wow thanks for the nice info maxx mazda. It's good thing to know don't need to cover the engine~
but i will still cover up the battery for high pressure wash
anyway that was really nice info to know!!! thanks again


btw, what do u mean by hoodliner???:confused:

Consider yourself REALLY lucky. :p

The rubber seals on the plug holes on our cars really don't do a whole lot; rather than having a lip on the valve cover that positively seals the plug boot (like almost every other car I've owned), the "rubber seal" is just a flat sheet of rubber that sits on top of the valve cover. It's a pretty poor design. After the plug wires are a couple of years old and the "seals" have shrunk a bit from sitting on top of a hot engine, the corners peel up and they offer virtually no sealing ability at all.

I didn't offer my precautions because some guy on the Internet told me to do this; I wrote them because I HAVE experienced this problem. So has Foxymazda. So has Hunter Smith, formerly of Protegetech.com fame. In fact, Mazda has issued TSB's for other cars (the Miata and MX-6) warning about this problem.

When it happens to you, don't say that you haven't been warned. :rolleyes:

At the self service bays try using the no spot (Deionized Water) and the pressure from this will be low enough to be safe, plus it won't spot your engine.

Also try using a detail spray kit available at any auto parts store called CD2. This kit has degreaser and engine shine spray cans. The degreaser is supposed to be safe for gaskets and won't tear down your paint, and the shine spray won't smoke when the engine get's hot.
________
Vaporizer volcano

Hmmm.....
Just tell me this, do i need to cover the whole engine bay or just where spark plugs are?
BTW I bought the Mazda engine degreaser from dealer.
It supposed to be really nice product according to ZMZMP5.

Chris,

Has your car got the 2.0L? If so, the boots should be sealing well. I check mine every time I wash the engine bay, and after a year of doing so, they show no signs of wear whatsoever. To each their own, but I love being able to pop my hood and show off the "bling." Keeping clean is great maintenence as well...

I guess the engine needs to be fairly cold to start with! I am convinced now that I am going to do the car wash underhood clean. I recently seen the setting at the self serve car wash and wondered. I will cover the plugs battery,fuses, and altenator, the rest will shine. Hope this is right! I'm convinced :)

If you want to keep your engine from getting water spots, you can always use a small shopvac and set it to blow... then just blow off most of the water from your engine instead of letting it dry on there. That should probably help a little to prevent rust as well.

Will do...
 

I think that the gerneral consensus here is to go for it...with a little bit of "don't say I didn't warn you"...The next time I go to the car wash I will inspect the boots and if they seem tight I am going to go for it...no holds barred...ya baby yaaa.....

i spray degreaser all over my engine bay, then i spray the everywhere but i never hold the end of the nozzel close to any components, its always at least a meter away (just nuff to rinse off the crap) the i let it dry and spray this shine stuff on it (kinda like armor all) this is what the dealer does before they send it out. "Super Dress" is written on the bottle, and they spray it on tires, the interior, engine bay to make it look shiny and new

Good Information guys. Never had cause to clean an engine before but I love my P5 and want to take the best care of it I possibly can.

Can you all share the brands of engine degreaser and shine treatments you use?

And when your saying you just spray into the engine bay, I am assuming your just spraying liberally in the engine bay on the engint with a hose careful not to get any water into the top of engine in the spark plug area (I'll be sure to seal it off). Any other areas to avoid too much water aside from the MAS in the middle of my Injen and the battery?

Go to www.autopia.org, it's a forum about detailing your car and you will find lots of articles and info.

they have an engine cleaner tool at home depot i think 13 bucks, its a air hose attachemtns long sprayer you hook it up with a small hose in carb cleaner or whatever and you can degrease your motor, it works KICK ASS. i mean looks brand freaking new and no effort and since there is no water or like a big stream you can clean only what you wanna clean, cheap tool, works great, GO GET ONE!

Like I said before jrodhotrod, don't worry about getting anything wet. It's all meant to be wet, and getting it wet won't hurt anything. Your Injen is sealed well enough to keep water out of the MAF, and the battery won't matter. Just don't let the water conduct between the 2 poles or you'll short out. Go ahead and soak the spark plugs, they'll be fine. I wash my entire engine without covering anything once every other day almost... (More like every third.) And for a year nothing has been affected.

*phew* oh man, I've always been scared to wash under my hood b/c I was afraid of screwing something up. Not anymore!! Muahahaha!!! Off to the car wash I go, weeeee....:wee:


....oh, no wait, I'm stuck at work:(

jrodHotrod I use the engine decreaser straight from the self-served car wash.