Ok to remove active shutters??

GTyankee said:

but driving into the wind is like a head on crash
driving with the wind is more like bumping bumpers

the wind force is much reduced traveling with the wind or crossways to the wind

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Not even remotely in terms of what air moves through the grill. The air is compressed in front of the radiator because of the obstruction and you end up with a bit of a bubble like you get in the empty bed with the tailgate up, although not nearly as pronounced. Your under hood 'wind speeds' and drag created by the radiator, etc are not radically altered by wind direction or speed. Your overall energy consumption based on total vehicle drag, yes, but that's irrelevant to the topic.

Active shutters closed are like a closed tail gate, making a slippery bubble for more air to slide off of. Open radiator is like a sail with holes in it, much less bubble formed, much more drag. Same reason those 'fuel saving' net tailgates don't save fuel.

Interesting post. I have a 2020 Ram Long Horn with the 5.7 eTorque and 3.21 axle. I was pulling an empty 5x10 utility trailer that is light enough I can move it around by hand. I was going up and down hills here in Missouri into a 25-30 mile wind, transmission would shift down to either 6th or 7th gear depending on how steep the hill was. I was driving with the cruise on about 70 mph on the interstate when I noticed the temp gauge showed 215 degrees. In less than a quarter mile the gauge went to 220, then 225. I knew something was wrong and pulled over as quickly as possible, and when I finally got stopped, gauge showed 235. I shut off the engine, got out and opened the hood.
Anti freeze was sprayed all over the engine, down the passenger side of the truck and covered the trailer. Long story short, got towed to the nearest Ram dealer, they checked everything out, refilled the cooling system, said that a pressure test passed, and didn't know what the problem was.

I have my own ideas, but I want some other opinions, and what to do next. Thanks in advance.

MO RAM FAN said:

Interesting post. I have a 2020 Ram Long Horn with the 5.7 eTorque and 3.21 axle. I was pulling an empty 5x10 utility trailer that is light enough I can move it around by hand. I was going up and down hills here in Missouri into a 25-30 mile wind, transmission would shift down to either 6th or 7th gear depending on how steep the hill was. I was driving with the cruise on about 70 mph on the interstate when I noticed the temp gauge showed 215 degrees. In less than a quarter mile the gauge went to 220, then 225. I knew something was wrong and pulled over as quickly as possible, and when I finally got stopped, gauge showed 235. I shut off the engine, got out and opened the hood.
Anti freeze was sprayed all over the engine, down the passenger side of the truck and covered the trailer. Long story short, got towed to the nearest Ram dealer, they checked everything out, refilled the cooling system, said that a pressure test passed, and didn't know what the problem was.

I have my own ideas, but I want some other opinions, and what to do next. Thanks in advance.

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You might have better luck with your question if you make a new thread in the appropriate section being that this discussion is just about the active grill shutters.

Removed my shutters at 10k miles, when the supercharger was installed . I wish I could have kept them in because it warms up a lot quicker with them. No one at the dealer has said one word about them being gone. PLUS some of them REALLY like the sc. One dealer was a total butthead but the rest have been ok or GREAT.

In my above post I'm questioning if the grill shutters might have been part of my problem.

MO RAM FAN said:

In my above post I'm questioning if the grill shutters might have been part of my problem.

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What post are your referring to because out of your only two posts, there’s nothing in either of them that mention the active grille shutters that I’m seeing.

I pulled a 10’ utility trailer about 40 miles the pick up some furniture. It had the venter tailgate that was also used as a ramp, so it sat up fairly tall. I was amazed at the drag the empty trailer put in the truck….same thing, downshifting at every hill. Awful. So, it is obviously the DRAG and not the WEIGHT.

zogg said:

I pulled a 10’ utility trailer about 40 miles the pick up some furniture. It had the venter tailgate that was also used as a ramp, so it sat up fairly tall. I was amazed at the drag the empty trailer put in the truck….same thing, downshifting at every hill. Awful. So, it is obviously the DRAG and not the WEIGHT.

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In all things vehicle related, aerodynamics and drag have a very larg effect on fuel consumption. If you cut the drag coefficient in half you will get a large increase in gas mileage. There is a lot of upside to streamlining the shape of any trailer you are pulling, with a reverse tear drop being the ultimate goal, even if not completely attainable.

FYI - Cd stands for coefficient of drag and it’s the figure that car makers publish to tell you how efficient their vehicles are. It’s a measure of how ‘slippery’ the vehicle is as it passes through the air.

It’s not quite what it seems, though, because it doesn’t actually tell you how much aerodynamic drag that vehicle produces – at least not directly.

The calculation for aerodynamic drag is a little more complex:

Aerodynamic drag = Frontal Area x drag coefficient (Cd) x Air density x Speed squared

Frontal area: this depends mostly on the class and type of car, and there’s often nothing to be done about this. A luxury saloon will always have a frontal area larger than a supermini.

The two vehicles might have the same Cd figure, but the luxury saloon will produce more aerodynamic drag.

Air density: well there’s not much to be done about this. You can’t just drive somewhere different or travel on a different day.

Speed squared: this is the interesting one, so we’ll take a closer look.

corneileous said:

What post are your referring to because out of your only two posts, there’s nothing in either of them that mention the active grille shutters that I’m seeing.

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In my above post I'm questioning if the grill shutters might have been part of my problem. I am asking that question right here. BTW, what controls the shutters: electrictal, mechinical, WHAT??

I believe the shutters are controlled by the ecu computer. There is an electric motor that rotates back and forth to move the shutters. They are, if course, able to fail to open, leaving the shutters closed. Could easily cause overheating especially if towing when closed. Hope that helps.

I’m thinking about taking mine off because my coolant and oil temp vary considerably. I know some versions of the truck (Rebel) does not have them and also some years of the tradesman version. Many people that removed them say no issues with mpg and more constant temperatures. The biggest issue is a lot of bugs in the radiator. Ha

My biggest concern is if my warranty would be affected.

MO RAM FAN said:

In my above post I'm questioning if the grill shutters might have been part of my problem. I am asking that question right here. BTW, what controls the shutters: electrictal, mechinical, WHAT??

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In what, this post? I don't see any mention of the active grille shutters here, just you pulling your trailer, it beginning to overheat and when you stopped, you noticed coolant sprayed all over the place.

The shutters are controlled by an electric mechanical box that opens and closes them via command from the ECU.

zogg said:

They are, if course, able to fail to open, leaving the shutters closed. Could easily cause overheating especially if towing when closed. Hope that helps.

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corneileous said:

In what, this post? I don't see any mention of the active grille shutters here, just you pulling your trailer, it beginning to overheat and when you stopped, you noticed coolant sprayed all over the place

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zogg said:

I believe the shutters are controlled by the ecu computer. There is an electric motor that rotates back and forth to move the shutters. They are, if course, able to fail to open, leaving the shutters closed. Could easily cause overheating especially if towing when closed. Hope that helps.

I’m thinking about taking mine off because my coolant and oil temp vary considerably. I know some versions of the truck (Rebel) does not have them and also some years of the tradesman version. Many people that removed them say no issues with mpg and more constant temperatures. The biggest issue is a lot of bugs in the radiator. Ha

My biggest concern is if my warranty would be affected.

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Just remove the center ones,they're easy enough to pop back in if you have a warrenty claim.Grab them in the middle of the shutter,and they'll flex enough to pop out,use the same principle to put them back in.You don't have to remove the assembly to pop them in or out.Doing it that way does not leave any footprint in the computer.You're worrying over nothing,if you don't like them out,pop them back in.

zogg said:

I’ve been thinking about removing the active shutters. A couple concerns:
1-will it void the warranty??
2-do the temperatures stay more consistent? Mine swing by sometimes 25+ degrees and seems hot to me
3-I bought a kit to fool the computer to think they are still there but I’m second guessing the idea of removal.

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I removed the lower half of them of make room for the behind the grill off road lights. I have no problems with the temp, and not all models come with them.

@zogg I don’t understand what you’re trying to say here by just quoting a post of mine and yours.

corneileous said:

@zogg I don’t understand what you’re trying to say here by just quoting a post of mine and yours.

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It appeared to me that he thought that the issue of overheating could have been related to a malfunction (closing) of the shutters. He didn’t specifically say that but that was my assumption. Could be wrong

zogg said:

It appeared to me that he thought that the issue of overheating could have been related to a malfunction (closing) of the shutters. He didn’t specifically say that but that was my assumption. Could be wrong

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I guess you could be right but if he had coolant spraying everywhere, that doesn't sound much to me like an issue with the AGS.

May or may not be. On a hot day, towing a big load uphill, and the ags closes the shutters by mistake, it could cause overheating issues. However, in his case, I suggest that there is something else more critical going on….

corneileous said:

I guess you could be right but if he had coolant spraying everywhere, that doesn't sound much to me like an issue with the AGS

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Only you couldn't figure out what he was referring to. Maybe you should sit back somedays and let things pass,if you can't relate,like the rest of us can.Everybody else knew what he was referring to,except you,lol