Areas With High Failure Rates

	To be placed at beginning of common failures

Charge-Air-Coolers are subjected to much heat and stress during their lifetime. Today’s high operating temperatures and pressures, vehicle vibration, and climatic conditions cause this stress and possible premature failures. Under ideal conditions, the expected life of a charge-air-cooler should be somewhere around 5 years, or 500,000 miles before a complete rebuild is required.  Unfortunately, this is not the usually the case in today’s extreme operating environment.  Engine operating pressures are being increased to gain more horsepower, which is beyond the limits of many current charge-air-cooler designs. Trucks are running more miles per year at higher speeds creating excessive heat variations on the cooler. In addition, due to road conditions and miles driven, the charge-air-cooler is subjected to more vehicle vibration affecting the critical areas. The illustration below shows the most common areas where a charge-air-cooler will fail.

 Unless your charge-air-cooler was damaged in an accident, or a rock went through the core, check these areas out first if you suspect a problem.

Because of the amount of business Fleet Air does in rebuilding charge-air-coolers, we see many different types of failures. Shown below, you will see some of the more common failures.