Washing the Engine Compartment

[twobjshelbys]

Originally Posted by jhv48

What he said times 10.

I thought I had covered all the electrics with plastic and proceeded to spray a degreaser all over the engine compartment and then proceeded to lightly spray water on the engine to rinse off the degreaser.

BAD MOVE! I must not have covered the starter solenoid well enough as water got on it and shorted out the solenoid causing the starter to engage and try and start the engine. Since it was parked and in first gear, as the starter turned, the car lurched forward and hit a cement planter that was in my drive way, and since the connection was still wet, it kept pushing the car into the planter until the solenoid finally gave out and the starter quit.

Result? $17,000 in fiberglass damage and a month in the body shop! Also, battery and solenoid were shot. So use a rag or, if you're going to use anything wet, disconnect the battery and don't even think of reconnecting it until the entire compartment is dry.

I was just catching up and saw this. My first comment was going to be:

Whatever you do, first, disconnect the battery.

I've never washed the compartment on my sports cars, but I did on my truck and Jeep. Again, first thing is to disconnect the battery. Then I used a lawn garden sprayer (exactly the one I use to spray fertilizer) filled with simple green. It's "no pressure" and gives a good spray. Let it sit for a while (not so long that the soap dries out) Then I rinse using the same sprayer and use a bottle brush on tight spots to try to loosen as much as I could. repeat the degreaser/rinse if needed. After that is all done, I used compressed air to get all of the remaining water off. Let it dry for a while (in Colorado/Nevada that is in the sun, so things warm up and dry quickly) and then reconnect the battery.