DVS Sump Guard Fitment

240

I found a DVS sump guard that I bought over a year ago but never got around to fitting due to moving house & other priorities. It came with instructions saying that it may be necessary to apply weight to un-bend it slightly, which I've done, but there's no way I can get it to line up because it fouls on the AC lines under the car.
Mine is a 1992 model with a R134 AC system, and I believe the whole system is physically different to earlier models.
Has anybody successfully fitted a DVS guard to a late model 240?

carnut222

You’ll probably have to notch the RH side where the lines go - that’s what was done on the plastic ones too.

240

The lines in question run pretty much the whole width of the car, the only way I can see to get it to work would be to cut a wide slot in the plate.

I'll get some photos on the weekend.

carnut222

Hmm, OK, maybe the DVS sump guard front wall sits farther rearward than the OE plastic guard. The OE plastic ones (and re-pro ones) can just have a notch on the RH side where the lines cross under the chassis rail.

AshDVS

Hey @240 , have you got a pic of where the lines run - I've not heard of A/C line clearance issues before so very keen to see what you're up against.
The Sumpguard is our 2nd oldest product and has been unchanged in its design/layout since 2000.
I'd have expected that, by now, we'd have come across just about every possible 240 permutation.

email a pic across to me and I'll take a look.

240

@AshDVS I'll grab a pic on the weekend.
But you're right, it is strange.
You don't happen to have any pics of a guard fitted to the car do you, just for reference?

240

Below is a picture of what I'm describing.
It doesn't show it as clearly as I'd hoped but I'll try and explain.
I've added a red arrow to show the line that it hits (to a lesser extent, the flexible line above that is an issue too).
Even if I managed to bolt up the top section of the guard to the radiator support rail, it would be necessary to bend that crease quite a lot in order to get the bottom section to line up with the crossmember, and as such, fouling on the hard line would be impossible to avoid.
Hope that makes some sense...

carnut222

Might be time for Ash to update the design of the sump guard to suit these later AC design models! :)

Ghettobird

My 92 has the same lines, the plastic under tray that came with the car has this section clear to avoid thre lines too

carnut222

I was thinking Ash’s sump guard looked more like the ipd one. Looks like the front section on Ash’s is longer, which places the drop down angled section farther rearward which makes it too close to those lines.

240

carnut222;151206 wroteLooks like the front section on Ash’s is longer, which places the drop down angled section farther rearward which makes it too close to those lines.

Yes although the holes in the actual car are quite far back too, so any guard would have to drop down at close to 90° to comfortably clear the lines, unless there is a clear section as Julian describes.

carnut222

240;c-151207 wrote
carnut222;151206 wroteLooks like the front section on Ash’s is longer, which places the drop down angled section farther rearward which makes it too close to those lines.
Yes although the holes in the actual car are quite far back too, so any guard would have to drop down at close to 90° to comfortably clear the lines, unless there is a clear section as Julian describes.

The standard plastic one works...I think it drops at about 45 degrees just rearward of the holes. The side does need to be trimmed out to clear the lines, but with Ash’s design, that wouldn’t be an issue since it has no sides on it.

AshDVS

Any chance you can (gently) mount the front of it and snap a pic from the same angle for me?
NB: mount it 'on top' of the tabs (that usually 'clip up' the standard plastic one - these essentially act as a spring washer and help prevent mounting bolts coming undone.

We had one on this but havent got a pic from underneath to have a decent look at.
1993 240 wagon (circa 2006) -

240

@AshDVS nice wagon!
(Did it have the stock AC system still in place?)

It was a bit tricky for me to mount the front as I don't have the correct screws (my original plastic plate, & associated hardware, disappeared before I bought the car, and the guard didn't come with any bolts). However you should be able to see from these images:
the first image is looking from the front, on the drivers side; it isn't a big issue but the guard fouls on the bracket for the AC lines too so would require minor grinding down.
The second image is looking underneath from the drivers side. As you can see, it is already touching the AC line, and there is no way in hell to bend it in order to reach the engine crossmember without damaging something.
The third pic is the same view but from the passenger side.

AshDVS

The silver '93 wagon had AC fitted and working, my '90 sedan didnt have AC so the pics I have of that arent relevant.

The corner (pic #1 above) could be notched, no problem but that doesnt address the two hard-lines going across the car under the rad support in pics #2 and #3.
I haven't got a 240 here I can have a look at either, so I'm flying a little blind.

What swaybar is in the pic shown?
It looks like a Falcon bar?

240

@AshDVS yep it's a Falcon bar, I just fitted it recently (although I did a quick 'mock up' fit of the sump guard with the swaybar off and it didn't make a difference of course).

There's obviously no way I can use it without modifying the sump guard or deleting the AC, neither of which I want to do - so does anybody want to buy a DVS Sump Guard for their (older) 240?

heavy_dd

240;c-151303 wrote@AshDVS yep it's a Falcon bar, I just fitted it recently (although I did a quick 'mock up' fit of the sump guard with the swaybar off and it didn't make a difference of course).

There's obviously no way I can use it without modifying the sump guard or deleting the AC, neither of which I want to do - so does anybody want to buy a DVS Sump Guard for their (older) 240?

Where are you located? I could be interested if you're going to sell.

240

In Canberra, but can post without too much hassle

AshDVS

240;c-151303 wrote@AshDVS yep it's a Falcon bar, I just fitted it recently (although I did a quick 'mock up' fit of the sump guard with the swaybar off and it didn't make a difference of course).

There's obviously no way I can use it without modifying the sump guard or deleting the AC, neither of which I want to do - so does anybody want to buy a DVS Sump Guard for their (older) 240?

At the crossmember end, it wont clear an EL Falcon bar.
I'm keen to better understand the AC hard line clearance you're experiencing though, but that might be a moot point with the EL bar fitted (we did cut a long letterbox slot in one for swaybar clearance, way back when, but I always thought it was a bit ugly - a 'real' solution for clearance for an EL bar made production much more complicated and would have increase cost too much).

240

Interesting, I thought it would clear the bar but obviously couldn't find out for sure without fitting it properly.

Happy to take give more photos if required of the AC line issue, but I think the pictures I put up a few posts ago show it fairly clearly. All I can think of is that your 93 wagon had a different AC setup... Unfortunately I don't know anyone else with a late 240 I can compare with (although Julian did say his was the same).