Washing my engine bay caused engine issues

[jaimzthedrummer 24]

Hey guys,

This may be common knowledge to many of you, but I just thought I'd quickly share an interesting experience I had a couple of weeks ago with my e36 M3. In summary - be careful when washing your engine because water can get down into the spark plugs.

The full story:

I've had the car about 6 weeks. The previous owner obviously lived on an unsealed road because there are HEAPS of stone chips on the front, and the engine bay was very very dusty.

To make the cleaning job easy, I went to Wash World and used the engine cleaning foam stuff, and high pressure wash.

Two days later, the engine started behaving badly. No power, awful sound... the works. It sounded like it was missing, so I went looking for a problem with the spark plugs and found that Nos 1 and 3 were wet. I quickly checked the dipstick to see if the oil was milky... it wasn't (thank jebus), so I guessed that it was the high pressure wash that did it. The coil packs don't seal the plug chambers off completely, and the M-Power plate that goes over them has no seal around it either, so I guess it's easy for water to find its way down there.

I wiped off the plugs and jammed a rag down the chambers to (hopefully) soak up the water. Took it for a drive, and it seemed okay for 10 minutes... but then the problem came back.

I took some advice from the BMW race series guys (in particular, Brett Cowan who used to own my car), and he suggested taking the coil packs and plugs out and putting them in the oven on a low heat... and using a hairdryer on each of the chambers. I tell you, it was REAL weird putting car parts on the oven (fanbake at 75 degrees C for 20 mins), but it worked.

Problem solved.

James

[*Glenn* 854]

It's so much quicker to do that in the microwave though

[E30 325i Rag-Top 2956]

Glad it cured your problem James, it took a full Race Series Brains Trust to come up with the diagnosis!

Personally I have never been a fan of water blasting or steam cleaning engines, water and electrics do not mix, and there are lots of places for the water to get in and cause gremlins. Can be a prick to find where / what it has got into to cause the problem as well.

[jaimzthedrummer 24]

Jon, thanks for your (obviously) considerable input into The Race Series Brains Trust.

That title is worthy of a website all of its own!

I'll be sticking to degreaser and a rag from now on... don't you worry.

[*Glenn* 854]

I don't agree with using the oven though OR...obviously a microwave (joke). Compressed air is much safer for DIY. Check all electrical plugs, especially ABS and SMG if your car is SMG. High pressure water blasting on any of the electrical plug connectors needs to be avoided at all times. A compressor is much safer to use to do this.

[jaimzthedrummer 24]

Man, I'd love to get some air-tools. Looks like I have another reason for it.

It can go on the list after most of my other car fix-up stuff. :-)

[*Glenn* 854]

Man, I'd love to get some air-tools. Looks like I have another reason for it.

It can go on the list after most of my other car fix-up stuff. :-)

Small DIY compressors are cheap. The one at home cost me $180 about 8 years ago. If you need more tank capacity, get an old LPG tank and some fittings

[yng_750 247]

ive had this a few times on various cars, mostly with normal leads rather than coil packs.

nothing serious just dry out and go, but its much better to sue a good degreaser and low pressure water pouring out of a garden hose, especially around electrics.

[Apex 693]

Its puts the lotion on the ignition or else it gets the hose.

[kingkarl 136]

Its puts the lotion on the ignition or else it gets the hose.