Cleaning engine compartment
 

Cracked open my engine compartment today and found it to be extremely dusty. Anyone have any advise on cleaning this area? On my former car I used to just hose it off and whalla...clean. I am not too sure I want to do that with the Boxster! I used a rag as best I could but the results were less than optimal. Any tips would be appreciated.

Beware water in the electronics!

This may seem like a stupid question, but why do you want to clean the engine as it can't be seen without 10 minutes worth of work to get to it?

Actually a good question! I am trying to keep this car in "as new" condition. Body, paint , and interior are perfect. Finnaly got around to opening the engine compartment andi t was filthy. No oil leaks or such, just real grimy. I guess I'm just real picky about the overall condition of the vehicle. As you can see mines' a '97 like yours. BTW I've learned a ton about this car from your posts...many thanks!

I cleaned ours once, but as mentioned no spraying with a hose. I took a bottle of cleaner that's safe for aluminum and plastic and cleaned it off a little at a time. Never again, though, since my wife works at John Deere Landscapes and parks on a gravel parking lot every day (tons of dust :rolleyes: ).

This is from the owners manual:

Cleaning and preserving engine
compartment
The engine compartment and the surface of the
engine are treated with a corrosion-inhibitor at the
factory.
If degreasing solvents are used to clean the engine
compartment or the engine is washed down,
the process almost invariably removes the corrosion-
inhibiting coating. It is then absolutely necessary
to have a durable preservative applied to all
surfaces, body seams, joints and assemblies in
the engine compartment. This also applies when
corrosion-inhibitor parts are replaced.

First time I opened up my engine compartment it looked much as your did; very dusty but not really grimy, i.e., no oil leaks to coat everything.
I used a shop vac with one of those brush tips plus a small paint brush to dislodge dirt where the vac brush couldn't get to. The crevice tool came in handy, too.
Be careful around the accelerator cable as it is easy to dislodge the cable from the guide, to the detriment of throttle response.

You know I had the Shopvac sittin right there and did't even think of it. Good suggestion! I wiped down a significant part of the engine and it looks much better but if the weather improves this weekend I'll attack it with the vac! I was surprised how easy it was to get to the engine compartment...it's just a little cramped. thanks for the reply.