Clean leaves out of the front?

[fiveohwblow]

Originally Posted by swagon

Do I know the celebrity? How much did you pay for the provenance?

And thanks for the thread, had no idea so much dirt accumulates in this area.

White federal cop in breaking bad series. Don’t know if you know him LOL.

[Morgen Black]

Originally Posted by horsepower_and_hounds

When I dropped mine this is what fell out.... and there was more on round 2 cleaning. Car cane from Salt Lake City Utah. There is still so much gravel stuck in the cooler I might change it if I get any hi temp faults this summer

Is that a Murder Hornet I see on the ground?! lol

MB

[horsepower_and_hounds]

Originally Posted by fiveohwblow

White federal cop in breaking bad series. Don’t know if you know him LOL.

Too funny..... mine was owned by Trevor Booker

[Discordia]

LOL. I was replacing a couple of the little plastic grilles in my bumper. Dropped the bumper (fender) to get to the back of them, then found that didn't help. You know the ones I mean! Damn, am I glad I did, though. I was horrified by how much crap was in there. Mine was WAY worse than any of yours! The previous owner must have lived in a forest or on a farm or something (a farm in a forest?). The oil cooler was completely buried and can't have been working at at all and there was so much shit between the charge cooler and main rads I had to drop the charge cooler one out to get it all out. The dirt had set like a kind of mortar. Took me hours to clean it all out and I ended up with like a mud bank around the front of the car. And then more hours straightening and clearing all the cooling fins. The aux rads in the wheel arches were just as bad.

Anyway, what I wanted to say was I found something really useful to help with this. I have this brush that looks like a wire brush but the bristles are made of plastic. It was part of a set I bought years ago and I never found a use for it before. Dunno why I kept it, really. Glad I did, though. It's really useful for getting that sandy stuff out that's set like mortar without damaging the cooling fins. All the rads are clear(er) now and I can sleep at night.

[Discordia]

I really don't think you can do this job properly without removing the bumper, though. leaves is only part of the problem and not the worst of it, either. There's no way I could have blown that crap out of mine without ripping all the cooling fins out in the process.

[dms-01]

Originally Posted by Discordia

I really don't think you can do this job properly without removing the bumper, though. leaves is only part of the problem and not the worst of it, either. There's no way I could have blown that crap out of mine without ripping all the cooling fins out in the process.

Nah you don't need to remove the bumper to clean it out. Maybe make it a little easier but not required IMHO.

[jpy1980]

Have any of your considered upgrading to the mishimoto unit once you take this one off to clean? I'm considering it as it looks to be a fairly robust unit.

[BzsBimmer]

I’ve considered it but tbh didn’t really see a need since the OEM is pretty efficient even with all the crap inside. The Mishi unit won’t prevent any less crap buildup me thinks and I’m not driving it heavy enough to warrant extra cooling.

Maybe those track die hards will have a better reason to upgrade or replace.

[Discordia]

Originally Posted by dms-01

Nah you don't need to remove the bumper to clean it out. Maybe make it a little easier but not required IMHO.

So, how would you advocate removing the leaves and compacted dirt from between the gearbox cooler and main rads? It was packed and you couldn't even see it. I wouldn't even have known it was there if the amount of stuff everywhere else hadn't prompted me to take a closer look. I had to drop the gearbox cooler and, to do that I had to drop the oil cooler, which was completely buried under half an inch of dirt that had set like concrete. There's no way I could have cleaned all this with the bumper on.

[dms-01]

Originally Posted by Discordia

So, how would you advocate removing the leaves and compacted dirt from between the gearbox cooler and main rads? It was packed and you couldn't even see it. I wouldn't even have known it was there if the amount of stuff everywhere else hadn't prompted me to take a closer look. I had to drop the gearbox cooler and, to do that I had to drop the oil cooler, which was completely buried under half an inch of dirt that had set like concrete. There's no way I could have cleaned all this with the bumper on.

Don't?

[wuzhatning]

Thanks for all the insights I was curious to know how to remove them leaves

[Discordia]

Well, I have revised my opinion on this a bit. It is possible to get the oil cooler down and also drop the gearbox cooler (if you have the DCT) from between the main rad and the charge cooler rad without removing the bumper. You just need to remove the plastic undertray thing from below the oil cooler and then you can get to it all and do a pretty good cleaning job. The only thing you wouldn't be able to do very well by this method would be to straighten any bent fins in the charge cooler rad, which is the one right in the front that takes the brunt of the abuse from flying debris.

[Billyboy1]

Hi All I wondered if anyone has had a problem with the black trims fading and going motely. I have had my 2018 M4 convertible competition pack which has only done 4800 miles (weekend car) since new

I tried getting them replaced under the warranty but BMW have refused saying I have put some kind of "road tarmac cleaner" on which is absolutley mad

When I got the car I paid BMW around £365 for a protection on the paintwork and this is the only
chemical that been near the car apart from a Halfords wash and wax every week

Its in BMW as I wright this but they want £1000 to put it right or they have kindly asked if I want a part ex for a new one

Any Ideas or comments would be useful Thanks Bill

[ONEof500]

Originally Posted by Billyboy1

Hi All I wondered if anyone has had a problem with the black trims fading and going motely. I have had my 2018 M4 convertible competition pack which has only done 4800 miles (weekend car) since new

I tried getting them replaced under the warranty but BMW have refused saying I have put some kind of "road tarmac cleaner" on which is absolutley mad

When I got the car I paid BMW around £365 for a protection on the paintwork and this is the only
chemical that been near the car apart from a Halfords wash and wax every week

Its in BMW as I wright this but they want £1000 to put it right or they have kindly asked if I want a part ex for a new one

Any Ideas or comments would be useful Thanks Bill

Ceramic coating will restore it.

[CanAutM3]

I guess I need to drop my cooler this weekend, I saw I have a dead bird carcass in there

[horsepower_and_hounds]

Tip:

Large cooler, take off belly cover and blow w compressed air up int it....this will blow out some of the stuff stuck in the fins

Side oil coolers, take out fender well covers and blow from the back side to get some of the stuff stuck in fins.

Never blow from the run into them....

[swagon]

Very much recommended indeed.

[cft0]

ive used a leaf blower and gotten them out that way

[ellipsis212]

Post up your oil cooler debris piles. Current leader is the guy from Cali

[NSX2M4]

I take a completely different and lazy approach. I use my pressure washer and most of that crap just flies right out the way it came in. Spray at an angle on the left side- crap flies out the right and vise versa.
It seems to work very well. Every wash I get tons of leaves and cigarette butts out of there.

[slowpokemd]

I did mine this weekend. Removed the front bumper and a lot of crap came out. I wish I knew about just dropping the oil cooler; I'll try that next time.

[rezilient]

After seeing my fair share of rubber marbles from track days, cigarette butts, leaves, twigs and stuff stuck in my cooler/rad this thread inspired me to create little removable screens to put in front of the stupidly large holes. Here is what i did, hopefully it wont mess with air flow but i dont see why it would since i used very thin gage mesh.

It was silver and spray painted multiple coats of black to prevent rusting and improve the looks. It sits firmly between the bumper and the OEM grills with a couple if very thin zip ties to hold them in place.