Washing Your Engine Bay - A Step By Step Guide

[sumitsinha12]

Hello guys, Most of petrol heads like us want our rides sparkling clean but we always suffer a dirty engine bay. Many people are afraid to wash their engine bay as they think the stream of water can damage the electicals. Well the fear is true, But its false if you take certain measures to wash the bay.
Items used- Half a bucket of water, Car shampoo, Two clothes, One bottle brush, One tooth brush, Vaccum Cleaner
This is a step by step process on how to easily wash your cars engine bay. The car is my own Maruti
Suzuki Ritz ZXI and I have washed its engine bay atleast 10 times in a similar procedure:-
MOST IMP- Make sure the key is not inside the ignition cylinder.
Step1- Open the bonnet.
Step2- Spot the alternator, air intake, Fuse box, Battery terminals, Security alarm buzzer. In Ritz there is a sleek silver thing just between the battery and the fuse box, it has many wires connected to it, I think that’s some sort of sensors for the ECM.

 

[sumitsinha12]

Re: Step by Step process to wash your engine bay.

Step3- Cover all those items spotted above with a plastic or aluminium foil and rubber bands. You only need to cover the negative terminal of the battery as the positive terminal is already covered with a rubber cap.
Step4- Now start spraying water from the hood and come down to the engine bay. Don’t direct the stream of water to any particular item. Just spray the water.
Step5- Now mix one cap of shampoo in half bucket of water and apply it with a cloth. Again start from the top of bonnet and come down to the engine bay.
Step6- Take the bottle cleaner and the tooth brush and clean the areas which are hard to reach. For normal areas use the cloth to clean.

 

[sumitsinha12]

Re: Step by Step process to wash your engine bay.

Step7- Now, rinse the shampoo solution with water. Again start from top of bonnet, and continue down to the engine bay.

 

[sumitsinha12]

Re: Step by Step process to wash your engine bay.

Step8- Now switch on the vaccum cleaner and connect the hose in blower mode. Now put an attachment which produces maximum pressure and start drying all the electrical connections, battery tray, headlamp couplers, indicator connectors, radiator wire, earthing wire etc.
Step9- Now leave the car in sunlight for 10 mins to let the water dry completely.
Step10- After10 mins start the car and keep it in idle for 2 mins.
Step11- Now with a damp cloth clean the masked items- Fuse box, alternator etc.

 

[sumitsinha12]

Re: Step by Step process to wash your engine bay.

NOTE- If your engine bay has lots of grime and oil deposits, you can also use diesel and washing powder mixture.
If you want to polish your engine bay and make it look shiny this is what I did:-
For polishing all the plastic parts such as air filter box, Fuse box, intake manifold etc, I used Waxpol’s Vinyl and leather polish. The result was good.
This can also be used to polish the rubber hoses and stoppers.
I didn’t polish the metal parts but you can use normal body polish.
The whole procedure took me 1 hour but the results were awesome.
Hope this article helped petrol heads who are afraid to wash their engine bay themselves.

 

[jayesh]

Re: Step by Step process to wash your engine bay.

Sumit,

Very helpful article and very well explained with lots of pictures.
and step by step procedure.
I have not washed my cars engine bay myself,( Its under my seat)
but will try it out soon.

 

[patkar_a]

Re: Step by Step process to wash your engine bay.

Excellent write up buddy.This will surely help people to not only keep their car clean externally but internally to.Using Vinyl polish is a good idea,Just like it.

 

[sumitsinha12]

Jayesh- Thanks a lot.
I guess you own Omni (Engine under your seat).
In omni if its a carb model, make sure you have covered the distributor, air intake and the spark plugs before washing.
If its MPFI, make sure to cover all the electrical connections and ECM etc.

 

[sumitsinha12]

patkar_a- Thanks a lot.

 

[jayesh]

Jayesh- Thanks a lot.
I guess you own Omni (Engine under your seat).
In omni if its a carb model, make sure you have covered the distributor, air intake and the spark plugs before washing.
If its MPFI, make sure to cover all the electrical connections and ECM etc.

I have Maruti Eeco.
I will keep in mind all the points while washing my cars engine

 

[teamphd60]

Awesome stuff.. Super duper respects for taking the time and the pictures!

Thanks so much for sharing, I am gonna do this soon.

 

[sumitsinha12]

Teamphd60- Thanks a lot bro. BTW, which car u own?

 

[sumitsinha12]

Members, Can any one throw some light on the sleek silver thing between the battery and the fuse box as to what it is and what it does.

 

[smooth rider]

@sumitsinha thanks a lot for your effort . i have never cleaned the engine bay for fear of causing some damage. once me and dad washed our bajaj super scooter and water got into the ignition coil and had to replace it.

 

[sumitsinha12]

smoothrider- Thanks a lot. If you mask all those electrical items and all sorts of sensors properly, there is no chance of water damage to any component.