While poking about under the bonnet this evening checking stuff like you do I noticed my intercooler is full of tiny stones and dead bugs.

Living out in the sticks what do I need to have available before I take it to pieces and find I am missing something? Also how easy is it to take it to take it off anyway as I am simply planning on taking it off and shaking upside down until the crap falls out!

Cheers

 

Depending on what MY of car you have, you'll probably just need a 12mm socket wrench (with a wobble extension) and a straight-bladed screwdriver (for the jubilee clips) to take the IC off.

Shaking it alone won't get you very far - need a hose with a spraygun on the end, shooting through from underneath. Pressure washer is likely to knacker the fins so regular tap-fed hose is better.

 

spray carb cleaner inside it while it is off, give it a good shake and you will see the gunky oil come out.

 

Magic, so no other little pieces to worry about while taking off and re-fitting then and thanks for the heads up about the pressure washer, it is advice like that which stops a simple job becoming an expensive job!!!

It is an 2004 wrx waggon so is it a my04 ???

 

Better to know before than after, that's for sure! Taking the IC off is pretty self-explanatory. Loosen off the jubilee clips securing the turbo outlet and throttle body pipes, undo the bolts securing the dumpvalve to the IC, and the IC to the brackets, and then it just sortof twists out.

Might be, or might be an early 05 or an '03 Subaru UK had hanging around an airfield somewhere. You can tell easily enough by looking at the VIN or Applied Model code. The fourth character of the Applied Model code represents the model year (ie GDADxxx). C=MY03, D=MY04, E=MY05.

 

To get the bugs out and stuff i just use the hoover ... dont press on the fins just hover over the top of it

 

I remember watching a subaru dealer mechanic working on my MY03 when it was 2 years old he threw his spanner onto the intercooler bending the fins, very professional

 

If you are going to take the intercooler off. Bear in mind that refitting the bottom y-pipe onto the turbo can be a little fiddly, a bit of WD-40 usually helps things slip into place.

 

Never got the chance to try to remove it. I will try the vacuum method though.