How To Clean A Car Engine

Why bother to clean the engines compartment? Cleaning your engine compartment helps to prevent rust and early belt wear. It also helps detect early fluid leaks or oil leaks. At first site, it could seem quite daunting. There are a lot of moving parts in your engine's compartment so great care needs to be taken when cleaning it. In addition, if an excess of water should penetrate too deeply you could disrupt the engine's function severely and create more problems. What started out as just general maintenance can easily become a giant project!

You'll want to soften any grease or grunge that has collected in the engine compartment. To do this, start your car's engine and let it warm for a few minutes. When it's warm, shut it off. Optimal cleaning temperature for your engine compartment is WARM - not too hot. If your engine is warm to the touch then it is safe to clean. If your engine feels like it's burning, let it cool a bit first. Once the engine is at the proper temperature, take a moment to cover the openings on the motor and the sensitive areas. This area includes the air intake, the distributor, the coil and the oil dipstick.

Use plastic bags and rubber bands to cover the air intake and air filters as well as the distributor and distributor coil. Place a double layer of plastic bags over the air intake and keep it in place with rubber bands. Use a pair of 2-gallon size plastic bags to cover the distributor and the plug wires near the distributor cap. This may be a bit tricky to seal off but it will prevent water from causing any part to short. If your cap is in good condition, your compartment will be sufficiently waterproofed. This will really work as a preventive measure. This goes for the coil too because it also will be waterproofed. You can get these baggies at just about any retail or hardware store. Be sure too check the tightness of your oil filler cap, power steering filler cap, windshield washer fluid cap, oil dip stick, battery filler caps as well as all other caps and make sure they are well-secured.

Next, spray the entire engine compartment with a good quality, non-petroleum based degreaser. Start from the bottom and work your way up. The citrus base degreasers that are biodegradable work best. There are many products available that you can use for this. Be sure to check the label so that you aren't doing any harm to your car's engine and any of the other open or moving parts in the compartment. Keep in mind that degreaser will remove any wax finish so you may need to re-wax once you're done cleaning.

Once your degreaser is on, allow 3-5 minutes for it to work then use a cotton towel or cloth to wipe the heavily soiled areas. A soft brush will work well too - emphasis on "soft". Repeat the procedure if additional cleaning is needed. Once the engine compartment has been thoroughly cleaned, rinse the entire compartment with clean water. If you're spraying make sure the pressure is not too high. If the spray pressure is too high, you may get water in some of the sensitive parts. If you've sealed off the open areas properly, strong pressure should not be a problem. Repeat this procedure on any part of the engine compartment if necessary.

Once the engine and its compartment have been cleaned, you can remove all the plastic bagging and rubber bands. Make sure you dry everything off soft cotton towel or clean rag. You should use paper towels to dry the battery if it is located in the engine compartment. Now you can start the engine and allow it to warm up. The heat generated will dry the rest of the engine compartment and evaporate any moisture remaining on any sensitive components.

Be careful with steam cleaning; it can affect electrical connections in your engines' compartment. In the more modern engines, you will find a number of sensors that feed information to the computers. Steam can penetrate these sensors and corrode electrical connections. The electrical signals can be disrupted causing the engine to run intermittently or maybe even not at all. If this happens, the disassembling, cleaning and reconnecting all these sensors will be necessary and could prove to be quite an undertaking. So be careful with steam cleaners.

Once your engine is cool and completely dry you can apply a coating of rubber protectant to the rubber hoses, plastic shields and rubber gaskets if you wish. Treating the underside of the rubber belts is not recommended, since it affects their respective pulleys.

You should wax the painted areas of your engine compartment. The wax helps to prevent corrosion. Take this time to check the battery terminals as well and ensure that they are clean. If you find grime or corrosion, make sure you disconnect the cables and clean both cable terminals and battery posts. Use a flexible wire brush. Reattach the terminals and retighten them. Find a good quality battery terminal spray to protect the terminals from corrosion.

Use a good quality non-silicone lubricant and put a thin coating on throttle cables, hinges, hood shocks and cruise control cables. Finally, check all engine fluid levels and remove any stray plastic bags still in your engine's compartment. You don't want any melted plastic in the compartment the next time you fire your engine up!

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