s4play

So I've been wanting to get the undercarriage cleaned and keep hearing people talk about professional steam cleaning. Did a bit of poking around and it seems these are one of the few in town that does this type of cleaning. (not looking for a car detailer)

Has anyone used these guys before? Impressions?

http://www.yelp.com/biz/san-jose-aut...aning-san-jose


They charge roughly $125 - $200 depending on the car so thinking to give them a shot....

Youmna

I've used them before and recommend them. I paid $60 for just the top of my Miata engine to be cleaned (top and bottom were quoted at $135-$145). They were very fast, polite, and the engine bay looked great afterward. A+, would use again.

modMonkey

I've used them as well. Few notes:

- Price was negotiable in my case
- If you have an extremely greasy engine/underbody, the grease tends to spray up onto the body. Luckily they also have an on-site car wash

Other than that, they were very professional and did a great job, I'd definitely go back.

s4play

thanks planning to go this weekend and will report back!

s4play

Made an appt. for 1pm but showed up early and Jim (owner) greeted me and started on my car right away. My car was clean when I got there so wasn't too keen on driving around on this dusty gravel road to the lift area but he took care of it for me later....(will explain).

This is a family operation for roughly 60+ years and it's a family operation with 2 of his sons working there. All of them were polite and explained how it was done. They use a combination of hot steam (roughly 500 degrees) along with a mixture of soap and water to really blast the undercarriage clean. I was skeptical so he did a quick blast in 3 seconds to demo it for me.

What you see below is the BEFORE (my sway bar is powdercoated silver)


Here's the amazing after with him just blasting it for 3 seconds



Needless to say I was impressed and went for the entire package which included the whole underside plus top of the engine bay. He leases some space in the lot to a car wash guy so he hooked me up with a free car wash afterwards which was really nice. The car was dirty because of all the oil/dirt that was blasted away some ended up on the car's exterior which was un-avoidable.

I ended up spending more money than I had planned but overall very happy with the service. It's not something you do monthly or even yearly but once maybe every 5 years which is fine.

Stay tuned for clean pictures!

TougeHorseman

Is this healthy for the car in terms of moisture in engine bay on the wires and corrosion of rubber hoses?

nos4you

Does he remove the undertray? Does he cover any electrical stuff in engine bay?

Looks like some good stuff.

s4play

Honestly I don't know if it's harmful but it's just water and soap really. Unless you have old cracked hoses I don't see the harm.

P.S. I brought my own plastic ziplock bags and tie-wraps to cover the battery, filters and other needed items.

Keep in mind you don't do this often, maybe once every 5 years is what he told me unless you off-road the s2000.

TougeHorseman

That makes sense to do some preventative coverage but I'm unsure how well a ziplock bag can stand up to 500 degree steam? Maybe it's a non issue but I'm curious what people think about areas getting wet that aren't necessarily designed to be in direct contact with water, let alone this super water.

Mighty_Mouse_Ep

It's perfectly fine to spray under the hood and under the car. I have cleaned a bunch of engines by just using a hose. I have never used steam however. If you are spraying under the hood only thing that you need to do is cover the intake if you have an exposed filter.