Anybody have any suggestions on as to how they have scrubbed all the nastiness off the inside of their wheel wells??

I had leaky caliper seals, and leaky ps, and leaky valve covers and a blown grease seal on the wheel bearing... It's pretty nasty...

Simple green works...
Oil Eater works twice as good...
DX579 for bare metal prep before paint...

Plastic tire brush, a bucket of soapy water....

I have removed the front lower control arms, and spindles, struts, in order to get back in behind. and dig out the majority of the goo. I'm not scraping off the undercoating just the filth stuck to it.

What are you guys using to scrub and clean with?

TIA

 

Degreaser and a pressure washer works best. Be carefull not to get too close to the car or the coating will come off.

 

Carefull with citrus or purple degreaser, since they are far from pH neutral. Means there's a risk of discoloring exposed metal parts. Plus it will eact with the sacrificial metal layers on cad- or zinc-plated hardware. If you use them, rinse the areas really well with the hose when you are done.

In the past I've used spray-on engine cleaners with good results. I like the Foamy Engine Brite product from Gunk. Environmnetal rules preclude its use here these days, at least at the home garage. At a commercial place with a greae trap they night be OK.

I've also resorted to using paint thinner in a sprayer to get things done. Grab one of those big plasxtic trays at Home Depot, the one you can mix concrete in, and use it for your catch basin for the residue. Get creative with a trash bag and scissors to mae a liner. When done, let the thinner evaporate and you can trash the remaining gunk if iy isn't a lot. Around here there's some threshold amount whwre it turns into a radioactive hazmat alert material or something, so it can't go to trash.

P21S has a pretty good engine bay cleaner degreaser that I've yet to try. It comes highly recommended by many in the detialing biz.


But my basic weapon of choice is still Simple Green, withthe scrub brush, and the hose and pressure washer. I follow that with car wash detergent on anything painted or aluminum, and rinse thoroughly.

 

Another recommendation for P21S Total Auto Wash. Gentle enough for the undercarriage and engine bay. Can be used on wheels too but you need to rinse soon after applying it.

Your efforts will be worth it.

 

I steamed cleaned my wheel wells with a power washer. It removed mostly everything without even needing degreaser.

 

I think the best think you could do is soak them with mineral spirits. Scrub with hard brissel brush. and maybe wipe all the flat surfaces with a scuff pad. Maybe after its over you could spray clear coat over everything because it will all be flat after wards.

 

I use Gain or Tide, about 2parts water / 1 part detergent and put it in a bug sprayer to apply it.

Bristle brushes and wire scrub brushes. Multiple rinse/repeats.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I will try all of these! Just to see which works better!

Thank you again!

 

Hi,

If you want a cleaner/degreaser that will eat oil, grease & brake dust without harming your paint. Then look for a product called Brown Royal cleaner. Search youtube and you can see it work. Its awesome stuff.


Joe

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qad-QDMcXOc

Guy cleans 928 Engine with Brown Royal un under 3 minutes.... Looks good cept I'm sure that car didn't start after he used a high pressure water hose on it.

 

That 'non-acid' cleaner is somewhat caustic, as are almost all degreasers and wheel cleaners. They do brighten the aluminum as they strip off the natural oxide layer. Of course, using it around electrical stuff can be a longer-term problem. Plus ANY that collects and is missed during the rinse process is going to continue working until it's neutralized.

Generally, anything with a warning or danger labelling is not going to be easy on the survivng materials in the engine bay. Stuff with Cautions is safer, but you really do need to know what's doing the work. Lot's of tings can be used for engine bay cleanup, you just need to make sure they don't do more harm than good in the longer term.

 

I always pressurewash my engine bays without any issues.
There are obvious spots you dont want to hit with high pressure water, But as long as you arent hitting connectors directly you will be fine.

I use the Castrol cleaner that comes in a purple bottle, and pressure washer. If it is really stuck on there then I use a plastic brissle brush after spraying on the cleaner.

 

You can clean that whole area with simple green.
If you've got a pressure washer it will go faster.

I grabbed a bunch of assorted brushes from Target (toilet brushes, all shapes and sizes, old toothbrushes for the smaller stuff) If you want to be "relatively earth friendly" shoot simple green, let it soak, scrub, rinse, repeat. Eventually it will all look clean. All this is for painted surfaces.

For aluminum surfaces, you can use wires brushes and the same cleaner.

The P21S will probably work better, but is more expensive.

 

This is nothing but elbow grease and simple green.

 

I give congrats to you guys. My cars will never be that clean, but then again, that is why I buy cars that are not pristine. So I dont feel so bad about driving hard and putting them away wet so to speak.