best way to clean your engine bay?
 

well when i bought my gs..the engine bay is alittle dirty,..so i want to clean it up to make it look as new as possible..what is the best way to do this? i heard some people used some sort of steam cleaner? but i would need to research that some more..any tips guys? its mainly dirty on the chassie inside the engine bay, not the engine itself.

Hey LazyAlex, if you don't live up to your name and want to do it yourself :D then go to this site: http://www.properautocare.com/prencl.html they'll walk you through the process and recommend the products you should use. If you do take it somewhere to be done, then i've also heard that steam cleaning is the way to go... I believe that it's because it's vapors rather than a stream of water so probably helps in avoiding to get the electrical parts flushed with water. Hope that helps. Good Luck

Lazyalex be careful when you clean your engine icleaned mine one time and it cost me over $200 bucks. I got some water on some electric parts and bam all kinds of lights were coming on.

I just use a damp micro fiber towel. no way I'll ever spray a hose under the hood unless it's on fire.:)

paint brush, damp cloth, simple clean, and armor all.

Here's what I do usually.

Paint brush to brush off all the dirt/sand in tight spots, mix some simple green in a bucket and just use a damp cloth to wipe everything down.. Dry it with a clean towel and use armor all on plastic pieces. (armor all will attract alot of dust so you would have to always wipe it down once in a while to keep it looking fresh)

The thought of water and the cleaning agent spilling on critical electric parts is enough to have a pro do it. So far The only cleaning that I've done under the hood is with a dry rag. Then again not too much dirt and dust pile up under there anyway but an occasional wipe down doesn't hurt.

i'd spray water under my hood, but NOT when it's on fire... chemical fire + water = spreading chemical fire... electrical fire... maybe... but i'd still use a dry fire extinguisher (standard fire department equipment)

i use simple green diluted in a spray bottle to clean, and WD40 to dress up my engine compartment... works awesome...

thanks for all the good tips guys

I've heard of using WD-40 but haven't tried it yet.. I've used this stean clean kit in can a few years back and it worked pretty good.. I haven't took a hose or anything to the GS yet.. I usually just wipe it down and use some tire shine or something to shine the plastic up.. GL :thumbup:

I made the mistake of running water on my bay a few years ago and paid for it. I think a little soap and water on the sides real quick while she is running is ok. I guess poeple have their own tricks I just washed real good one time and basically do upkeep every couple times I drive her in order to keep it from getting real dirty..

I just sprayed engine degreaser on the whole engine bay, then pressure washed it and then wiped the areas off or used compressed air to get the water out. Just don't direct the pressure spray into electrical areas directly. Indirect water contact is ok. I didn't have any problems whatsoever.

Be careful using Simple Green, even diluted it is corrosive with Aluminum. Airforce used to use it to clean up helicopters, but found it was causing corrison. If you have to use it, make sure your completely rinse off with water.:thumbdn:

Now this might seem pretty lame..
 

But I had a very dirty engine compartment on my daily driver Mustang that I traded for my GS. I was getting it nice for the trade-in appraisal and took it to my local car wash (Waterpark) who did a engine cleaning for $30. It was very much worth the money. I'm sure if I had the same done on my GS, there would be other things I would do to detail the engine compartment after initial cleaning, but it really seemed worth the money for the Stang, and could be a good start for our cars?

first use a blower if you have one lol..gets all the dust out.use plastic bag to cover alternater and electric parts..
then start your engine and let it run
spray degreaser and let it sit for 5 minute and hose it down with pressure..
thats what they do in the dealership lol...

Simple Green or any kind of Degreaser is what I use.....then start engine....and spray with water hose....DO NOT spray directly on electricals and air filter (for those with cone filter).:D Then I blast with air with my air compressor.

Pete