Just took off my bumper and cleaned my radiators...my thoughts

Well finally got around to cleaning my radiators out after a couple years of ownership. Front bumper, easy to take off but it is time consuming. I don't have torx sockets but just a key set so it took even longer. After removing everything and having a couple pieces of plastic break off from the wheel wells, not sure where they came from but the plastic is fairly brittle now. My radiators look like everyone else's who has taken pictures of them. They were filthy... And as it has been said before, there was a ton of gross hair... Lots and lots of hair, pretty disgusting. Also found a couple pieces of paper, some polyurethane foam chunks, and a good piece of plastic from something else, not from the car since it was a lime green color. Anyways, total time about 1.5 hours... I shopvac'd everything up and then gave them a good rinse and cleaning... Car runs cooler than before but not by much. Overall, extremely easy to do... And like always, I will gladly help anyone in the area who needs to get this done... if you haven't done it, do it. I always keep my car clean and don't drive it much. I thought mine wouldn't be THAT bad... especially because they look clean from the ducts... definitely not the case.

Ha, I did it in two days!

What! no after photo? Thanks for the information. I've been thinking of doing this soon.

I did mine last month. I lubricated the plastic wheel-well rivets with a little dish soap and water (50/50). I wet them with a artist's paint brush and tried to get behind the rivet heads. They came out pretty easy with some needle nose pliers. My radiator fins weren't that dirty but there was a bunch of leaves and stuff tucked away in both corners. That stuff really could have been vacuumed out without removing the bumper. It's worth doing at least once. I didn't notice any change in operating temperature.

Wow, I had no idea that it could get that dirty, how does one go about taking off the front nose? I can foresee a weekend task about to be added to my TO DO list!

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Do a search here. There are at least 5 DIY threads and several others, with pictures, and circles and arrows, and a paragraph on the back explaining what each one is about (thank you Arlo Gutherie). And a reminder to newbies that the top photo shows what is BETWEEN the A/C and the ENGINE COOLING radiators on each side. You must separate the two to get at the really nasty stuff. Simply cleaning in front of the radiators does not do it. And they need a good high pressure hosing once apart and vacuumed. You car will thank you for this.

No it's an easy job and you will be amazed on how light the front part is when you lift it off. By the way VINO you cannot do it with a vacuum as you think. You have to remove the condensor before you can see the rads and that can only be done with the front off. By the way Phil, you missed a golden opportunity when you had the front off. You could have re-routed the wire trunk emergency release cable from where it is hidden, through a slit in the plastic air scoop out beside the air temp sensor of the passenger front. That way it is possible to release the trunk lid from outside the car without fishing around under the wheel well to get to a flat battery. I did it and it works great. I power washed mine after finding all kinds of rubbish jammed between the Condensor and Radiators. Didn't really notice if the engine runs cooler but it wont run warmer and thats for certain. Anyway anyone wanting to attempt the job, here is a video from youtube showing how it's done. I used this video before I attempted the job. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um-h2aUJHY4 and here is the second part.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xhw_hWpisY&feature=related

Be very careful with high pressure washers. I wouldn't recommend it. The radiator fins are very soft and will easily bend. Just use a garden hose or compressed air, or even just a soft brush and a vacuum.

Its getting hot in Phoenix and my car has both a high speed only fan hack and a switched fan hack along with the engine compartment fan. I hit a small switch on the dash and both condensor fans come on high speed as well as the engine compartment fan. In stop and go traffic with an outside temp anywhere above 95 my temp gauge will sit on the right of the 0 of 180. It goes to the middle of the 0 once I get moving but once the temp is above 100 here all I do is stare at that temperature gauge. Porsche checked the car out and assured me it is 100% normal to have the needle inside the 0 or even a bit to the right of it in the heat of summer here in Phoenix. I cleaned both radiators as well and noticed no difference. In the spring and fall the car stays inbetween the 8 and 0 all the time, even in stop and go traffic.

@Hurdigurdiman - You misunderstood what I said. I did move the condensers out of the way and cleaned everything, only there was very little debris there. The majority of what I ended up removing was visible looking through the opening in the grill. The degree of filth between the condensers and radiators is probably a function of mileage and environment. In my case, the dirt accumulation was negligible.

Did mine today as well, pretty dirty for 40k miles. Vacuumed mine first then pressure washed them. even after vacuuming all the loose stuff off it still rinse out alot of dirty water. My tip is to ensure you remove all the wheel well screws and be very careful as it is very brittle and both mine cracked. I followed the online video of the guy bending back the well to remove the inner screw, mine were too brittle to do this. Before, after and where the well split

and after

I was a bit worried about my car in the summer in Florida, so i did that, cleaned everything up front, no change in temperature, then i replaced the water pump and thermostat at 35 thousand miles. No change. Replaced the water tank reservoir and the cap, no change at all, still had the damn temperature guage showing just to the right of the zero, THEN I pulled off the vertical hose at the water pump and found a minute hole in the hose right where the right angle bend is on the inside of that tight right angle bend. Problem solved ! Spent about a week messing around ! Surprising thing was there was very little staining from the escaping fluid.

Hi guys, It was a rainy cold day this last Saturday and I jumped online and started to read some post and came across this one. I decided what the heck lets do it. First thanks for the video attachment, made it real easy. My '99 with 48K... figured it would need it and I was right. It was raining so I didn't use the hose to clean, just the air compressor Thanks Zenski

I did my radiators in March and found pretty much the same thing as the OP. Then last weekend I ran a DE with Sunday being in the mid 80's. I found that the engine temps (as read by the dash gauge) were pretty much the same as a DE last November prior to cleaning them. This is not to say that trash is OK, but rather don't look for huge cooling improvements when most of the radiator is clean.

I agree, no noticable difference in cooling. I think the advantage is more for wetter climates where you dont have all this wet crap corroding your radiators, I think in the UK it is well known that they rot the cores and need replacement

Has anyone used the commercial A/C coil cleaning liquid that they use to clean condensor/evap fins? I want to use it next time but I want to make sure its doesn't hurt the rad/condenser or the paint.

@Zenski Funny how you just started reading and did it... Same thing happened to me...

It's great for me to see others cleaning the rads from the video. Did anyone come across the hood release cable during the removal of the front? Mainly the 99 owners? Isn;t it a great feeling to do DIY work. I felt on top of the world after I did this job.

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I cleaned the rad's with my son last sat, and also felt the ''on top of the world'' after completing.. also found the hood release and fed it down, so I can grab it if/when needed.. I should have taken a pic when the bumper was off the car, the 996 looks a hell of a lot meaner with the bumper off... guessing my rad's hadn't been cleaned in a few years...

For those without a shop vac, I found that a wire dog brush did a good job at cleaning off the debris.

You guys should consider what I did to prevent further large debris getting to the radiators and Condensers. Check it out here. https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...ir-scoops.html

I've got to do mine too. Hay r u running BBS LM's 18's or 19's. My favorite wheel. I've really enjoyed mien.

Well, you guys inspired me. I couldn't see much junk in front of the air-conditioning condensers with the bumper on. I removed the bumper, which is the hardest part of the job. Looking into the "scoops," I could see a just little bit of junk. No, this is not a Chevy. After removing the scoops, more junk was visible, including cigarette butts and a cigarette box wrapper. Damn smokers. Pulling the A/C condenser away from the radiator, I found that about 1/3 of each radiator was blocked. That's after 13 years of driving. Light brushes with a broom (to avoid bending the soft aluminum fins) and compressed air cleaned off the junk.

I just recently cleaned mine as well and was surprised how much actual junk was between the condenser and radiator. Mine is an 02 and I would be surprised if this was the first time they were ever cleaned as about 1/4-1/3 of the radiator surface was blocked. I also installed an XM antenna in the nose, fright in front of the hood latch and I received XM beautifully.

in the middle of this...what a PIA!!!

Another vote against using a pressure washer...radiator fins deform very easily.

...this was not hard...but it was not easy...the two screws in the side lights are bastards... took these off...brittle & rusted & cracked...thru away replaced them with these...used all 30! (I haven't figured that out yet)

...the usual garbage in the grills...did not wash, only brushed & vac'd out... ...much better...

moved the frunk release straight down just over the horn...easily can grab now if the frunk sticks or the battery dies without all the other steps...

glad previous owner did mine last year

...and finally took the light assembly out & replaced the little running lights on the side of the headlights...$4.99 for two at Pep Boys, however the little studs at the bottom were not like the Porsche running lights and were 90 degrees as opposed to how the OEM are...filed on of them down and stuck it in and locked it just fine...i'm sure these lights are not this price at the dealer... ...I will do this again...in about 5 years-

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I replaced mine with very bright LEDs. Now I can use them as daytime running lights when needed. It took four online purchases to get a pair that fits because a lot of companies advertise H6W lamp compatibility, but in reality little studs on those lamps are at 180 degrees, so they don't fit. One pair had the studs in the right places but was twice the diameter of an H6W.

lingpoen.. ."however the little studs at the bottom were not like the Porsche running lights and were 90 degrees as opposed to how the OEM are... filed on of them down and stuck it in and locked it" sort of reminds me of the time i was on a date 30 years ago and the headlights in my 1980 911sc were dim and almost completely out. i checked fuses and headlight fuse was suspect. i wrapped a piece of aluminum foil around the fuse and worked great. when we got home the underside of the dash started smoking like it was on fire. i quickly removed the foiled fuse and had totally burned the wiring harness. $2600 later the new wiring harness was installed by my mechanic

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So, uh...sounds like a hot date.

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$2600! Hope you got dumplings with that.

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Ha!! Reminds me of one of my earliest dates with my now ex. Had an old motorcycle and it died while we were out cruising in the Hollywood hills. I finally found a short circuit. Walked down the road a bit until I found an old gum wrapper. Peeled the foil off of it, wrapped the blown fuse in it, and we were good to go. Yes, got lucky that night.

...thanks a lot Groove...now I scared to turn the damn things on!

...and Cuda...u got layed with a gum wrapper???

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I think it was probably in the 60's. It was a lot easier to get layed back then. :P

just wanted to make sure nobody else thinks/trouble shoots with their smaller head

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The temperature is not the only side effect of blocked grills, what you will find is the fans will run more frequently as the system will get warmer a greater % of the time and also the air con will be less effective as the flowrate across the fins and so the variation in the gases across the refrigeration system is lower. O SR

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Indeed, looked liked a total MacGyver god with that gum wrapper repair. Slickyricky, good point about the fans.