Using a leaf blower to clean radiator…

[Hey APB]

I’ve owned my Model 3 for about 2.5 years, 36k miles in Texas. During the recent wave of heat and triple digit temps, I’ve noticed that my fan has been running much louder than usual, very often, and very long while driving around. Temp set to 70. Ceramic tint. Not really a loss of cooling inside but that constant fan noise even at lower highway speeds had me concerned. Took a look in the intake and the rad had a fair dusting of debris and bugs. Didn’t want to take the frunk apart in this heat so I grabbed my hi powered Makita blower and ran it until the batteries died. Moved it all around, up and down and I had a constant stream of dirt, bugs, leaves and leaf bits just flowing out of the grille. This thing was really getting the dirt out of it! I changed batteries and kept going until nothing else came out of the grille. Propped up the little stone guard to get the few leaves left. Next got the garden hose and used “jet” setting to force water through both radiators and ran it until the water was draining clear from the drains in front of the tires. Had another super hot day today and barely even heard the fan. A/C ice cold. Even letting it sit in the sun with the “Keep” function on while I ran into the store resulted on a quiet car when I came back. Maybe this is a quick and easy every 10k miles maintenance tip that can be utilized before doing a deep clean taking the frunk apart/front off? Didn’t see any mention of using a blower in the forums. Super easy and seems very effective. Any negatives to this method?

 

[pnwadventures]

I might give this a shot. Can you elaborate on where you ran the leaf blower in?

 

[Hey APB]

I might give this a shot. Can you elaborate on where you ran the leaf blower in?

I just pointed the blower directly into the grille. Started on one side of the grille and kinda moved it around to get the air blowing into the rad cavity in different directions. Moved over to the other side of the grill and same thing. The big debris will basically spit back out of the grill on the opposite side and dirt will likely push down through the radiators or get blown out the grille. Like o said, I ran my blower on max for 10 mins until the batts died and there was still stuff coming out. New batts and it cleared out before those died. I then used the water to flush whatever else is in there on through. I doubt it did much for the part at the top that traps a lot of stuff where the rads are stacked…I can’t tell from looking in the grille but what I did was more than enough to have the fan barely running now on a humid 100 degree day…

 

[methodical]

I just hosed my 2022 MY from the front grille and it made a HUGE difference. Arizona, seeing 110+ temps.

During supercharging I'll go into service mode and before the difference between discharge and liquid (refrigerant before and after it goes through the radiator) was only 15-20C. Now the difference is 30-35C and it makes a giant difference. Seems the liquid side is limited to 24bar of pressure regardless so reducing liquid temp increases cooling and reduces load on the compressor and radiator fan.

Now my discharge hits 24bar @ 92C and liquid is 57-58 - at absolute peak (whcih varies based on exterior temp).

I'm wondering if it'd be better if I cleaned it properly, but there is nothing to lose by hosing it out with a normal nozzle. Completely safe and it obviously did a lot.

 

[AZAV8R]

I just hosed my 2022 MY from the front grille and it made a HUGE difference. Arizona, seeing 110+ temps.

During supercharging I'll go into service mode and before the difference between discharge and liquid (refrigerant before and after it goes through the radiator) was only 15-20C. Now the difference is 30-35C and it makes a giant difference. Seems the liquid side is limited to 24bar of pressure regardless so reducing liquid temp increases cooling and reduces load on the compressor and radiator fan.

Now my discharge hits 24bar @ 92C and liquid is 57-58 - at absolute peak (whcih varies based on exterior temp).

I'm wondering if it'd be better if I cleaned it properly, but there is nothing to lose by hosing it out with a normal nozzle. Completely safe and it obviously did a lot.

To be clear, you stuck a hose into the radiator intake rinsed? I keep my M3 garaged, but it's 4 years and 65k miles old now and has likely picked up crud from driving.

 

[PianoAl]

This sounds like a great idea. To be clear, you are putting the leaf blower and the hose in at the arrow?