Dead Bugs on Radiator

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I try to get them off when I'm washing the car, but I don't worry that much (unless they're especially corrosive like love bugs). Big bugs might deform the radiator fins, so those might need straightening. Otherwise, the radiator is sized to handle some normal bug and debris accumulation.
 
What do you do about very small pebbles? The PO of our one car clearly stuffed it into the barrow pit at one point, and the A/C radiator is stuffed with tiny pebbles. I've tried washing them out from the back and grabbing them with something to no avail. Should I care?
 
I think you should take reasonable steps to get the pebbles out, as an unlucky placed one might cause a stress riser in the tubing. Can you fabricate a hook from sheetmetal or wire?
 
You can get a fin straightener cheap from a Heating/Cooling supply house. The one I bought for the tool box was less than $15. You use it like a comb on the fins. Many of us use a garden hose and spray the radiator from the engine side towards the front. This pushes the dirt, bugs, stones back out the front instead of pushing them farther into the radiator fins. I do mine once a year just to keep the radiator cooling fins clean.
 
Although it impairs cooling a bit, a sheet of pet-proof window screen zip-tied to the front of the radiator works great to keep debris out of the fins.

BTDT with several vehicles now, both motorcycle and car...
 
Go to an appliance parts house and tell them you want a refriguator coil brush.
wink.gif
 
I just found a bunch collected on my radiator. You can't see them from outside. What do you do w/ them? Do they collect and impede air flow or do they decompose so never gets to point to hurt cooling?
 
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