The bottom of my car has always been quite nasty; from various oil leaks and over 14 years and nearly 170k miles of road grime. (My leaks are fixed...except my oil pan is starting to seep again, I'll fix that now also. )

My diff took a crap and my transmission is staring to make some bearing noise so I have those pulled out while I rebuild them. While everything is out, I figured I'd go a step further and thoroughly clean the underside.

Does anyone have any tips for this? The car is in my garage on jackstands so there isn't alot of room. I have an apartment garage so...yeah, there isn't much room on the sides either.

I started with some simple green, a brush, and a spray bottle. Needless to say, thats a lot of work and is only giving me marginal results. I may end up pulling my rear subframe, gas tank and anything else under there, and taking them to the local carwash with the rest of the shields and braces. And just finish up the body portion with my current method. It's dirty work though...

Any ideas or products?

 

brake clean or carb cleaner works well

 

engine bay cleaner!

Get the stuff made by GUNK, it smells like kerosene and removes all grease/grime/everything.

Buy like 3 cans, spray one on and let it soak overnight, then spray on the other two and pressurewash it off... if you bring it to the carwash on a trailer this is probably the easiest way!

 

I love fantastik. Get a nylon scrub brush like for a toilet boil, or for dish cleaning. This stuff takes anything off. I use it for my wheels, and my 65k mile baked on brake dust came off 100%, I couldn't believe how clean they were. I'm gonna clean some of my underbody with this stuff when I put the new motor in.

 

im def going to try and get this done this winter as well. luckily i have a lift in my garage but i was planning on just getting some of that GUNK stuff and a big handheld bristled brush, removing all the braces and shields and anything else and just going at it with a bucket and some goggles, lol. I'll post up some results in a couple weeks when i get around it to

 

Engine Brite (by GUNK) and Carb Cleaner will both take off paint if you get it on painted surfaces. IMO, you are going about it the best way in your current conditions. Obviously, if you had a lift, a pressure washer would do wonders after spraying everything with some Simple Green (or other brand of degreaser). But on jackstands, I would continue the way you have been going if its that important to you.

 

Gunk works great.

 

dawn dish soap works too put some in a bucket with hot wter cuts grease very well just like the commercials

 

I used to put the car on jackstands a couple times a year and pressure wash the underside and wheel wells. Engine brite works well but you need to let it sit and scrub it for it to work best.

 

Merry Christmas Ryan.
Personally the best thing I've ever found to cut grease and grime is HOT water under pressure. Parts or whole car, it's still a nasty job but it makes working underneath the car a little easier. And the mess is left at the car wash, instead of the garage.

 

anyone tried using one of those steamers to steam off all the grease and gunk?

 

Pressure washer and Castrol Super Clean.

With any good degreaser you can't leave it on forever. I take off the major build-up w/o degreaser, just pressure wash. Then add degreaser and blast it off quickly after that. Don't use an industrial strength pressure washer, too much pressure isn't your friend.

Check out the results:
http://rides.webshots.com/photo/1215...34192742caRATp

 

Just a tip, for smaller underneath or wheel well cleaning jobs, particularly during winter or when the car is apart and it can't be taken outside, I bought one of those plastic trays for clothes washing machines... it's a shallow plastic basin, and perfect for catching runoff so that it isn't on your garage floor.... they're about 3 feet square (like a washing machine).

 

Brake parts cleaner.

 

One other thing....
might sound stupid, but after the last time I cleaned underneath the car, I use some of that "NUFINISH" psuedo-wax stuff. It's advertised as a "once a year car finish". Shined up the painted surfaces of the PPF and cross-members pretty nice and seems to keep the aluminum pieces looking nicer, longer. A bottle goes a long way, enough to do it at least twice.

 

my old school had one of those. they do such a good job and soooo fast... too bad they're $1000's for a decent one.

go to your local junior college and ask some of the students if they wanna make a few bucks and lunch. someone will probably hit you up on it.