Patent ID: 7150335

Claim:
A front end structure of a vehicle, comprising: a front end panel provided at a front part of the vehicle; a heat exchanger fixed to the front end panel; a fan disposed adjacent to the heat exchanger for creating a flow of air passing through the heat exchanger; and a fan shroud provided on a periphery of the fan to restrict the flow of air created by the fan from bypassing the heat exchanger, wherein the front end panel forms an opposing panel portion opposing an outer periphery of the fan shroud, the fan shroud forms an opposing shroud portion opposing the opposing panel portion of the front end panel, and the opposing panel portion and the opposing shroud portion define a labyrinthine gap structure therebetween; the fan shroud is disposed at a downstream position of the heat exchanger with respect to a flow direction of the air, the fan shroud forms a shroud projection projecting toward the front end panel; the shroud projection defines another labyrinthine gap structure between the fan shroud and the heat exchanger; the heat exchanger includes a core portion that has tubes through which fluid flows and fins provided on outer surfaces of the tubes and a header tank connected to ends of the tubes to extend in a direction perpendicular to longitudinal directions of the tubes; the shroud protection of the fan shroud is provided at a position corresponding to the end of the core portion when viewed in the flow direction of the air; the front end panel forms a first panel protection that defines a further another labyrinthine gap structure between the header tank and the front end panel; and the front end panel forms second panel projection on a side opposite to the fan shroud with respect to the heat exchanger.