Green Undercarriage Cleaning

C

cptzippy

New member
Just switched to ONR but have one area that I'm not sure what to do with: the undercarriage.



To be honest, I didn't spend too much time on it before but now that I'm in an area with snow (and salt). What got me thinking about it tonight was a suggestion to put a car on ramps and then put a sprinkler under it for 30 minutes. Seems like a lot of water and a LOT of icky (technical term) runoff.



So, is there a green way to take care of the underneath of the car?
 
We drive the cars through a tunnel wash that has a good undercarriage spray system. The car wash we go to gives us a special price for doing underside only
 
reparebrise said:
We drive the cars through a tunnel wash that has a good undercarriage spray system. The car wash we go to gives us a special price for doing underside only
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Or, you can just make your own. I bought a pressure washer hose for my pressure washer. I drilled about 50 holes in it, appx. 1" apart. I hooked it up to the pressure washer, and leave the lance on the end. Then I lay the hose across the driveway with the holes up. Then I just take my two buckets filled with water and place one on the lance and the other near the pressure washer to keep the hose in place and to keep the holes in the upright position. I fire up the pressuer washer and drive the vehicle over the hose slowly. It works very well and provides that high pressuer under carriage wash that you can get from the tunnel washes...plus it saves money and the hose does not "blow apart" because of the pressure release from the holes.
 
I use an undercar wand for quickie rinses, works almost as well as my (currently inop) pressure washer did and it's *so* handy. I dunno how well it would work without my boosted water pressure though.



The steamer works well, but it's very slow going.



A few Qs for you pros, who have to handle neglected vehicles and a large volume of jobs:



-Besides the undercarriage spray, how do you get things *really* clean under there (in an enviro-conscious manner)? I have to spend a *LOT* of time with solvents, cleaners, natural-bristle brushes, and the steamer..not sure my aproach would work well in a commercial setting where time is money.



-What about the run-off? I trust my oil separator to do a satisfactory job (it's to-commercial-code for my area), but I do wonder about emulsified oily [crap] anyhow. Without the separator, and floor drains connected to a sanitary sewer, I'd be leery of the run-off...no way I'd want that stuff going down a storm drain.



-What about using solvent-soaked rags for really greasy stuff? How would you get rid of them once they're soiled? Doesn't seem like something you should just put in the trash/send to a landfill.
 
if you dont have a strong pressure washer, go to a car wash place like all the kids with mud covered lifted 4x4's do. pay your $1.25 and use the wand.
 
Accumulator said:
I trust my oil separator to do a satisfactory job (it's to-commercial-code for my area), but I do wonder about emulsified oily [crap] anyhow.
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About 15 years ago a water engineer commented to me that the sewage treatment plants are a lot less concerned about emulsified oil than non-emulsified (the non-emulsified oil floats and seals out the air for the aerobic bacteria). Whether or not this is current info, I don't know. Maxy is the guy to ask about that.



Accumulator said:
What about using solvent-soaked rags for really greasy stuff? How would you get rid of them once they're soiled? Doesn't seem like something you should just put in the trash/send to a landfill.
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Eh...with current landfill technology I would expect that oil to get recovered with everything else, with the leachate or out the vents. Uniform services that supply rags launder them and return them.
 
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