And vigilant.... The "love bugs" are pretty bad this year (every year). The past couple days I have made 2 trips to Orlando and back to Sebastian. About 200 miles round trip both times. I am having to clean the love bugs off the car every morning. They are literally caked on there.

When I popped the hood to check the oil for the week (yesterday) I noticed that the bottom portion of the condenser and the top radiator (inverter coolant radiator?) were completely impacted with bugs. I got most of them out with a tooth brush.

So, is it possible to overheat the inverter if this radiator gets plugged? Has anyone else on here had to deal with this sort of problem on a daily basis?

Also, what is the best way to get the bugs out without pushing them farther in. I was looking into removing the grill to really clean them good. But, that looks like a PITA.

 

I put window screen mesh behind front grill to protect radiator from becoming clogged. ( we have butterfly invasion once a year). Now I have to make sure mesh doesn't get all clogged up lol. The radiator works on the principle of air flow around metal fins, if that air flow is stopped, then you will have overheat. Now, just relax, there is plenty of safety margin build in, so even if air flow is reduced 20- 50 %, you shouldn't have problems, but if you live in very hot area, get stuck in traffic, all those bad things could combine with clogged radiator fins just enough to cause problem, so always better safe than sorry. Personally I find cleaning or replacing mesh much easier than cleaning radiator, especially that some stuff gets push inside between the fins and is impossible to remove, also you could easily bend or damage the fins, while cleaning even with plastic. YDMV

 

How did you mount the screen? I would like to see how you did that. If it could be easily removed and cleaned, that would be the ticket.

I have to clean the bugs out of the fins every day. The paint is easy... Just wait till morning after they have been soaking in the "evening dew" all night and they wash right off.

 

I used plastic mesh, whole roll costs few $, so replacing whole thing after a while not a big deal. I took metal hanger wire straighten it up, cut to size top and bottom and used very narrow copper electric wire to attach it at few points to mesh and that is attached to couple points under the hood, in front of grill. It doesn't have to be neither pretty nor neat since, you don't see anything until you open the hood. Originally I used duct tape attaching mesh to inside of the grill but that didn't last too long, since wind and rain will put constant pressure on the mesh during fast driving. During season every few days I would unhook it, take it out and wash with hose, if it rips, put new one. After the season I just leave it there, without washing for weeks. As a matter of fact you just reminded me to check it this weekend. Just make sure there is no rubbing against any wires, especially high voltage ones.