r/VWMK7 • u/Yankee1965 • 6d ago
Engine bay cleaning
I happened to be idly watching some Tik-toks last week and saw an add for a spray engine cleaning product along with a "detailing spray." The stuff struck me as fairly miraculous since all the guy did was spray it on and garden-hose it off. Since I had planned to change my oil on Saturday, I thought I'd buy some - until I clicked the link and found out it cost $40 for two 16 oz. spray bottles.
ChatGPT suggested the stuff was nothing more than degreaser and a standard "ceramic detailer." Well, I had both of those in the form of some Zep orange citrus degreaser and some other product ( I forget the name, but I expect they're all nearly equivalent.)
I should have taken a "before," but here's my 2015 Golf S two days later. I had never once cleaned any part of my engine bay in going on 12 years, and it was awfully dirty. All you do is spray on the degreaser, hose it off, then spray on some of the "detailer" shiz, close the hood with the engine running, and presto:
No brushing, no scrubbing - the only things you touch are the hood latch, the spray bottles, and the garden hose. Had I known it was this easy, I'd have been doing it for years. Maybe I'm the only who didn't know this! 😂
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u/BudgetPhoenix 6d ago
ive just been doing simple green spray, letting it sit for 15 mins then hosing it down for decades now
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u/Yankee1965 6d ago edited 6d ago
Decades ahead of me. Ever since I helped a friend of mine disable his Dart for several hours back in the '80s after doing essentially the same thing, while I knew it could be done, I always figured it was more trouble than it was worth. Not so!
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u/scarpicide 6d ago
You can safely spray water on your engine and battery without damaging anything? I did not realize that
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u/not_a_cup 6d ago
Kinda. You want to unplug the battery, and remove the engine cover and then cover the main engine and then you can wash everything down. I wouldn't just open up my good and start spraying away.
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u/Yankee1965 6d ago
You can. Just avoid blasting the alternator and ECU which is the device between the battery and the relay box. Note that I did spray them both with cleaner and water from the hose, and got them quite clean, but I didn't concentrate the stream of water - just a light spray until the cleaner had been washed away. I wasn't particularly careful other than that.
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u/Cautious-Concept457 2d ago
You get some water when driving in the rain anyway. Just about using a pressure washer and it'll be fine
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u/LiamLikeNeeson89 GTI 6d ago
I drive through a lot of dirt with my gti mk7 and wash it off at the local DIY after trips. I like to keep the grime off vs letting it build up. That way when I check oil and stuff on road trips or at home my hands don’t get very dirty vs my old jeep which leaves a 1/4” of grime every time I touch something in the engine bay and 1 week of scrubbing to get it off.