Anyone steam cleaned their engine bay??

 

I need to give mine a good clean top and bottom and wondered if anyone had steam cleaned theres??

 

I have to get underneith with brake cleaner first as lots of oil to clean up after the oil pressure sender decided to leak everywhere, but once thats gone can i steam clean it? or have people had problems with doing this???

 

Cheers Craig

Not done a zed bay before, but have done a mitsu gto, caused all manner of issues due to water on electrical connections, took a few hours with an air compressor to dry them out, that was just the ones you could get at.

If doing the zed, wouldnt get to close to the electrical stuff, coilpacks, injectors, fuse box etc, the down the sides shouldnt be too bad, if you can covered the bits with say the fingers of old washing up gloves, but i would defo still have an air gun at the ready, do an area, then start the car, make sure all is good before cleaning another area.

I reckon spray some wd40 on all your electrical connections first, make sure things like spark plugs are nice and tight and sealed up, then go for it. You shouldn't do any permanent damage no matter what, but I'd advise leaving it a day before starting it anyway tbh.

Think ill just get the gunk gloves and brushes out me thinks just to be on the safe side.

Think ill just get the gunk gloves and brushes out me thinks just to be on the safe side.

 

Dont jet clean it mate :scared:it will cause all sorts of problems hand wash only might take longer but your zed will still work.

Think ill just get the gunk gloves and brushes out me thinks just to be on the safe side.

 

you would be surprised just how resilient to water that engine bay is, i was half way though sorting out my over heating problem when it peed it down, i had to much hanging off the bonnet at the time to close it (water proof lights) as it was dark at the time, engine was soaked, but started straight away and once it was up to temp and the bonnet finally closed, didn't take long to dry everything off.

 

Almost all the connections in the engine bay have the rubber grommets in them to stop water getting to the vitals, so unless yours is old and is missing them, or you have exposed wires where the plastic covering is exposing them, doubt you would do any damage, just don't spray up under the big fuse box, id do that bit by hand.

 

Dont jet clean it mate :scared:it will cause all sorts of problems hand wash only might take longer but your zed will still work.

 

hes on about steam cleaning matey not jet washing lol

Christ would never jet wash it :( seen too many cars scrapped due to that. Just wondered if anyone had steam cleaned theres, Im more thinking under the engine tbh to get rid of the oil residue from my oil pressure sender leak it managed to get everywhere! at least it will never rot under there now lol

you can jet wash or steam.

 

Just cover up all electricals with plastic bags, spray any exposed electrical connections with WD40 or similar, have engine running and away you go.

 

The idea behind keeping the engine running is that 1) as the engine gets hot excess water will evaporate and not sit in parts/places it shouldn't and 2) you'll know if you've sprayed water somewhere you shouldn't ;)

 

If you are using a jet wash, just use your common sense and don't go in all guns blazing.

I'd do it with a crappy bathroom steamer like you can buy in Lakeland - I've used one to clean the bay with the engine out & I'd say the jet is weak enough not to be forced into connections... No way with a 'proper' steam cleaner though - they have quite a pressure in them.

I'd do it with a crappy bathroom steamer like you can buy in Lakeland - I've used one to clean the bay with the engine out & I'd say the jet is weak enough not to be forced into connections... No way with a 'proper' steam cleaner though - they have quite a pressure in them.

 

That's what I'm gonna do... Although, whenever I wash my car, I always soapy sponge the engine bay and then jet wash from a distance, and always have the engine running, doesn't get the oily grime off tho, it is designed to get wet, ok it has a bonnet over it, but it's still designed to be ok a with reasonable wetness, just use common sense. I keep meaning to try some of that spay on foaming engine bay cleaner, looks pretty effective on viedoes on pootube...

That's what I'm gonna do... Although, whenever I wash my car, I always soapy sponge the engine bay and then jet wash from a distance, and always have the engine running, doesn't get the oily grime off tho, it is designed to get wet, ok it has a bonnet over it, but it's still designed to be ok a with reasonable wetness, just use common sense. I keep meaning to try some of that spay on foaming engine bay cleaner, looks pretty effective on viedoes on pootube...

 

This one?

 

no, this one :lol:

 

 

but yeah that looks like it, really is lovely in the flesh, if i ever do a colour change it will be that... Also, something like that with a silver base coat done right would look epic, so the silver shines through just a teeny tiny bit, aka house of kolor stylee

I jetwashed the shit out of my range rover engine after an off road excursion, struck up straight away after lol... not bad for a 25 year old banger :lol:

 

wouldnt do it to the Z though... :shock:

no, this one :lol:

 

 

but yeah that looks like it, really is lovely in the flesh, if i ever do a colour change it will be that... Also, something like that with a silver base coat done right would look epic, so the silver shines through just a teeny tiny bit, aka house of kolor stylee

 

wtf, lol i posted that in what i thought was my color change thread :blink: im loosing it..