Cleaning air con condenser and oil cooler...
 

Project for the weekend:

The grilles of my oil cooler and air con condenser have acumulated 10 years of dead bugs, debris, leaves and God knows what. Looking through the air intake below the bumper, they seem to be clad in mud.

I doubt this condition helps the efficiency of my aircon and oil cooling, and have bought a small water pressure cleaner to deal with the dirt. The plan is to take off a wheel, take out the inner wheel arch, and clean the grilles from the inside.

Question: I can not get to remove the fan unless I take off the front bumper, which I would like to avoid. Instead I plan to wrap a plastic bag around the fan motor and put the nozzle of the pressure cleaner between the fanblades (to avoid the fan motor). Does this sound prudent to you?

Have a nice weekend!!!

Keep the water pressure low enough so that you do not bend the cooling fins in the coil.

Wetting the soil and coil a few times will help improve the time needed to clean it.

Using a soap (surfactant) in your water will help as well.

You may need to "scrape", carefully, the typical accumulation of mud and debris that forms at the bottom of the coil; you can fashion a bent wire to get in there. Debris holds moisture and acids form which corrode the unit.

I can tell you though that removing the front bumper wasn't as bad as I thought... and it made room to really get in there and make some repairs/clean.

I am with Tom on removing the front bumper. The time it takes to remove will be gained in the time you save on cleaning, plus you will do a way better job. It's very easy to take off and reinstall. JMTC = just my 0.02

:cheers:

On my phone, so images/links might not work correctly... It's pretty easy to take off the bumper and get access to everything up front.

http://picasaweb.google.com/m/viewer...70499572192338

http://picasaweb.google.com/m/viewer...68049465779010

Getting in there myself in a couple days to replace drier, and ballast for a/c fan while doing the Griffiths 134 conversion. I must say the Griffiths conversion comes with great instructions and wonderful customer service. He shipped out my stuff within a hr of ordering and I got it next day..
I will check my radiator and clean it as well. Let ya know how it goes.

Is there an article detailing(/showing) the front bumper's removal?

I gave a quick forum search and also didn't see one in our DIY forum.

Thanks in advance.

^911Jetta has pics showing where all the fasteners are located. It's a pretty easy job.

Once you've got it off, it's easy to degrease, spray w/ water, and use compressed air to clean out the oil cooler and condenser.

...and get a good wax on the cover for the future... a few nooks and crannies are easier to access while it's off and pointed straight up. :-)

Picture courtesy of 911Jetta.

https://rennlist.com/forums/attachme...ont-bumper.jpg

More details
https://rennlist.com/forums/964-foru...ferrerid=19642

I further support removing the bumper for proper cleaning. The first time may seem daunting, (and some screws may object to removal), but easier in the long run. It is also an opportunity to fix a 'frown" in the bumper by straightening the long tab on the tub that invariably gets schmasshed from hitting too many curbs.
Another suggestion, while the bumper is off. Take some time to look at how the air flow is blocked and directed to 100% flow through the condenser and cooler, and not bypass. There are some rubber and foam seals that close up the gaps to ensure the air goes the right way. There are two pricey pieces of foam on each side that are most likely long gone. I bought some foam rubber used to seal around home window air conditioners, and used pieces of it to seal up all of these spaces. I have a collection of pictures of all of these seals and areas that I had good intentions of publishing a DIY but never got it done. My widebody conversion had an aftermarket front bumper that I discovered was allowing almost 100% of the air to bypass the coolers, and I spent a quite a bit of effort fabricating the right baffles and under-tray pieces, to get my oil temperatures low and AC to work.
Good luck.