Evening guys! Is it safe to clean the engine bay on my octy vrs tdi? I mean with a hose and not blast it with water! 

If you covered everything 'sensitive' up, use a low pressure water source and ensure it is dry after, It shouldn't be a problem.

 

It really depends on what you are trying to achieve, if you want to clean the actual engine and is it coated in oil, grease and grime, water alone will be repelled and probably won't do much.

I did mine with a dedicated engine degreaser and steam initially to clean all the general crap off, rinsed it using a handheld pressure sprayer to ensure accurate application.

 

I now just give the plastics & hoses a wipe over once with a month with engine protectant.

 

 

Edited 13 October, 20214 yr by MATT0693

Hi mate. Thank u for ur reply. To be honest i wanted to clean mostly all the plastic just to get it looking like new as much as possible, I’ve seen a video by meguiars cleaning the engine bay on an Audi with the same engine as mine and they just hosed it without covering anything up they said on that engine it’s all plastic so should be ok but you hear different things some say cover everything you can others say it will be ok!

In my opinion, if you avoid excessive amounts of water and you take care, there should be no issues.

I like to cover things up purely because as cars age, seals and rubbers that are designed to prevent water ingress deteriorate.

 

If you are just cleaning plastics, you could probably do them by hand. I use citrus wash, detailing brush to agitate and a damp cloth to wipe, then dry with another microfibre.

Luckily my MK3 engine bay is mostly plastic anyway, so a quick wipe over once a month keeps it looking clean.

 

 

I keep my engine bay clean.  The best thing I have found is the 5 Litre bottle of degreaser from Screwfix. You dilute it a lot so that will last a lifetime. Put it into a squirty bottle. Spray over the dirty area. Agitate with a soft brush. Spray with clean water from another squirty bottle and wipe with a damp sponge/cloth until clear. Then use Meguiars/Autoglym plastic spray and wipe over the area.

Now when I wash the car I just give a quick wipe over the engine covers and slam panels etc and it stays clean.

Yeah I think ur both rite probably by hand using sponge n spray bottle etc will do the job fine, my bays not filthy just needs a bit of a tidy up I personally love the meguiars range so il use that 👍