996 Carrera 2 radiators

[L200animal]

Heard that all sorts of debris collects around radiators and rots them out so decided this morning to take the nose off and clear it out. It was straight forward but anyone doing it for the first time there are 3 tricky bits. The books tell you to remove a plastic rivet in the wheel arch shield and "peel it back" to get to the vertical screw behind it and below the side repeater lens. Peeling it back is hard, don't be tempted to use anything metal to lever between wheel arch and shield. Don't do it on a cold day which makes plastic hard and brittle and use a plastic spatula as in frying pan to get between the wheel arch part of the nose and the shield. Also the book doesn't seem to mention the vertical screw accessed through a hole in the rubber bit on the very bottom of the nose cone immediately ahead of the wheel. If you take that out first and the screw you can see just behind that hole, it makes it easier to get the shield "peeled back". Finally, if you take out all three plastic rivets you can see and the outermost screw securing the top part of that shield just above the rivets, access is much better.
It was really surprising to see how much cr*p that collects around the bottom of the 2 rads (nearest is the air con condenser and behind it is the water rad and that is repeated on the other side) either side and between them! Leaves and a ton of dead insects. You can undo the condensers and move them apart a little. I used an airline to blow the crud out. Very satisfying job made slightly depressing when I saw the number of scratches and digs on the bottom of the nose cone but at least I won't have to shell out for new rads.