Leaf Guard for radiators?

I was amazed at how much crap (in terms of leaves, bits of paper, etc) I pulled from in front of and around my radiators when I washed the car last week. Is there any type of mesh grill that can be installed?

Like the body of the car which needs cleaning once in awhile, the radiators will get dirty at times. It is quite simple to clean and you can do so a few times a year. The alternative of putting a screen in front will make your engine run hotter as it will reduce air flow by as much as 60%. Kinda like putting dust covers on the wheels to keep the brake dust from dirtying the wheels. It can be done, but at an expense to the performance of the car.

Gotcha - I agree - I don't want to make an inconvenient problem into a major one. Luckily for me, the werewife is skinny, so she can reach in there and get all the glop out. Thanks very much for the input. I hesitate asking some quyestions for fear of being slammed for asking a dumb question (this is my first Porsche, so I have a lot of questions).

Some love to attack people with what we think are "dumb" questions, but it is all in fun. If you do not know the answer to something, then NOT asking would be the dumb thing to do. Enjoy the car.

I regularily use my shop vac and the long narrow hose to vacuum out around all three radiators on my C4.......even then I find that to get it all out, I have to use a compressed air nozzel with a long 18" snout to disloge the sand, rocks and road grime that accumulates....... At a minimum I recommend an annual vacuuming and turn the hose on theses areas when you wash the car....they are vicious little crud collectors....

you probly have a lot of leaves trapped between condensor and radiator. to clean that out, you'll have to remove the bumper cover which takes a few hours. the mesh wouldn't reduce cooling efficiency that much. car never heats when in motion. when it sits, heat will radiate our with mesh so there is no downside othre than the mesh look if you don't like it.

While I agree in principle I see many track cars with mesh. I have mesh on mine and have not noticed any change in water temp. I suppose it depends on enviromental conditions as well. Regardless you will need to get in there (probably remove the front bumper) at least 1-2 times a year. cheers

I do not have mesh, but almost did this on recommendations from others. On the other hand, others have rejected the mesh. I am not going to install mesh, but as others have suggested...keep the space as clean and free from "junk" as possible.

I tried the Leaf Guards for my radiators, but I dodn't think they looked very good and the downspouts kept getting crushed against the parking curbs!

What? I think they look perfectly fine You could frame a gable on the back for a little aero help too

What a loser

Tim...nice look!

I had grills put on mine and absolutely no detrimental effect on cooling. It keeps all the crud out and looks pretty cool as well. It also keeps stones from putting holes in your rads. The centre rad is particularly exposed and............you guessed it. I had a stone put a lovely hole in it. Inconvenience getting the car on a flat bed to my Indy, cost of OEM rad at �105 was not too bad but then add the cost of coolant �70 plus a couple of hours labour for fitting and to me it's a no brainer to have the mesh. Pity I didn't do it before the stone. Used stainless steel mesh and my indy fabricated 3 seperate pieces and fixed to the inside of the bumper. My car was 6 years old when it was done and the amount of rubbish that came out when he got the bumper off was amazing. You can easily see why corrosion of the rads is inevitable if left alone.

This is not my car. I wanted to do something like this.

Good one, Tim! My RUF RGT front bumper came with mesh grille inserts. I didn't install the center insert (left the black plastic piece in place) because I don't have a third radiator. The holes in the mesh are still big enough to let really small stones in but keeps all the other crap out. I did not notice any increase in temp after installing the new bumper with mesh but that might also be due to the fact that the openings on the RUF RGT bumper are quite a bit bigger than stock. YMMV.

For those that rely on the Porsche temp sensor, then you may not notice an increase in coolant temp. Reducing the airflow by a much as 60% will increase coolant temps by 5%+ driving around town in 75F+ temps. This is, of course, you have not completed by radiator override mod and keep the 2 fans running full speed. If you do not mind driving around town with engine temops exceeding 215F degrees, then, who cares? Another alternative is to remove one of the radiators and then you only reduce the cooling by 50% and only have one to clean.

Last time I cleaned them I found a dead bird....seriously.

I had the screens and when my shop removed the bumber to install a 3rd radiator, they found so much crap that got through the screen. And once through the screen, it's impossible to remove without removing the bumper. I removed the screens.