Vehicle front end structure

A vehicle front end structure in which a shroud panel is provided at the front end of a vehicle body and has an opening in which at least a heat exchanger is disposed, wherein

• the shroud panel comprises integral body mounting parts formed to both lateral sides of the opening to join with both side frames, respectively, of the vehicle body,
• at least one of the body mounting parts is integrally formed, on the outside thereof in the vehicle width direction, with a casing placement part on which a casing is placed in proximity to the at least one body mounting part,
• the opening of the shroud panel in which at least a heat exchanger is disposed has a substantially rectangular form and the shroud panel is located behind a front grille of the vehicle,
• a head of the shroud panel is integrally formed with a cylindrical air intake passage that passes through the head and extends in the front to rear direction of the vehicle,
• the head of the shroud panel is integrally formed below the front end of the air intake passage with a pendent baffle plate that extends in the vehicle width direction alongside and at least for the lateral diameter of an opening of the air intake passage, while an intake air duct is connected to the rear end of the air intake passage, and
• an air introduction hole in the front grille is formed at least below the lower end of the baffle plate.

A vehicle front end structure in which a shroud panel is provided at the front end of a vehicle body and has an opening in which at least a heat exchanger is disposed, wherein

• the shroud panel comprises integral body mounting parts formed to both lateral sides of the opening to join with both side frames, respectively, of the vehicle body,
• at least one of the body mounting parts is integrally formed, on the outside thereof in the vehicle width direction, with a casing placement part on which a casing is placed in proximity to the at least one body mounting part,
• the shroud panel is formed in the shape of a frame with a substantially rectangular opening and has vertically spaced first and second brackets formed at a head of the frame-shaped shroud panel to extend toward the rear of the vehicle so that the heat exchanger is mounted at the top side thereof to the shroud panel through a mounting member fitted to the head of the shroud panel across both the two brackets,
• the mounting member comprises a main body formed by making vertically extending first and second vertical walls intersect with each other, a lid that is integrally formed on top of the main body and has an operating part for angular movement of the mounting member, a cylindrical part that is integrally formed at the bottom of the main body to open downward and have a smaller diameter than the lid and fittingly receives an upper mounting part provided on the top side of the heat exchanger,
• the first and second vertical walls have larger diametric dimensions than the outside diameter of the cylindrical part,
• the main body has upper slits formed at the same height toward the lid to extend radially inwardly from the outer peripheral ends of the first and second vertical walls and lower slits formed at the same height toward the cylindrical part and vertically away from the upper slits to extend radially inwardly from the outer peripheral ends of the first and second vertical walls, the difference between the height of the upper slits and the height of the lower slits corresponding to the distance between the first and second brackets,
• the first and second brackets of the head of the shroud panel have substantially circular insertion holes, respectively, into which the cylindrical part of the mounting member can be inserted,
• each of the insertion holes is formed with first cutaways which are continuous with the insertion hole and into which the first vertical wall can be inserted and second cutaways which are continuous with the insertion hole and into which the second vertical wall can be inserted,
• at least one of the top and bottom surfaces of at least one of the first and second brackets has a prominence formed in the circumferential middle between at least one adjacent pair of the first and second cutaways, and
• the first and second brackets are configured, when the mounting member is inserted through the insertion holes of the first and second brackets and then angularly moved to tightly fit parts of the first and second brackets around the insertion holes into the upper and lower slits, so that the prominence is slid over by an opposed sidewall of the corresponding slit and then engaged with the sidewall of the slit to restrain backward angular movement of the mounting member.