autowiz said:
I like to goto the self service car wash in the evening hours when the hot Florida sun is not overhead.
I park my car with the engine right over the drain in one of the self serve wash bays. It takes me about 10 minutes or so to get there so the engine has fully warmed and the engine bay has heat soaked to it's normal running temperature. I will raise the hood, remove the battery ground cable and then throw some coins or dollars in the pressure washer.
Sometimes I might bring a can of engine degreaser. Sometimes I might spray the engine degreaser on before I drive or on the way to the car wash so it has time with heat to work. There is a thing about time and heat and the engine will begin to cool from the time we shut it off and more so as we quench it with water. We want there to be warmth left to the motor after we are done cleaning.
Then after the motor is washed and rinsed down I like to kill 10 minutes and let the water have a chance to evaporate and dry before I reconnect the battery.
The engine gets wet when we drive in the rain. The fans pull water that is already coming at your radiator and blast it across your engine. The alternator must be able to tolerate this. The problems you will get will come from standing water creating electrical shorts because water conducts electricity. So long as the motor is warm before you start and you finish in 5 or 10 minutes from turning the car off, there should be plenty of heat left to dry everything without any disassembly past the battery ground terminal.
The ECM is sealed. Of course I would not directly blast it with water anyways. But at least when the ECM is in the connectors and all of their pins are protected from the corrosive water, ya know? In the middle of a big service and with everything cold it sounds like you will work harder to make things clean all the way around. First to get the grease and grime loose and then to get things dry without the water spots. Heat from a running engine really helps out with this task, IMHO.
I like to goto the self service car wash in the evening hours when the hot Florida sun is not overhead.
I park my car with the engine right over the drain in one of the self serve wash bays. It takes me about 10 minutes or so to get there so the engine has fully warmed and the engine bay has heat soaked to it's normal running temperature. I will raise the hood, remove the battery ground cable and then throw some coins or dollars in the pressure washer.
Sometimes I might bring a can of engine degreaser. Sometimes I might spray the engine degreaser on before I drive or on the way to the car wash so it has time with heat to work. There is a thing about time and heat and the engine will begin to cool from the time we shut it off and more so as we quench it with water. We want there to be warmth left to the motor after we are done cleaning.
Then after the motor is washed and rinsed down I like to kill 10 minutes and let the water have a chance to evaporate and dry before I reconnect the battery.
The engine gets wet when we drive in the rain. The fans pull water that is already coming at your radiator and blast it across your engine. The alternator must be able to tolerate this. The problems you will get will come from standing water creating electrical shorts because water conducts electricity. So long as the motor is warm before you start and you finish in 5 or 10 minutes from turning the car off, there should be plenty of heat left to dry everything without any disassembly past the battery ground terminal.
The ECM is sealed. Of course I would not directly blast it with water anyways. But at least when the ECM is in the connectors and all of their pins are protected from the corrosive water, ya know? In the middle of a big service and with everything cold it sounds like you will work harder to make things clean all the way around. First to get the grease and grime loose and then to get things dry without the water spots. Heat from a running engine really helps out with this task, IMHO.
