Hey guys, whatsup? Im Lauren, newbie to the site. I own a 2004 Civic, silver. I take good care of my baby, but had couple questions. I want to wash the engine and everything under the hood. Bought a citrus based degreaser spray and was told by the guys at the store that my year civic has no exposed spark plugs etc so its ok to wet everything, that theres no need to cover things with plastic like Ive read about. I just wanted to see what you all have done, and if it is indeed true that all I need to do is spray, scrub and rinse. Last thing I want to do is get water in somewhere it doesnt belong and kill the car!
Also, I saw on a website somewhere that when you degrease and clean the engine, it takes the factory wax off of everything, and that you should spray on some kind of heavy duty wax to recoat everything. Is this true and if so, whats a good product?? Thanx!!!

 

I use a power washer and just spray the crap outta everything... but I dont get it too close or it'll tear stuff up... I used to have an intake on it so I put a trash bag on the filter (dont forget to take it off) and sprayed it down. For scrubbing I used PURPLE DE-GREASER and it cleans it up good... for the hood and body I use MEGUIAR gold class car wash and either Turtle Wax or also Meguiars wax... I use a buffer and do it twice... it takes my wife and I about 45 minutes for each car.

 

yeah if u have intake u should take that out and cover up the manifold.then u can spray the degreaser and start 2 scrubbin.but once ur done scrubbin wuteva u want u gotta rinse it,dry it with a towel real good and then put wax that way u wont have spots in ur engine.try not to spray the inside of the engine.....AT ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

you should ask forty04 on here because he is really good at detailing. i know he told me he spent 6 hours roughly cleaning his engine bay and he used a toothbrush.

welcome to the forum!

 

Yikes a toothbrush?? i should do that one of these days, but i know i am not going to spent 6 hours on it.

 

but he's OCD.