VW Cabriolet Engine Cleaning?

C

CharlesW

The Rainmaker
A friend of mine owns a VW Cabriolet that his wife drives, probably a 2004, and he would like to clean the engine compartment. Guess who volunteered to help. :notme:
I have cleaned a lot of domestics and a couple of Hondas but never any European cars. I haven't seen it, but I doubt that it is too bad since it hasn't been driven much. (Always in being worked on :D)
Anything to watch out for on the VW?
I'm aware of electronics, alternator, coil packs, etc.
I'm thinking more along the lines of HID headlights, that sort of thing. Don't know if it has HID headlights, that was just for an example.
 
Charles, the Wife drives an '03.5 VW NB. I don't know the differences, if any, between the two engine bays, but on the NB there is very little to clean. There is a big black plastic cover which dominates the area, the rest is wiping down where the hand can reach. I'll be interested in hearing your experience.
 
:cool:If the Spark Plugs go into (Hole) in Valve Cover and doesn't have the rubber gromet protecting Water gettin down there get Dirty M/F's and cram them in there. Other then that I see you having no problem Charles.I know you know the other obvious things to be carefull around......The only other advice I would give is to use Mist not Jet Spray on your nozzle.... Get "close" to Engine/Compartment with Hose on Mist and move quickly...Good Luck:cool:
 
No HIDs to worry about on a cabrio. Like Mr. Clean said there is very little to clean. The main engine cover pops right off as well if you feel like cleaning up under there as well.
 
Don't use any water, I have never had any good experiences with cleaning vw's. As a matter of fact in the 12 years I've been detailing VW's are the only cars I have had problems with. Just my two cent, just be careful with any moister.
 
Well, it's a done deal.
It was a 2002 and had never been cleaned before. It only has 52,000 miles on it so it wasn't really terrible, but it did require more effort than I had expected.
It probably should have been a project for the old smelly Gunk Engine Degreaser. :)
It had no covers of any sort.
It took a lot of brush work and rag cleaning to get things looking decent. Amazing Roll-Off ended up being what I used. Finished it off with CD-2 Engine Detailer.
Because of time restraints, it was not as clean as I would have liked to have it, but my friend:
1. Was very happy.
2. Promised not to tell anyone I did it. :D

We also cleaned the interior including the leather seats and that went quite well. Woolite & water at 6:1 and 4 Star Leather Conditioner made the seats look new again. The carpet has always had mats and it only needed a good vacuuming. The mats were their winter rubber mats and were easily cleaned.

The paint was more of a challenge than we had time for. It really needed a lot more than the one step I was hoping for. The car was a very dark blue and very swirled from being run through car washes for years. The closest thing to wax it has ever had was the spray on, rinse off stuff at the car wash.
Optimum Poli-Seal cleaned up a lot and I used some Meguiar's #80 in a few spots, but it could have used a lot more work. I cheated a little and did a decent job on the hood, deck, and rear part of the trunk. It was a convertible so their was no roof to be concerned about. Most of the vertical surfaces just got Poli-Seal and a polishing pad long enough to make them look good. A quick coat of Opti-Seal was all we had time for. Interestingly enough, he had never noticed the swirls until I pointed them out to him. Like many people, he just saw shiny. :)
Wheels cleaned up good with just Poorboy's Spray & Wipe and the tires got Poorboy's Bold & Bright. Wheel wells got No Touch tire shine. (Cheated again)
His wife, whose car it is, called me tonight to compliment me on the look of her car.
I just told her thank you and didn't tell her what a half a$$ed job I had done. :D
I would like to get it back when I could spend more than a couple of hours on it. The paint alone probably needs two hours of work.
He thinks I'm too particular and he might be right, but I know what it could look like given time to do it.
No pictures. Hardly had time for a glass of iced tea.

Oh yes, as a side note. It wouldn't start after the engine cleaning. No hose was used, just spray bottles. Distributor and most electrical components were wrapped in plastic cling wrap. I blew everything out with my air compressor and we had no problem starting it after about two hours while we worked on the rest of the car.
 
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CharlesW said:
Well, it's a done deal.
It was a 2002 and had never been cleaned before. It only has 52,000 miles on it so it wasn't really terrible, but it did require more effort than I had expected.
It probably should have been a project for the old smelly Gunk Engine Degreaser. :)
It had no covers of any sort.
It took a lot of brush work and rag cleaning to get things looking decent. Amazing Roll-Off ended up being what I used. Finished it off with CD-2 Engine Detailer.
Because of time restraints, it was not as clean as I would have liked to have it, but my friend:
1. Was very happy.
2. Promised not to tell anyone I did it. :D

We also cleaned the interior including the leather seats and that went quite well. Woolite & water at 6:1 and 4 Star Leather Conditioner made the seats look new again. The carpet has always had mats and it only needed a good vacuuming. The mats were their winter rubber mats and were easily cleaned.

The paint was more of a challenge than we had time for. It really needed a lot more than the one step I was hoping for. The car was a very dark blue and very swirled from being run through car washes for years. The closest thing to wax it has ever had was the spray on, rinse off stuff at the car wash.
Optimum Poli-Seal cleaned up a lot and I used some Meguiar's #80 in a few spots, but it could have used a lot more work. I cheated a little and did a decent job on the hood, deck, and rear part of the trunk. It was a convertible so their was no roof to be concerned about. Most of the vertical surfaces just got Poli-Seal and a polishing pad long enough to make them look good. A quick coat of Opti-Seal was all we had time for. Interestingly enough, he had never noticed the swirls until I pointed them out to him. Like many people, he just saw shiny. :)
Wheels cleaned up good with just Poorboy's Spray & Wipe and the tires got Poorboy's Bold & Bright. Wheel wells got No Touch tire shine. (Cheated again)
His wife, whose car it is, called me tonight to compliment me on the look of her car.
:funny:I just told her thank you and didn't tell her what a half a$$ed job I had done. :D
I would like to get it back when I could spend more than a couple of hours on it. The paint alone probably needs two hours of work.
He thinks I'm too particular and he might be right, but I know what it could look like given time to do it.
No pictures. Hardly had time for a glass of iced tea.

Oh yes, as a side note. It wouldn't start after the engine cleaning. No hose was used, just spray bottles. Distributor and most electrical components were wrapped in plastic cling wrap. I blew everything out with my air compressor and we had no problem starting it after about two hours while we worked on the rest of the car.
Click to expand...

Glad to here it all worked out well Charles.
I really can't say I have alot of "VW" cleaning expeirence. But if I run across one I will be extra carefull around the engine, as also noted by SouthernDetail. :bigups
 
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southerndetail said:
Don't use any water, I have never had any good experiences with cleaning vw's. As a matter of fact in the 12 years I've been detailing VW's are the only cars I have had problems with. Just my two cent, just be careful with any moister.
Click to expand...
While at the Audi/VW dealer Friday picking up the wheel/spoke brush Audiboy recommended, the parts man cautioned me about engine cleaning. The individusl coil packs in particular. He said that their detail shop even had some problems and they do a lot of them.
I guess I got lucky, although I don't remember that the one we did had individual coil packs. The fact that we didn't really use any high pressure spray probably was a good thing.
 
CharlesW said:
While at the Audi/VW dealer Friday picking up the wheel/spoke brush Audiboy recommended, the parts man cautioned me about engine cleaning. The individusl coil packs in particular. He said that their detail shop even had some problems and they do a lot of them.
I guess I got lucky, although I don't remember that the one we did had individual coil packs. The fact that we didn't really use any high pressure spray probably was a good thing.
Click to expand...

While it's always good to heed advice, especially from someone that has had a lot of experience with that particular topic, I think a lot of the problems that dealer "detailers" have, is due to the quality of their work. The fact that they don't pay attention to small details and try to crank stuff out as fast as possible instead of taking the time to take a few precautions and/or do a job properly.
 
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