Lexmex

One of the little luxuries I give my RX300 is basically a bath.

I have been good friends with the place where I have bought all of my CrossTerrains. They do the alignment, rotation, balance and even machine my front rotors on occasion. The rest of the stuff I do with my uncle.

My idea behind this thread was basically to show it is okay to run a high pressure spray into the engine area and underneath the vehicle. We the RX300 up on a lift.

The advantage to this is basically a cleaner engine is a little more productive engine since less heat in the engine compartment. I notice it feels better and performs a little better both on the street and on the track. Less heat means a little cooler air for my intake and it cleans off the belts where that nice little URD lightweight crankshaft pulley is, so it the belt will adhere better to the pulley.

Lexmex

We start by covering up with plastic bags the fuse box and the top of the battery (though I have washed it before with the battery not covered up and no issue, but just to be safe).

I remove the little L logo to get in through the hole on top.

The spray we use is a Mexican-name cleaner, basically to remove grime, grease, etc.

We also spray underneath the RX and in the wheel well areas.

You want to make sure you spray on the front and rear of the engine blocks where a lot of grime gets in.

Lexmex

Then we go to work and start spraying.

Lexmex

This picture shows a better view of the washing and also how we put the plastic bags over the battery and fusebox. I have done this engine wash more times than I can count and no issues whatsoever.

Lexmex

Getting into the wheel well area. We did my rotation, balancing and alignment on this day, so it made washing easier.

A good place to wash when you go to the the front passenger side (not shown here but see the next photo) is the tranny cooler (you can spot it very easy on your own when you look just in front of the tire and I have posted some recent pictures before in this forum of it). The tranny cooler takes in a lot of dirt on the backside.

This tire place does some good business. Today, I went to get the front rotors done (did not have my camera) and a Ferrari Modena, an Audi S6 and 1965 Renault were all parked up on the other 3 lifts. I guess a Lexus RX300 would fit in just fine, too.

Lexmex

Ah, what an excellent shot from underneath.

Now this is the front side. The tranny cooler vents are seen in this photo just to the right of the front, passenger side rotor.

Lexmex

Another underneath shot. The wash takes about 20 to 30 minutes give or take.

Lexmex

Another shot where we wash the rotor area (again you can see the tranny cooler vents to the right of the rotor). What I usually do (except I am taking the photo here) is to go on the opposite side and turn the rotor so we can wash in there a little easier.

Lexmex

One shot from the rear.

Jokingly, I have this picture of my mind (similar to some of the animated car movies or cartoons), that my RX300 is gigling when we wash it underneath. At the track, I have this vision of it looking mean and agressive, similar to some of that the artwork you would see on some of our country's WWII fighter planes, you know the one's where the front has giant teeth and looks menacing.

Ok, so yeah, I do have conversations with my RX.

Lexmex

I used this picture recently to show the rear a/f sensor behind the engine block.

Notice how clean the back of the engine block is after the wash. Same goes for the front, though tough to get a decent photo up there.

Lexmex

One of my favorite shots...look how clean this engine bay is afterwards.

Lexmex

One weekly task I perform before going to the track on the weekends is the removal of any little rocks in the tires with a screwdriver. These CrossTerrains just love to pick them up.

Now technically, these rocks are unwanted unsprung weight since they are on the tires.

Lexmex

Finally, one of the guys at the tire place always wanted to be famous.

Well, Andy Warhol said we all have our 15 minutes of fame.

So, I asked him to do his best pose and I would take a shot for the Internet.

yoon

nice! i think i will go and try that sometime next week. thanks for the pics

HarrierAWD

Wow, you are amazing LexMex. Thanks for the pics. Should the engine be cold when you do this? Do you cover up the alternator too?

Now I am tempted to do this myself. I've been cleaning my engine compartment by hands for years, but there are places that I just can't get to.