Cleaning under the hood

[coolguy004]

I have a 1998 camry.
Was curious that when one goes to the dealer and whenever they pop open the hood its very clean, all parts,how does one do that?
Any DIY job ,any special spray ?
Thanks,
cooldude.

[bigbird]

well most use an engine cleaner that is just a medium duty degreaser or they are just veery dilligent with a rag.

[Drewfuspx]

Hey Coolguy,
Conveniently for your post I actually used to work at a Toyota Dealership as the Manager of their Detail bay. So when we'd get a vehicle in used that had a very dirty engine we would have to clean it. Steps:
(Warning: You do need to be aware of electrical connections, stereo lead wires, and those types of things. Pressure washers if used improperly can cause hoses to split, and electrical connectors to short. We only had 1 problem car in 1.5 years, but you do want to be careful!)
1. If it's not a coil on plug engine then you put a bag over the distributor.
2. Using a spray bottle cover the entire engine with degreaser. (We used Toyota Touch branded products)
3. Let that sit for 5 to 10 minutes.
4. Pressure washing time. You do not need to get to close, if you've used a good degreaser your mostly just rinsing the engine. Probably stick to a general rule of never being closer than 6 inches to to engine. The key is to hit the engine from every direction, so with the want you spray from passenger side, front, driver side, and then sneak it in the back. This is going to take care of 99% of the gunk that is on your engine.
5. After that cleaning we would close the hood and do the rest of the car, letting the engine have some time to dry.
6. Come back with a cloth and wipe down the entire engine - at this point if there were some hoses that were still holding onto the grease, or the panels, or under the hood we would soak a rag in degreaser and use it on all these pieces, depending on how much you do by hand you should rinse the engine again.
7. After the engine has been completely dried we would take a silicone based plastic and rubber treatment/shine product and do all the hoses, plastic covers, and even the top of the radiator to give it a nice shine.

Those were the steps that we would take to get the engine cleaned. This is also what would be included if you were to get an ULTIMATE Toyota Touch package, just for reference sake it was $300.00 at Lethbridge Toyota which is the best detail package I've personally ever seen given that we'd spend 8 hours on your car.

Final results of an engine clean on my 95 Camry LEV6 looked like this:

[Chris Crash]

^ JESUS that's clean. Wanna come detail mine?

[pmesfun]

^^^That is very nice. I did mine earlier this week.

[iovaykind]

I wish my engine bay was anywhere close to that.. what do I have to cover up? I have a 5S-FE.. if I just figure that out I'll degrease the rest of it and also pressure wash it.

And what's this rubber treatment/shine product that I can use?

[Chris Crash]

I've used tire shine on the plastic parts, doesn't hurt it. It's meant to go on rubber and plastics anyway. It looks real nice.

[ajkalian]

Every time I change the oil and filter, I head off to the self service car wash and clean up the mess left by the changing the oil filter. The oil just drips down and get blown all over the engine, and I hate that.

Here's what my engine compartment looks like. After de-greasing, washing, I just spray everything with a light coat of Armor All and wipe everything with a clean towel. No problems so far.

Now that I think of it, I've got 218,000 miles on the clock, 3000 miles between oil changes, and that means I've changed the oil and cleaned the engine compartment 72 times. Some might consider me to be a little anal about this cleaning procedure.

[TedL]

One caution, based on a bad experience I had after cleaning a 97 Camry 4 cyl. A few months later the VSS (vehicle speed sensor) failed due to corrosion at the connection to the wiring harness. It wasn't waterproof from the factory, allowing water to accumulate in the VSS. I used RTV to make the replacement connector waterproof.

[pmesfun]

I sucked all the loose water with a shop vac and then used blower side to dry it. Then again used armor-all on the plastic pieces and wiped everything with a cloth towel.

[TedL]

Originally Posted by pmesfun

I sucked all the loose water with a shop vac and then used blower side to dry it. Then again used armor-all on the plastic pieces and wiped everything with a cloth towel.

Not a bad idea, but would not have gotten the water that was my problem. Would have to remove VSS connector and blow out the water. The VSS side of the connection is a nice collection receptacle for the liquid following the wire.

[pmesfun]

Makes sense, I need to change the timing belt and water pump soon, both original.

[TedL]

For the parts, you can't beat getting OE at 30% off list from Gary Smith, parts manager at a Toyota dealer and a TN sponsor. Email GaryS@toyotaofnewnan.com. More info in his profile, member name = toyopartsman.

Great service, good guy, best prices.

[pmesfun]

Thanks for the information, hopefully when I get a job I can save up and get it done. Unfortunately I am only 17 and a senior in high school. I am in a Auto Tech class so I will probably try to do it with my instructor, even though he is a Honda guy. Thanks!

[Drewfuspx]

Originally Posted by Chris Crash

^ JESUS that's clean. Wanna come detail mine?

If you were to rent a bay then yes, if it's using the shitty pressure washers at the local esso... no! I was so freaking spoiled when I worked detail in being able to keep everything nice. Now I have a hard time getting the bugs off after a trip! I work at another dealership (Subaru) now, but unfortunately cannot get in to use their detail bay as the policies are different. Sigh... poor Camry's not getting quite the love it deserves