is appreciated)??? Our driving style: we drive our 3 year old child in this car only, and drive it like a grandma would in the city streets.


Leak: (the more important and the main question for this post)

I noticed a bit of a leak and sweat under the location where the lower hose (passenger side) attaches to the radiator. I think it could be due to fan shroud rattling and touching the hose/etc., but the color of the hose looks like it can use a change (see the first pic). Is changing radiator hoses something I should look into at current 54k miles? Any other cooling system changes that might be needed at this point???


Any input would be appreciated.