Discussed here before but wanted some fresh input.
My 1998 Mondeo Ghia X is in A1 condition mainly because i'm a motoring enthusiast and take pride in my vehicles, you could even say it's almost concours except for one thing, under the bonnet the engine bay is reasonably dirty not through oil leaks but dust and salt deposits over the last 7 years. I'm now thinking about selling it for something a bit newer and I want my engine bay to look like the exterior.
Now it seems that the opinion is steam cleaning the engine bay is a no no and also prospective buyers maybe suspicious of a clean engine.
But why is this? i don't understand it.
Should I steam clean it or leave it as it is?
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I think it works on the assumption that if a potential buyer saw that the engine bay had been steam cleaned, they would wonder whether you were trying to cover up any oil or other fluid leaks.
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That's exactly my point.. but why? I would like it clean so it looks like I look after it!
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Do not steam clean it. It may never run properly again. Modern car engine electronics do not take kindly to being steam cleaned.
Why should your engine bay look like the exterior? whats the point?
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Why should your engine bay look like the exterior? whats the point?
Answer = pride
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leave it, when i picked up my last "new" car the engine bay had not been valeted as i asked the dealer not to do it , nothing wrong with giving it a wipe but dont go mad it only ends up looking like you are trying to hide something..just my opinion.and dont use that lacquer stuff it goes yellow and cracks ,flakes and peels,horrible...cheers...keo
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A sparkling, spotless engine bay looks nice but once you go down that track it'll take over your life!! Besides, there are always bits you can't get to, it'll drive you mad!!
Cheers, Sofa Spud.
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I cant see the point unless your vehicle is goin for a 'concours de l'gance' competition! I mean its not that passer-bys goin to walk by & say 'hmm nice engine bay mate' get my drift?
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Its not what you drive, its how you drive it! :-)
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I would advocate good under-bonnet housekeeping every time. An engine bay full of dust, leaves and grease is totally repellent, and would make me think the interior of the car was similarly neglected up to the point of being cleaned up for presentation.
I don't think that engine defects such as oil leaks can be hidden for long - they will irresistably show themselves in very short time. I don't buy the laissez-faire argument.
Oz (as was)
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If you must do it, use something like Jizer with a stiff brush and then wash it off with a small plant waterer or similar.
Don't come to me complaining about the smell though.
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If you know what you're doing then steam it, otherwise, use autoglym engine cleaner, a good scub with a washing up brush and a rinse with a well directed hose
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I read often, only post occasionally
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I use an all purpose degreaser/cleanser and an old rag to tidy up the engine bay. Careful rinsing with a hosepipe (spray nozzle removed) follows that up. I personally don't like to see greasy, grimy engines. I undertsand the argument about a clean engine means that one is trying to leaks, but I don't buy it. With a dirty engine you can't know whether that oil stain on the engine block is from the valve cover or from shaky hand adding oil to the filler.
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I clean mine with an old sponge and some ZIP wax every month or so, just get off the loose silt and salt, then give it a rinse with a fine spray so that there is no force behind the water, just enough to rinse the suds off. A clean engine bay is easier to work on, and better when you change oil etc.. less likely to get bits in the filter. I also spray the underneath of the car at the jetwash around this time of year, can't see what I'm doing, just get the salt and mud off the nooks and crannies.
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I'm just in the process of cleaning up the engine bay on my 1984 Jaguar XJ12 (OK, it's a VdP, but the engine's the same). Using a bucket of hot water and household ammonia-type cleaner plus some spray-on degreaser. Oh, and a collection of various toothbrushes and cloths. Just doing small areas at a time seems to avoid flooding the engine with water which is *not a good thing*. It's the first time it's had a seriously good clean in the 12 years I've owned it, and I'm amazed at how dirty it is when I look closely. There are no obvious oil leaks but it's amazing how much grime you can clean off everything. This must be the most ridiculously over-full and complicated engine bay short of a Ferrari, but the last time I had the car at a Jaguar club event and opened the bonnet, I was a bit embarrassed at the amount of dirt on display. Hopefully after a few evenings work this week, it will be ready for looking at on the weekend. Mondeo engine bays? Looxury! (Monty Python - 4 Yorkshiremen sketch).
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It's interesting the reversal of thinking here.In the UK it seems a dirty engine bay is more credible than a clean one (see above posts). In the Philippines, one's engine is kept spotless, and any service station will put your car up on a ramp for an "engine wash" while you wait.
I remember 3 or 4 years ago when selling my Mitsubishi L200 that the woman buyer bargained me down because "the engine was dirty"!
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My VW Bora is five years old and was acquired just under two years ago.
The engine compartment was surprisingly clean and has remained so during the time I have owned it.
I have put the reason down to the underneath air flow from the front air dam and large radiator area behind the grille keeping out spray and dirt more efficiently.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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This thread is making my head hurt.
Clean *under* the bonnet ?
I cannot imagine why somebody would do this willingly. Therefore if I was looking to buy a car I would assume that it had been done unwillingly. The only reason I can think of is that something is either leaking or has been spraying all over the place and the vendor wishes to hide that fact.
And I find that an awful lot easier to believe than trying to cope with the idea of cleaning under the bonnet for enjoyment purposes.
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This thread is making my head hurt. Clean *under* the bonnet ? I cannot imagine why somebody would do this willingly.
I really have to disagree Mark for reason posted earlier in thread.. (pride) If it's clean on outside, why not the engine bay?
Thank you trancer for your post, i'll try this after all the current salt on the roads is washed away (sometime in the spring) and i'll seriously make effort to sell my car.
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Imagos,
Hopefully you saw my point, however badly it was explained;
Your original question was something along the lines of why a clean engine would bother someone. My post was intended to address that issue. Essentially that if I, as a seller, saw your car I would notice a clean engine. Since it would be alien to me to clean an engine; and I am not crticising or belittling you, its just that it would be alien to me; I would not perceive an engine as clean because of a "pride" thing, I would cynically see it as trying to hide something.
Hence my attempted answer to your questions as to why a clean engine would bother a buyer.
M.
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Imagos, Hopefully you saw my point, however badly it was explained;
Fair enough Mark, yes I understood your point but still don't agree with it. Perhaps it's 20 odd years of attending on and off car shows with concours competitions and seeing those gleaming engines and wishing mine was something like it, that has made me have this point of view.
The great thing about this forum is we (mostly) have different opinions and we argue our cases through discussion. The backroom would be very boring if we did not! ;-)
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Reminds me of having to polish the soles of my army boots and brasso the studs!
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I agree with the general sentiments on this one. Wiping the front slam panel or whatever it is called looks nice and takes no time, likewise the valve cover, but otherwise it is a waste of effort.
But there are certain functional bits that would impress me if I were buying, because I keep them clean on my own cars:
Hose clips and pipe ends - unsightly encrustation from seeping coolant?
Wiped and oiled throttle linkages?
Clean round the fillers for oil/brake/clutch?
Air cleaner looking as if it gets changed occasionally?
Piles of rotting leaves clogged in rusty brake pipes?
HT leads clean and free from oil/coolant spray?
Coil terminals and distributor cap clean?
Battery top clean and terminals greased?
Debris caught in radiator fins?
Spark plug apertures clear?
Etc. Make the engine bay look as if it has a history of attention to the bits that matter.
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I bought a car that had had the engine steam cleaned (contrary to my instructions) between when I first casually looked at it (i.e. when the dealer had first acquired it) and when I had a proper look at it after it had been prepared for sale. Lo and behold, shortly after I had bought it I found that it had a significant oil leak at the sump joint which just had to be rectified. Never again will I buy a car that has had the engine steam clean cleaned, no matter how much I like the car. I would be much too suspicious as to what the dealer was trying to hide.
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L\'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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The only time I had an engine steam cleaned was when the mechanic requested that it be done, specifically so that he could see what was going on more clearly, e.g./i.e. leaks. I am therefore a bit puzzled that steam cleaning should be associated with a wish to hide things. If it's clean, you're going to spot any leaks more quickly and, presumably, in time to get vendors to fix them and before they can legitimately claim that they are not their responsibility.
On that occasion, the cleaning did cause a problem: it exposed a corroded spark-plug connection. That was easily fixed, but these days I would be inclined to heed the advice to avoid steam cleaning because of the increased vulnerability of modern cars with complex electronics under the bonnet. There are other ways of cleaning an engine (see above). If it has to be steam cleaning, then all the electrics should be securely sealed off.
Since suffering a leak from a used MB on the day I collected it from the main dealers, I would suggest that any newly acquired car be taken on a long run immediately. I'm sure the 200-mile run I did that day helped to expose a leak that might otherwise have gone undetected for a while.
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Years ago when I used to buy £1000 bangers an engine steam clean was one of the first things I used to do, along with a full valet and service. I used to get the engine bay steam cleaned as its much nicer to service a clean engine bay than a dirty one.
If I was buying a car today from a used (not main) dealer I would assume an engine steam clean was part of their prep procedure. If it was from a private seller I would ask if they had cleaned it recently and why - caveat emptor...
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But stream cleaning an engine is not an activity carried out by normal people HJ
but this is the backroom - how many of us are normal ?
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Normal? I must be a loony. After three evenings cleaning my XJ12 engine bay, I can now tell that the engine is mostly made of aluminium. Last night I found some sand in the middle of the V, and the car was originally sold to the Sultanate of Oman in 1984, so my guess is that it has never been cleaned before. After a struggle with toothbrushes, degreaser and hot water, I remembered that I have one of those mini steamer devices. So, put on degreaser, scrub with toothbrush until very messy. Apply steam judiciously from nozzle of steamer thingy and watch mess hide in a corner. Mop up very small amount of moisture and grunge from corner. Repeat as required until area free of grunge. No flooding of area with lots of water, so I hope that the electronics will be unaffected. This is sort of like a concours process, but not as thorough. I certainly don't plan to do this again in the near future, but as it had probably never been done before (and I think the engine has never been opened) it was bite the bullet time.
It is interesting what you find when you look this closely at an engine, and the V12 is worth cleaning as a piece of automobile sculpture.
When you've got nice tailpipes like on my VR-4 and Jag, cleaning inside them (just a little bit) definitely improves the appearance.
If you've read this far, see the first sentence...
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"Hiding something" would be my first thought.
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