So i paid my nephew to wash my car he used my pressure washer

As I opened the Bonnet I noticed this

Should I be worried ?

Do I need to replace this ? Can I get away with driving it ?

it looks like just the cooling fins are bent, if air can't flow through the fins, it won't cool the air going into the engine, so could det under hard use

 

use a tooth pick or similar and lot's of patience and straighten the fins up

Ok I see so I can drive my car just not hard ?

Man I got a long trip tommrow so I will be awake all night fixing this

air goes in through the air filter and is 'inside' the intercooler, the intercooler is a heat sink and is there to reduce the internal temp. the temp is reduced by air flowing through the intercooler fins, if air can't flow through, it can't cool the internal air efficiently 

 

it will be fine to drive 'normal', but don't drive it like you stole it

Ok i spent my friday night with 50 toothpicks 4 hours, it took 4 hours wtf my backs killing and my arm still hurts !

 

This is how badly it was bent:

 

 

This is what i did i re opened all the s grooves:

 

Heres the stats after driving kinda hard after 30 minutes:

Had the same thing happen to me after some divvyat the car was sprayed the lance straigyt into the scoop, you can get mesh covers that sit on top of the cooler, that protect it from small rocks leaves and other crap

Looks better took some time then [emoji20] I remember that happening too.