Radiator debris cleaning

[Mike_TV]

While putting the front license plate on I noticed some debris in the radiator already. Stuff like small leaves and bugs. Looking under the car, it's completely sealed up from the front fascia all the way back to the front of the battery pack.

How does one clean the radiator out in a Tesla? There doesn't appear to be any drain holes or easy way to get to the radiator from the front.

Looking at pictures from the Frunk, if you remove the maintenance panel and Frunk tub, you have access to the top of the radiator but it has a plastic cover on it and fins of the radiator is not exposed. Plus that's the back of the radiator and not the front which would have the debris that needs to be cleaned out.

Do you have to take the front bumper cover off and lower fascia off and possibly the plastic pan? If so, it seems excessive compared to popping the hood on an ICE and hosing down the radiator.

 

[Mike_TV]

Grasshopper and leaves are starting to collect on the radiator.

 

[Uncle Paul]

Garden hose ?

 

[Mike_TV]

Looking at this again there may be some drainage on both sides of the undertray that help move debris out when you flush the radiator.

 

[petrie2001]

any updates or solutions to this? I'm running into the same issue and garden hose and compressed air aren't really helping.... tia for the info!

 

[Mike_TV]

After a year of car washes, driving through rain and snow it appears to have flushed itself out. I looked the other day and it's clean. I suspect that the drains on both sides are working well.

I will say I try to avoid parking under trees with those very tiny leaves that seem to work their way into everything.

 

[israndy]

This is a Model 3 cleaning, but the technic should be the same for a Y:

I have seen people just pop the top of their radiator cover and vacuum out the bit they can see and then load the radiator up with coil cleaner so that's an option that requires much less take apart, but once it's apart it's very easy to see the issue and clean it, where as peaking in and using a small vacuum hose isn't gonna get to the stuff that's causing the most blockage.

 

[Mike_TV]

@israndy Thanks for posting that video. Lots of work to take that apart. Amazing how much gunk is in there.

 

[israndy]

Clean it once and then put a cover over the inlet

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