no steam, takes longer but paper towels and windex, sounds silly bit once a week 10 mins and its done

 

with our new cars you shouldnt really need to pressure wash them. just a lit rinse while the motor is cool down the use some nice terry clothes and clean around stuff.

 

I believe the owners manual just says to cover the battery, the fuse box, and the air filter. Other than that, you're all good. And you're also supposed to wait until the engine is cool before you wash it, as spraying cold water on a steaming hot engine can have some negative results.

Garden hose, too. I wouldn't use a pressure washer, just in case.

 

Engine must be cold / cool when washing, hot engine + cold water = sometimes not cool results, although I have not seen this personally in my detailing days, and I've pressure washed 200+ engines.

That said, you can pressure wash all you like, just don't get too close to the engine with the wand. Throw degreaser on everything, let it sit a minute, and "rinse" it off. When I detailed at a professional shop, we NEVER covered a thing, not the battery, fuses, air filter, nothing. Never once had a problem and never once got water where it shouldn't have been. Again, just don't get too close with the pressure washer wand.

 

I cant see not covering all that up while just rinsing it causeing problems. It would just be like driving in the rain! It's all made to handle water.

 

I think that's the best way to look at it. Go easy, light rinse, and don't turn the hose on and try to see how much water your different engine components will hold before they overflow.

 

not covering anything may work in the present, but could cause long-term rusting, couldn't it?
If water sites under the battery... is that ok?
I just detail it with a damp cotton rag, since I don't use those to dry off my car anymore.

 

The plastic platform thing the battery sits on has drain holes in it. I sprayed my car engine off yesterday and there was some water in that platform, and after a few seconds it was all gone because it had drained away. The battery (like everything else) gets wet when you drive in rain or snow or whatever anyway, so the only difference between that and spraying it off is water volume, and since it drains away, and any leftover water evaporates when the engine runs and gets hot, it shouldn't be an issue.

 

I agree with most... a garden hose and some elbow grease works the best... As for covering... no need... just dont spray water (steam) directly onto the parts where water shouldn't get into... air filter, maf, throttle body... but it would taka lot of pressure at the right angle to damage any of thatstuff... most old timers are worried about getting the engine wet cause of the hassle with distributors... but these cars dont have those, so you shouldnt really hurt anything...

 

all the connectors are water tight so u dont have to worry about those. i wouldnt reccomend soaking em tho! what i do is get a paintbrush spray some engine brite degreaser in a little tub or somethin and just dab and use that to clean. it works great, a little more time consuming but it works! the paintbrush helps get in all the hard to get to spots. try it.