Some deferred maintenance - clean those radiators!

Was planning to get around to this in the fall. A leaky left radiator made me open it up a bit earlier. 41k and 13 years worth of crud probably rotted the rad out. The new one arrives in a few days. Good time to fabricate up a set of screen guards. Perforated sheet aluminum from McMaster-Carr (in the states) and about 90 minutes worth of bending and cutting. Black Plasti-Dip - a few zip ties and we're good to go.

*just* finished mine this morning. Nowhere near as bad as your crud wise. M skid panels were in rough shape though....had to bust out the JB weld.

Nice! Please post of it finished and installed. I might consider this as my rads looked just as bad when I cleaned them last month. Luckily nothing was leaking.

Funny, I just cleaned mine out tonight. My car was running too warm for my tastes. I'll see if my temps go down after this cleaning. Before: And After:

Thanks for the reminder; I'm pretty sure mine had never been done. The leaves and such between the condenser and radiator had decomposed into soil, and I'm pretty sure some plants were starting to sprout! Also while the bumper was off I figured I might as well install the GT3 Cup front lip that's been in my living room for 2 months now.

Good job well done! Always appreciates those who also maintain the hidden parts, pure car enthusiasts.

Since your pulling the bumper, its also a good time to relocate the frunk release cable for easy access. I relocated mine to just behind the tow hook plug in bumper.

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Yeah, I saw that cable, tested it out, and then on re-assembly, I didn't know where it went. So after I checked the forums to find out, most folks who needed access to it couldn't find it. Some had to take the wheel fender off to get it. So I too relocated it next to one of the horns and I can access it from the front bumper. I guess my only concern would be a thier knowing where to look, lol.

When we doing mine?

I did mine maybe too long ago, with compressed air and a long tube. Meant to get to it this year. AC failed, condenser leaking......... covered with crap........

^^ Yeah, after taking the bumper and wheel well liners off, I actually wondered if future cleaning would really need all this. I think next time I try to hose off the rads with a hose from the bumper openings. I think a lot of debris can come out this way.

I wonder if you start with compressed air and a long curved tube (be gentle) and spend some time blowing the big stuff out, you could finish with a spray hose in the driveway and get it pretty clean....... I have NOT removed the bumper cover and actually looked at the configuration of things to determine if this approach would access the areas where crap accumulates...... Guys who have done the full monty, what say you?

There shouldn't ever be crap between the radiator and condenser - there's a nice plastic shroud that fills up nominally all of the space between the two around the edge of the condenser. Unfortunately it doesn't work that way in practice, and worse, the shroud also has the annoying side effect of making it challenging to get stuff out from below while everything is clamped together. Good luck.

While you are in there - check that both horns still work.Often one will fail unbeknownst to you. The cause of failure is usually water ingress.

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Funny you say that, I replaced both horns at the same time I cleaned my radiators, even though only 1 horn was bad. The horns are surprisingly cheap. Probably because a lot of horns are all made by similar companies.

Hella and PIAA

I just did mine today ( still have to reassemble everything tomorrow) after watching the videos explaining how to do it, and have a minor FYI to add. I took all the mentioned screws and rivets out of the bumper and still couldn't budge the bottom. The reason? There are two additional plastic rivets holding the bottom of the bumper cover to the plastic cladding in recessed holes on either side in front. I have not seen those mentioned in the videos. I assume a lot of people don't bother to put them back and many subsequent owners don't encounter them.

I had to replace the condensers and some other AC components because the condenser(s) had developed a leak, from corrosion, I suspect. Big $ in parts.......... worth the time and effort to keep the front end clean of debris!

I have an update on whether or not my cleaning resulted in decreased temps: not really That said, I only had minimal (maybe 10%) debris covering my radiators, so I'm not sure I would notice that 10%. My car only really gets hot at idle in stop and go traffic or on the track. Either way, 105C is where my car like to run, even with those clean rads and fans running clear and full. I guess other posts from long ago indicate other cars having similar issues.