I love the look under the hood of a brand new car. Does anyone clean their engine to keep it looking nice and new? If so, how?

Thanks!

 

i use to but it's a bad practise, if you are going to use anything use simple green with a damp rag... do not hose down your engine with water at a car wash for example... yes they have an engine clean button off the menu selection but the soap that they use corrodes plastic in the long run.

now i do it by hand, but not every wash... every 4 months or so.

 

I've heard of something called steam cleaning at some car washes. May want to look into that, but I don't know much about it. Some people don't want to do it because of enviromental issues; all that gunk from your engine goes in the drain. I don't see how that can really impact anything though because when it rains, all the crap on the road goes in the drain anyhow.

 

Don't do it... You do not want any kind of moisture inside the electrical connectors. Best use a damped towel for any cleaning under the hood.

 

I had the engine in my VR-4 steam cleaned a few months ago. Even with all of the exposed electrical components, I had no problems. I think a steam cleaning should only be used if you're starting off with a really dirty engine, though. It will get all of the old, thick gunk out of there for sure. I had mine steam cleaned, then I detailed it. With a new TSX engine, this shouldn't be a problem.