does it hurt anything to power wash your engine?

[HeXen]

Necro thread...must have used at least a level 60 resurrection spell.

Man, I've been driving for over 30 years and I've never power washed the engine of any car I've ever owned.

Do you spend a lot of time looking at the engine of your car? I've probably opened the hood on my current car 3 times in 2+ years.

Not sure what the point is quite frankly.

You're probably the type that would dust out the inside of your PC too, if so then you don't make any sense. Cleaning the main parts of anything is common sense maintenance. Even my window A/C gets cleaned out before I use it each summer. It has nothing to do whatsoever with looking at something. Keeping things cleaned keeps them most efficient and potentially expanding the life of it.

Plus oils and grease residue can catch fire. In fact just 3 weeks ago at where I work we had a Telsta bucket truck completely burn up in flames because of transmission oil on everything from a previous leak that didn't get wiped clean, so naturally all that heat eventually caught it on fire.
Working on an extremely dirty engine sucks if you ever do anything for yourself...which you apparently don't even change your own battery but it's nice to work on a clean car.
When I made the thread, it was a brand new car....still looks brand new under the hood thank you. Why would I pay nearly a mortgage for a car and just let it go to hell on the inside while washing it on the outside?

 

[JulesMaximus]

Necro thread...must have used at least a level 60 resurrection spell.



You're probably the type that would dust out the inside of your PC too, if so then you don't make any sense. Cleaning the main parts of anything is common sense maintenance. Even my window A/C gets cleaned out before I use it each summer. It has nothing to do whatsoever with looking at something. Keeping things cleaned keeps them most efficient and potentially expanding the life of it.

Plus oils and grease residue can catch fire. In fact just 3 weeks ago at where I work we had a Telsta bucket truck completely burn up in flames because of transmission oil on everything from a previous leak that didn't get wiped clean, so naturally all that heat eventually caught it on fire.
Working on an extremely dirty engine sucks if you ever do anything for yourself...which you apparently don't even change your own battery but it's nice to work on a clean car.
When I made the thread, it was a brand new car....still looks brand new under the hood thank you. Why would I pay nearly a mortgage for a car and just let it go to hell on the inside while washing it on the outside?

I bought my last car brand new (2003 Nissan Maxima) and I put 130,000 miles on it over 10 years of ownership. Never cleaned the engine and it never once caught on fire.

I could see cleaning if you had oil leaks I guess but mine never did.

It looked fine under the hood. Nothing to hide, nothing but the usual patina of age, heat and dust. It was as efficient when I traded it in as it was when it was new and everything still worked.

That's because you drive appliances.

I've owned a number of cars... not all of them appliances. We won't get into the motorcycles. :wub:

 

[razel]

Rinsing it is fine.

Steaming it is fine.

Using simple green diluted and rinsing with a hose is best.

POWER washing is a bad idea. There are too many connectors, electronic boards, etc that are water resistant to splash but not to sustained high pressure.

Best, concise advice so far. I have cleaned 3 engine bays using just simple green and a spray hose. I'll only add to use grocery plastic bags to cover your battery and alternator and during drying to use the opposite end, blow end of a cheap $20 shop vac on the belts. Even when I did this, the belts always squeak but only for a quick second or two.

 

[boomerang]

Some may be aware that I crewed for a guy that raced Corvettes for about ten years. Prior to my becoming involved with him he was the crew chief for a two car team (IIRC, two cars, may have been three) that ran in the Corvette Challenge series in the late eighties. Having a full time job with GM, he would fly out to the track after his team had already arrived.

He got to the track before one race to find that his guys were really proud that they had taken the trailer to the quarter car wash, unloaded the cars and really given them a good going over under the hood with the high pressure wand.

He said they fought electrical glitches for the next three races because of the water that had worked its way into the Weather Pack Connectors used under the hood. His stance was to never wash under the hood but I can't see how using the water that comes out of the hose at house pressure can get into any connectors. They are designed to be water resistant.

 

[pauldun170]

I bought my last car brand new (2003 Nissan Maxima) and I put 130,000 miles on it over 10 years of ownership. Never cleaned the engine and it never once caught on fire.

I could see cleaning if you had oil leaks I guess but mine never did.

It looked fine under the hood. Nothing to hide, nothing but the usual patina of age, heat and dust. It was as efficient when I traded it in as it was when it was new and everything still worked.



I've owned a number of cars... not all of them appliances. We won't get into the motorcycles. :wub:

My 2002 Toyota is fairly clean.
In-laws 1999 Isuzu isn't bad either.
Their 72 Chevy could probably use a good cleaning. My Old Bronco II could have used a good cleaning but it could have used an engine rebuild even more.

I work on all my vehicles and I've owned some old crap.

 

[tracerbullet]

Seems like a good time to mention that getting a bunch of simple green on items with bearings, i.e. an alternator, gives a chance that those bearings will make noise afterwards. I replaced the alternator on my last car, after ~ 60,000 noise free miles it started to squeak the minute after I did the simple green / sit / dribble a hose on the engine thing. Could be coincidence of course but I'm betting I hurt the oil / grease in its bearings with the cleaner.

 

[tortillasoup]

Some may be aware that I crewed for a guy that raced Corvettes for about ten years. Prior to my becoming involved with him he was the crew chief for a two car team (IIRC, two cars, may have been three) that ran in the Corvette Challenge series in the late eighties. Having a full time job with GM, he would fly out to the track after his team had already arrived.

He got to the track before one race to find that his guys were really proud that they had taken the trailer to the quarter car wash, unloaded the cars and really given them a good going over under the hood with the high pressure wand.

He said they fought electrical glitches for the next three races because of the water that had worked its way into the Weather Pack Connectors used under the hood. His stance was to never wash under the hood but I can't see how using the water that comes out of the hose at house pressure can get into any connectors. They are designed to be water resistant.

I had this exact same problem after cleaning/washing one of my cars. The problem is, while the connectors are suppose to be water resistant, if you're dealing with an older car and or rubbers that are brittle, improperly replaced etc, water will get into places it doesn't belong, causing problems.


If you want to wash your car, even with a garden hose, just be aware that it can cause problems and be prepared to have to dry out every nook and cranny in the event you do get problems. The Samsung Galaxy S5 phones are suppose to be water resistance down to 3ft for 30 minutes but that doesn't mean they don't suffer problems with water intrusion.

 

[nerp]

Clean by hand, no hose, no chemicals if possible. Just use a few cloths and elbow grease. A clean engine is not worth ruining it by blasting it with water and chemicals.