After 26 years and horror stories about the possible accumulation that is possible, I did the job today.
Made it easy to seal the leaking water pump bolts and replace the bottom radiator hose.

Here's what I found
cleaned and replaced. Hopefully no leaks and running cooler

 

Wow, so it was running at a whopping 8-10%. You'll be running super cool now...

 

Wow.. pictures are much more intriguing than stories.. makes me want to clean mine now

 

even found a cig butt in with those leaves. And I don't smoke

 

It's not a bad job at all. Easily done taking your time in less than 2 hrs

 

nice pics.

 

No surprise....we don't call these things "road vacuums" for nothing. Your car will run much cooler now. Thanks for the pics.

 

Wow looks like a lint screen for a dryer or you drove it through a chicken coupe


Seriously bet its way better now that its truly clean and air can pass through the fins.
Not removing the rad. and just vacuuming out loose debris is just the beginning.

 

Here's how to stop all but the smallest of that sort of debris before it gets lodged in your condenser and radiator:



This should have been factory installed on all C4s. They are bottom-feeders, and will vacuum all manner of garbage into their air intakes. It makes no sense to leave this opening unprotected. I highly recommend this mod to all C4 owners.

Live well,

SJW

 

How is your screen held in place? Give us some assembly details.

 

 

Every year the same ol posts........

Springtime = batteries & alternators
Summertime = radiators
Falltime = heatercores
Wintertime = mice in the wiring

Here's how to fix these;

Inspect the radiator gap every Spring. Clean as required.
Pin the heater core water valve open and leave it there.
Hookup a Battery Tender when your putting her down for the winter.
Buy a frik'ng Cat!

This should be sticky/required reading for noob's




Ya think?

 

I fabricated the screen using this galvanized steel expanded-metal mesh, which is available at Lowe's, and is intended for use as a debris guard for rain gutters on houses:

http://tinyurl.com/3vt6fjq

The package includes enough material to fabricate five of these screens. The material width was satisfactory straight out of the package. I trimmed the length to fit. On the prototype unit, I trimmed the ends off square, and rolled the ends inward. On the second-generation unit, I trimmed the ends such that they were contoured to fit better, and did not roll the ends inward.

To attach the screen's upper edge, I reshaped two of the stainless steel mounting clips that came with the mesh, and drilled a hole in each, then secured the clips under the two fog lamp access panel screws.

To attach the bottom of the screen, I drilled a 1/4-inch diameter hole in the black plastic air dam, just inside of the air intake opening, then secured the screen with black zip-ties.

The first two photos that appear below were taken as I was fabricating and installing the first prototype, which worked well but didn't quite satisfy me aesthetically. The photo I posted in my first reply above is of the second-generation unit that I fabricated. In addition to improving on the cuts at the ends, I painted the second one flat black, which, combined with the fact that the screen lives way down under the front bumper, makes it nearly invisible. Nobody has commented that they've noticed it unless I've pointed it out to them.

This photo shows the upper attachment, securing the prototype unit to the car:





This pic shows the upper and lower attachments on one side, securing the prototype unit in place:





This photo shows the second-generation unit installed, before I pulled it back off and squirted it flat black:





And, finally, here's another shot of the second-gen screen after thousands of miles of service:




Note: This screen is custom-built to fit the later C4 intake openings. I have installed these on both my '94 ragtop (pictured above) and my '96 coupe. I haven't studied the earlier C4 intake openings to see what differences they present, but it's probably safe to presume that there would be some differences.

This screen won't stop the smallest of debris from getting in, but it will stop such things as cigarette butts, plastic bags, newspapers, birds, large insects, leaves, and even most small stuff like grass clippings. After nearly 70,000 combined miles, the condensers and radiators on both of my C4s have very little foreign material visible up in there.

Live well,

SJW

 

Nice job! And the factory shoulda done this?? Yeah it woulda cost them an extra $3 and prevented radiator failures to fix

 

WELL DONE ! Thanks SJW

 

Thanks for posting

 

All the stories I've heard only mentions leaves jammed in there but in that picture I see leaves, cigarette butts, and some lint that looks like it came out a dryer.

 

There is a void between the rad and condenser that collects any kind of trash.
The C4 is a bottom feeder. Screens only keep out the big stuff. Cottonwood fluff will pass through.
Everyone should be inspecting this area once a year.
Unless you drive in Antarctica....

I converted to a DeWitts that fills this void with radiator and small stuff still accumulates there!

 

Many thanks for posting the pictures and describing the assembly process.

 

you make it sound like I put it there