When was the last time you flossed your Radiators?

My neighbor down the street has a 99 996, and recently had to have a rebuilt engine installed in it. He noted that with the new engine the temperature gauge seemed to be running hotter than with the old engine. He was not sure if the new engine had a different thermostat, but when I looked at it, it was definitely hotter than my 02 911. We had both read several earlier threads about clogged radiators so we decided to take a closer look at the ones on this car after a cursory reach into the front intakes pulled out a big piece of a travel map. To get to the radiators we removed the front bumper cover. It is not difficult at all to do this, as it is just held on with about 12-15 screws. When we got the cover off, immediately a big pile of debris fell on the ground. After another 4 screws and removing the inner ducting to the radiators, an even bigger pile of dirt, gravel, straw, cigarette butts, paper, and even something that looked like it was from a wedding fell out. So we thought we had it all out, then we decided to take an additional 2 screws out and peek behind the air condition evaporators and look at the actual cooling radiators. To our astonishment, both were almost completely clogged with more crap, and a blanket of fuzz, hair, and goodness knows what. So out came the pressure washer with the medium nozzle, and the radiators came clean. In the picture below, I have done the ones on the drivers side, and am getting ready to do the other side. You can see the difference. If you have never cleaned your radiators on your 996, I highly recommend that you DO IT! If you are mechanically inept, too important, busy or vain, then pay someone to do it! This is especially true with the hotter than normal weather we are having lately. A clean radiator is an efficient one, and than means that your engine will last longer and have less stress on the mechanical components, oil, etc. if it is cooled properly. This exercise took about an hour, and the results were immediate. The car's temperature gauge was back to where it should normally be. (with the needle between the 8 and 0 in 180) You might be amazed at the stuff that is stuck in your radiators. I have heard stories of dead birds, and all sorts of stuff in there. It would be interesting to see who can pull the grossest or most amazing thing out of a 996 radiator. Good luck with it!

Man you're crazy! I can't just jab a vaccum hose in there?

You could and you would get about 40% of the stuff out. However you would miss the stuff that is the killer. That is the debris that is on the main radiator behind the air conditioner evaporator radiator. There is no way to get that crap out without pulling the cover off and peeling back the evaporator to clean it out.

to bad you don't live in chicago id pay you to come by and clean it out for me. ...... but ill definitly do it sometime

Do the headlights have to pulled during this ordeal?

lol. "Ordeal". My thoughts exactly. Love to do it but it looks so invasive from afar.

I hear you. I'd love to do it too. Hmm.... Maybe a group from the tri-state area can organize a radiator clean-up rally.

Did my '99 Cab a couple of weeks ago, noticeable temp drop immediately. I now run at the left if the zero on the 180. It did go to the right of the zero on a 105 degree day while pulling a canyon for several miles at 40-50 mph up to 9000', not bad I thought.

Did you pull the headlights like the OP?

Pulling the headlights is optional, but it is an additional 5 minutes to do so, and makes getting in behind the radiators with the pressure washer a little easier. There are also 2 tabs on the bumper cover that must be lined up on the reinstall, and it is easier to see the tabs without the headlights in the way.

Thanks for the tip! That would be something to mess with some day. I just got my C4S a week, so there're lots of other things to do for now. Just got it tinted today, ordered the wheel lock socket coz' I need to replace the tires. Ordered a spare remote key (damn over $300 with programming!!!)

How do you get to the 12-15 screws to get the bumper off? I am thinking about doing mine this weekend.

im going to do it once i get back from my trip. my car has 100k...... wonder what ill find

no kidding, but when I did mine a year or so ago when I was living in Vegas that in addition to the "debris" you had I also had several pages of a skin mag I got quite the laugh on that one. Wife looked at the pile of debris and say "only in Vegas, honey, only in Vegas".

I posted a thread about how to remedy this a few weeks ago. I had just brought my "new to me" '03 996 home and I was washing it. I was peeking and poking around, when I saw a few leaves jammed waaaay back in there. After reaching back and pulling out two handfuls of leaves, trash, and assorted debris, I went to the other side and repeated the process. I wondered in the thread if there was some kind of screening available to keep this crap put, but was advised, "nope." This seems like a design flaw. Thanks for going into detail as to how to really get at the radiators. This just made it to the top of my To Do list

I do this twice a year (have never pressure washed it though usually just shop vac). It is amazing how much crap is in there. OE is correct there is always a good amount of debris behind the AC radiator and in front of the coolant radiator). I have never seen a change in the temperature gauge from my cleaning but I always feel better about it. Loren at Renntech has the bumper removal spelled out in the 3rd radiator install DIY.

Here's the link to that post: http://www.renntech.org/forums/index...bumper+removal

Looked at my intakes on the 2002 C2 and found a dead sparrow mostly decomposed, a mouse nest and several leaves and papers. I used a vacume cleaner to get that stuff out, but after reading your thread, I will be going the rest of the way to get it all. Thanks, Tom L 2002 C2

Did this about 3-4 mo ago. It had about 4 yrs of use with 25k mi. Got about 1/2 the stuff as your friend's car. Mileage and where you live matters a lot. If you see tons of junk when you look into the bumper, you'll find about 2x more if you take the bumper off. The bumper removal took me 2-3 hrs since it was my first time. I'd advice turning the wheel or removing them to get the wheel liner loose. The pop rivets are really hard to pull at times. Aligning the bumper back is a snap, pretty easy.

Read your post and did it this evening. Found lots of leaves, a few bees, and a DMV tag of some sort. Nothing to win the catch of the day with, but the air is going to flow much smoother through the rads and that is what matters. This will be a definate addition to my DIY maintenance plan. Thanks for the write up.

Did this this afternoon without taking off the front bumpers that will have to wait until it has cooled down, but I had a entire canvas sandbag minus the sand, a two vons bags sucked up in there. Plus a bunch of leaves and the like, I hope I find some more up in there when I do the whole deal. Car should run cooler but I don't know just quite yet.

Great post! I gotta do it. k

I was appraising a 03 911 the other day and went down to look under the car I noticed that there was a crusty piece of newspaper clogging up the driver's side radiator, I removed it for the lady. I wonder how hot she was getting (the car LOL) since we live in South Florida.

I decided to tackle this project about 1 month ago and also posted my comments (with pics). I highly recommend this as part of PM. Someone recommended this with Redline water wetter to keep temperatures even lower. http://www.racerpartswholesale.com/redline3.htm

How do you use water wetter? Does one just spray it on the radiators?

Edward - I don't use watter wetter but you add it to the water/coolant "in" the radiator.

Doe anyone know wether water wetter in your water is any wetter than when water wetter in not your water. An how do you tell wether water wetter is in your water or whether it is not?

Attemped this today and got nowhere. The rivets in the wheel wells are killing me. I'm assuming they're 2 parts? A pin and a sleeve? I am able to get the pin to pop-up about an eighth of an inch but that's it. Are they supposed to come all the way out? Are both pieces supposed to come all the way out in my hand? Bahhh. Crappy day. Bad mood.

That's easy for you to say!!

yuck look on the bright side - pull out a few pounds of stuff and you'll have a lighter car

Any help, guys?

For me some of the pins came all the way out. Some came out about a quarter of an inch. Try a flat head screw driver and pry under the sleeve. Both the sleeve and pin will come out and that all right. IMO That should do the trick. Worked for me

Thanks. Didn't want to break something I didn't have to break. Managed to get it all done. Feels good knowing all that crap is no longer in the car!