Hi all.
I was poking around the engine bay of me new-to-me 2010 MCS and found that it has those hanging "flaps behind the radiator that many cars have now.

Are these to just maintain the radiator temp or do the serve another purpose like preventing water from getting on stuff?

I'm asking because I live where it gets hot in the summer (and very mild winters) and my drive has a ton of stand-still traffic. Would removing these flaps get me some additional cooling or would it cause more harm than good?

Just wondering. I'm sure the engineers thought of all of the operating temperatures when designing it. (perhaps I just answered my own question?)

 

I think you did answer your own question. I'm not an engineer, but there is just a ton of heat in that area with the radiator, downpipe, turbo, etc. They probably wanted to keep the radiator heat out of the engine bay while the car isn't moving....not likely that it would cool the engine bay, so just keep it out. Once the car starts moving the flaps open and air flows through the radiator to the engine bay for some cooling effect. Interesting question....don't know that any of this is right though!