how many of you wash out your engine bay?

[SilverRex]

just curious, I havent given my engine a good wash yet.. its getting dirty. shouldnt be any problem using water at the coin wash right? an no I dun have any cold air mushroom in take to suck water.. =]

[Fluidic]

I can't wash my engine bay at the wand wash, even at low pressure. Volkswagen will void my warranty. No lie. They did it to me already... you should see what they wrote on my last invoice.

"Customer washed engine bay at self car wash. Engine cover warranty void"

It's actually pretty funny -- needless to say, Volkwagen called me today to perform there standard customer survey (after every dealer visit) -- with all the nasty comments I put forth... the lady who served me hopefully lost her job! LOL

Peter

[Fluidic]

Moral of my post... I say go for it... but be careful of Big Brother (the dealership and their might warranty as collateral)!

Peter

[ExitSpeed]

I am worried that I am going to short out some electrical connections or something...or worse accelerate rusting in the engine bay. I guess if I wrapped the wiring and essential components first, it might not be so bad.

I tried to clean the engine bay by hand and it was a real tough. Does using the low pressure wash in the self serve car wash bays work?

[Light_Speed]

I use to do this all the time with my old car but then one day the engine just fucked up........... i thought it was because my car had like 250 000km on it but then when we brought it in to get it fixed the guy said that the problem was that there was water inside
dont no if washing the engine was what caused this but thats the only time that the engine was getting wet

[bksze]

how are you supposed to wash the engine bay then?

[ramminghard]

i heard that tire cleaner spray stuff works amazingly. Never tried it though

[300rwhp]

cpver distributor and air filter and you should be alright

[SilverRex]

welp my friend told me to go get it washed at the dealership.. that way you kan always blame them if anything goes wrong. Just dont wash it during the winter =/

[ancient]

Hah, I got a good story about washing my engine bay.....


I did it today, washed my engine bay that is..... I buy some degreaser from SuperStore, spray the shit on in my engine bay and leave it sit for about like 10 min and I drive it down to the car wash.... clean my car wash the engine bay all that nice stuff, intake sprayed, everything just as I would drive it..... Trying to avoid the intake and certain esential pieces I know shouldnt' get tooo wet.


My dads with me, hes like start it up, wondering if it will start right after being washed, bam fires up no problem, and we leave the car wash. It was actually his friggin idea to wash the engine bay. So hes like ya I gotta head to the bank, so we head up the hill in douglas glen, towards the RBC.

Get to the RBC no problem, I pull up and my dad goes into the bank.... Im sitting there and the cars idling fine..... And I step on the throttle just a tad, and it kinda sounds like the car chokes a bit. Im like oh probably just a bit of water, so I do it again, chokes again, i rev it up over 4, and it chokes and chokes till it hits 2.

So im like shit, my dad comes out from the bank, and im like ya I think its not running right, we just did a tranny flush and oil change, and replaced a knock sensor like 2 hours before. So I wasn't sure if it was the wash or not.....

He gets in, I back up and head out from the RBC, and drive through to a 4 way stop, infront of woody's.... I goto turn left, car dies.... Im like fucking great, as Im holding up traffic. Try to start the car, ....... nothing...... hold the key some more, kicks over, dies right away.... Oh great...... So we push the car off to the side, try and start it there, after like 5 min, bam it fires up and I keep it over 2000, so it doesn't die.... We make another break for it, and try to get this thing to run so we can head onto the highway to go for a rip in it, to dry it out..... Get to the 4 way stop again.... Bam it dies

So my dads like fuck this..... Ill be back, goes to Coop, comes back with a all in one screw driver, and a box of kleenex... Starts ripping the distrubutor cap open, takes some kleenex wipes it down the cap, puts it back on....... Start it up.... BAM kicks over no problem, sounds like a dream.


And away we go.....


Most vital thing AVOID THE DISTRIBUTOR when doing engine bay cleaning.

[4wheeldrift]

Originally posted by ramminghard
i heard that tire cleaner spray stuff works amazingly. Never tried it though I can attest to that. Had to do that to get under the hood clean before the car was in world of wheels last year. Worked surprisingly well, actually. Took a lot of elbow grease though :D

[Ben]

The one and only time I pressure washed my Engine Bay My car was stuck ot front of rages house for about 2 and a half hours cause I soaked the distributer. I was pissed.

Hand washing is best, spraybottle on, and wipe off...if you can be surgical with a pressure washer, then do the stuff away from your ignition junk.

[Blue Devil 2]

Originally posted by SilverRex
welp my friend told me to go get it washed at the dealership.. that way you kan always blame them if anything goes wrong. Just dont wash it during the winter =/

I agree with your friend, I take my car to crowfoot honda and the guys there wash it for me. They have a special dryer thing to that dries everything up quickly and they also have this stuff that makes your engine smell really good...hmm..even my exhaust kinda smelled nice after.

[Ben]

Originally posted by Blue Devil 2


I agree with your friend, I take my car to crowfoot honda and the guys there wash it for me. They have a special dryer thing to that dries everything up quickly and they also have this stuff that makes your engine smell really good...hmm..even my exhaust kinda smelled nice after.

HAHAHA, Scented Exhaust! OMFG! hahahahah

Someone restrain me, I'm going to lash out

[Blue Devil 2]

Originally posted by Benny


HAHAHA, Scented Exhaust! OMFG! hahahahah

Someone restrain me, I'm going to lash out

lol, i don't wanna get flamed or anything but for real my car smelled good! it wasnt the wax either..

[Luke 96 T/A]

I'm thinking, if car manufacturers VOID warranties for doing it, that's probably a good reason NOT to!!!!

Personally, my car can't... it has an optical/electrical distributor that will FRY if any water hits it.. dumb ass design..

Eitherway, you should always avoid spraying the engine down... use a wipe if you need to...

[civic_stylez]

i wash my bay at least twice a summer and before car shows, just use rinse only, stand well back cover an intake if you have one and make sure you wash the engine last. when you finish start it up and let it run for 7-10 mins. get the engine heat up and it will burn all the excess water off. like those guys say it starts right away and then it dies like 10 mins later cus the engine sucks all the water into the manifold when you drive.

[ninspeed]

OK well i wash every new cars engine with teh pressure and i only have problems when i take the car out side and its cold out right away. I typically use a air hose to dry everything off, then good to go. In my truck, i wash my engine allmost as often as i wash the car