Cleaning Oil Soaked Engine Bay
 

Hello Everbody,

Pulled into a gas station this morning on my way to work and noticed smoke coming from my engine bay. Turns out my oil fill cap broke clean off. Not just came loose, actually broke. There were threads from the cap still in place. I blame the jolts from all of the death trap pot holes NY has been riddled with this winter. My Civic sounds and runs fine, although I hope small pieces of the oil cap didn't fall into the crankcase.

Needless to say, my entire engine bay is covered in about 2-3 quarts of oil. My biggest concern is the oil on the alternator and serpentine belt. They are both pretty well coated. Any advice on how to clean them up? Or are they headed to an early grave?

Thanks in advance.

Re: Cleaning Oil Soaked Engine Bay
 

Make sure you get your oil topped back up as soon as you can if you haven't already. New cap should be less than $20. I would just replace the belts they're pretty cheap. And then soak the whole engine bay in some good degreaser, dont get any of the important electronic bits wet

Re: Cleaning Oil Soaked Engine Bay
 

I crossed my fingers and limped the car from the gas station to my job (less than two miles). Later had my girlfriend buy a few quarts of oil and a new cap at Advance. She dropped it off at my job and I topped it off there in the parking lot on my lunch break.

Ok, so I'll look into replacing the belt. Car is nearing 100k miles anyways, wouldn't hurt to begin with. Still confused about the alternator, it's really doused in oil since it's close to the fill cap. Is it safe to degrease as well? It's pretty new, so I'd rather not replace it if I don't need to.

Re: Cleaning Oil Soaked Engine Bay
 

On my car I wouldn't afraid to hit it with the degreaser, bit of a scrub, and then rinse with a hose. Rinse the entire engine bay with a hose, no pressure washers, high pressure will definitely cause problems. Do so at your own risk, but I've never had a problem with the half dozen cars I've done

Re: Cleaning Oil Soaked Engine Bay
 

I wouldn't be scared. Let degreaser do its job, rinse with garden hose


Too much water pressure can force water past the weather resistant connector seals