Steam cleaning engine bay

[Richard Anderson]

Anybody steam cleaned thier engine bay?

 

I thought I heard that the chemicals used could be damging to some plastics....is this true?

[elie boone]

I know that a Renault dealership ( in Belgium )refuses to do it also because of all the electronics in the engine bay. There is always the possebility that you blow water in to the electrical connections and even in the airfilter and when a diesel swallows some water it can bent the rods.

The best way is to clean it with a rag and WD40 or related product

[Joe 90]

Don't do it ❗. The steam gets into the electronics, and they don't like it.

 

99,000 miles so far

[mav]

As already stated, You will probably regret it when you have finished and then try to start it, and again and again and again...etc etc

 

Regards,

 

Martin

[Gary G]

When I was a student, I spent one summer working at a Mercedes Dealership cleaning cars.

 

We steam cleaned the engines all the time and simply covered alarms/distributers/anything electric with carrier bags to prevent water penetration. Didn't have one problem all summer.

 

I would however be careful about steam hitting the chassis members because it may (I don't actually know) strip the powder coat. The theory behind this being that I did see a steam cleaner accidentally take the paint off the plastic bumper of a Honda Civic.

 

 

C7 GAR

Oh Yes Yes Yes Yes

 

 

Edited by - Gary G on 22 Sep 2002 22:19:43

[Nick Chan]

Came back from the fortnightly trip to France and the wife's GTI left on the drive in the summer's torrential rain caused buggery with some of the electrics. Not sure what happened but obviously some damp got in and had the car cutting out at 50/60 mph (in a long and fast moving stream of rush hour traffic!), tacho needle going wild whilst ticking over and oil warning light flashing constantly - the car had been fine when parked up and this was without taking a steam cleaner to the engine bay at all!! Just the damp over a couple of weeks....

 

Local garage had to split all the connections and spent a few hours trying to sort the problem out which they did without realising !! Wouldn't even accept any payment at they said they hadn't found anything to fix so wouldn't charge anything Runs absolutely fine now as all the connections were cleaned but I don't think I would risk a steam clean

 

HTH

 

Nick

 

Yellow HPC - A 2.0 VX - 😬

[Joe 90]

Yes but Mercedes are like that! Even then I know one Mercedes dealer who gets the apprentice to clean the engine with WD40

 

99,000 miles so far

[Peter T]

There are 2 points that you are stating when being cautious about having your car Steam cleaned, the first point i make is that any water under pressure will penetrate most electronics, ecu units and most connectors, so waving a lance around an engine bay with 1500- 2500psi is not a good idea, 2nd point is that yes a proper steam machine will supply steam at temperatures of 120-180 deg c, but you cannot get these temperatures with very high pressures, most wiring looms and soft plastics do not like this, as with some paints! So my advice is that unless you can supervise the work be very wary.

 

C7 PWT X-Flow all Steel

Fuel Injected Iron Block

[Red SLR]

I remember as a kid using a steam cleaner at my mates dads garage to clean my bike - took all the paint off the frame. ☹️

 

May I suggest you use some non acid steam cleaner fluid.

 

Mix about 1L of fluid with 3L of warm water, use an old sponge and for the hard to reach areas use a squirter bottle and brush.

 

The results are great as the fluid lifts off all the cr@p and oil etc and if it gets on paint it does no harm.

 

But make sure you get the non acid stuff or get some gunk or similar.

 

Simon.

 

 

 

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