I have a 2000 S70 Turbo and I want to thoroughly clean the engine and compartment. What is best method to do this? My fear is that by using traditional degreaser and water is that the water will seep into old electrical connections, etc.

Any suggestions are welcome!

Thanks!

 

I really dont like water in engines, but reluctantly we washed my engine bay a couple days ago, theres a product here called Doctor Mecanico, I think its available in the us as Extreme, Boss and other brands, its a multipurpose cleaner aimed to the automotive industry. Its much milder than normal degreaser, better for the engine and safer. The trick was leaving the engine running while spraying the product and rinsing off with a hose or washer (in spray mode)
I left the engine running and took a spin around the block to dry off..
Worked great..
Now im working with spray tire shine and a sponge to shine those plastic components up..

 

My fear is getting water into electrical connectors and if there are any deteriorated wires with bad insulation. As much as I want my engine bay nice and clean, I dont want to create more problems. I'm in South Florida and the climate beats things to death, insulation, hoses, plastics, etc.

 

Im in Puerto Rico, so the weather and climate does the same to cars, In no way I am telling you to do so, but my car has a lot of the plastic wiring "covers" (what are they actually called?) just falling in pieces.. Still, we did the engine "wash" this past friday..
No problems whatsoever, just went light on the water.

 

When I had my SRT, I used to used Simple Green and Armor All. Used to come out like this.

 

Tell me about it,I am in Miami,and that heat is killing my plastic hose covers,they are all shredded.

 

OK, cleaned engine bay last night. I covered alternator with plastic bag and wrapped electrical connections with plastic food wrap just for safe measures. Need to do it one more time this weekend as it was dark out and mosquitos were eating me alive when i did it first time.

Ive had several engine seals replaced recently and i want my engine oil free so i can easily detect future leaks, including the big oil leak on my turbo.

 

I use the auto degreaser about once every other year. Yes I do spray with water. Just don't use high pressure close to things that you don't want water to get into. I've never had a problem with the water other than it getting in my spark plug chambers on the I5 motor. Even with the wires on them. I had to dry them out with paper towels.

I once had a car that I used Armor All on and I learned that it caused my vinyl and plastic to deteriorate much faster. So, I stopped using it. I just keep things clean and not worry about the shine. Heat causes plastic to deteriate faster as well. I did clean and paint a few things in my motor area when I did the PCV system. I took a few of the plastic covers, washed them, then dyed them with Forever Black. They look like new. I'm actually surprised how cheap some of those plactic parts are at the stealer. The cover for the throttle cable is something like $25.

I posted a link in the sight & sound section with pics of one dude motor area and it was to sweet. My neighbors think my engine bay looks real good (on my previous 2 cars). I'm working on the wagon. It's getting there.

 

Tomecsi

If you keep the engine running while washing there will be no problems and it will dry itself.

I did clean parts like the oil and stuff, beforehand, like the oil around the turbo with degreaser ( diluted) and low pressure water, underneath the car I went with a fumigating pump and pure degreaser, rinsing with the small power wash machines..

 

https://volvoforums.com/forum/sights...ine-bay-52004/