I got a question about the plastic trim piece that covers the radiator and condenser and cross frame piece on a 2006 and later STR.

My 2006 STR did not have that plastic trim piece that goes from fender to fender that covers the radiator and condenser when I first got the car, I purchased the first one that I found available, which happened to be the only one I could find on eBay at the time.

Well, that cover trim piece did not come from an STR so it didn’t have all the special cut outs and humps and bumps it should had but like I said it was the only one I could find online so I bought it

I later Modified it by cutting out a piece of the cover that goes underneath the air intake scoop. But I still wasn’t satisfied because it was not correct and it was Missing other features from the STR cover.

Well, I just happen to find a cover from an STR on eBay so I bought it and just installed it just now. This had a sticker on it said that it came from 2003 STR.

I’m curious about where the air intake scoop fits into the cutout of the trim cover because the piece I bought doesn’t fit correctly. It may be because the air intake scoop piece is not correct for my car (maybe the air intake scoop was replaced from a non-STR car) or it may be because the 2003 cover is different than the 2006.

Specifically, it looks like that mounting ears for the scoop piece should go under the radiator cover piece, but I can’t get that work correctly because the portions of the cover on either side of the scoop hit the scoop as shown the pictures below

Maybe those mounting ears for the scoop go on top of the radiator cover piece but because of the little indents on the scoop, and the cover, it looks like the front edge of the scoop goes under the cover piece because it drops down a 16th of an inch or so. The cover piece has a little indentation on the back edge of it where it meets the scoop that looks like it goes over a small piece on the scoop, but the cover piece hits the scoop when all the mounting holes lineup for the plastic screw in clips.

If somebody would be kind enough to take a picture of the sections, I’ve just talked about and showing in the photos below. I’d appreciate it.

Also, I noticed on the new cover I got there are 2 places where there were separate pieces of foam on either side of the cover on the top side of the cover that appear to be for ceiling between the cover piece and the hood. There are two holes drilled in the top cover trim piece specifically for those pieces of foam that weren’t on the original Cover I had. There is a spot on the bottom of the foam (actually two little spots on each piece of foam) which are supposed to go into the holes on the cover for alignment or.mounting so I’m pretty sure it’s factory original.

My new STR cover only had one piece of the foam on the passenger side. The driver side foam was missing as you’ll see in the pictures.

Do your cars have that same foam? Or was this only on early model STRs?

This is a down shot standing directly over the scoop, looking down at the radiator cover and scoop. This is on the passenger side or right side if you look where the cover meets the scoop it overlaps and it looks like the cover piece should go on top of the scoop, but there’s too much material there on the scoop and it interferes

Wide angle shot. Here I have the scoop mounted on top of the cover piece. It seems like the scoop should go under the cover piece, especially since the Front edge of the scoop has a little along the lower edge that appears to go under the cover. It won’t go under the cover because of that interference between the cover in the scoop shown in the first picture

Another angle shot of the interference between the cover piece and the scoop where you can see the cover extends beyond the edge of the scoop, making it impossible For the cover to go Over the scoop. But you can see the cover has a little detent that shows it should go over the scoop

Close-up picture

Special foam ceiling piece that was on the new cover I bought wasn’t on the original piece i bought (But I think that cover was for 3.0 and not an STR). the driver side should have a similar piece but my cover didn’t have it on there.

Driver side close-up of the missing foam. You can see the remnants of the foam stuck to the top of the cover, and the small mounting hole with the foam piece would end

 

here you go. Need more let me know
no foam on my cover at all. Ever as far as i see

 

Here is part number


i have a broken tab on scoop

 

Check this item on ebay if you have wrong scoop. 204769763180

 

Thanks man! I’ll check the part number out of mine tomorrow once light out again your scoop looks a lot like mine

 

Make sure the air cleaner side of the scoop is seated properly. If not it will fight all the way. I fought it the first time for an hour

 

good point. I do recall the square tube didnt quite seat all the way. Ill go make some adjustments and check the part numbers and report back.

 

Well, I got the part number and it is different than yours. It’s close, but will you have a 4R83 – 8C291 – AC, mine is a 2R83–8C291 – AD.

And if you look at the pictures below, I put the cover on top of the scoop, mounting flange below, scoop mounting flange to show the interference. You can see how the overlapping portion of the cover extends too deeply towards the scoop so that it actually hits the rounded part of the scoop.

 

Fixed it using a good old technique which has worked for me many times in the past. Mike technique basically follows the principle of the immortal words in my grandpa, “if finesse and intelligence fail, resort to brute force and ignorance.” Also commonly known as “use a bigger hammer.”

Basically I used a utility knife to cut away the offending plastic which caused the interference and now it fits like a champ

 

Here is the semi final result. Fits well but still a little bit more trimming to do. You can see the overlap of the cover to the scoop tab has too much overlap so I can cut down the scoop tab somewhat to make it fit better.

 

Good job. I did cut off the overhang behind the grille on mine to fit the external trans fluid cooler but it came out nice

 

yeah I noticed that front piece of the cover that hangs down in front of the AC condenser in your pictures was short. I was wondering if that was the way it came or if you had to do that for that cooler. It’s interesting that on the original cover piece I purchased and went to the 3.0 L that it didn’t have that portion of the cover from the factory. It must be some go fast modification they made for the R series.