Dirty Engine Bay from Intercooler Induction?

[cymx5]

Hijacked Thread: Tell Your Bird Stories Here.

I propped open my hood yesterday and realized that the entire engine bay has the reminisce of salt, dirt, etc. from the winter roadways. My only thought is that it must be coming from the intercooler induction vents on the front grill/hood. Being my first top mount inter-cooled car, it's a bit of a nuisance.


How do you deal with this? Is it fine to spray out the engine bay/intercooler? I haven't looked around the engine bay to determine where the electronics are that could be affected...

 

[SallySpeed3]

Yeah it's due to the intercooler ducting. I've found leaves in my engine, little rocks, etc. unfortunately during this time of year it doesn't make for clean engine bays. The only way to take care of it is to clean it out. Here's a link to a thread where someone asked me how I cleaned out my engine bay. Posting the thread because it's alot easier than typing it again. http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?t=123763093

 

[Darth Vader]

Got that beat. A week or two into owning this car, I had a high-speed bird strike bullseye in the intercooler ducting inlet. No damage but, as you might expect, bits and bobs everywhere. Ruddy nice to clean up, that was.

In fact, I'm on my third bird kill with this car, in about 10 months. 2 more and I get to be an ace.

 

[SallySpeed3]

Got that beat. A week or two into owning this car, I had a high-speed bird strike bullseye in the intercooler ducting inlet. No damage but, as you might expect, bits and bobs everywhere. Ruddy nice to clean up, that was.

In fact, I'm on my third bird kill with this car, in about 10 months. 2 more and I get to be an ace.

oh my god! was there any paint damage?

 

[LovinMyMS3]

Living in the midwest, come winter, I've never owned a car that had a clean engine bay. It's not a show car, rinse it off and move on.

 

[Darth Vader]

No paint damage, amazingly since, breathing on the car makes paint chips. It caught the bumper primarily and that paint has flex agent in it, though.

Bird was hit at around 160 km/h. The front grill just pureed the poor thing. At least it was quick. I didn't find out about this until I returned from my holiday. I wondered why there were so many flies wherever we stopped for a while....

 

[Saskatchewan17]

Don't run water over the TMIC. Just take the covers off and spray them down with simple green and wipe off. You can do this to pretty much every other surface in the engine bay except the intercooler. Works really nicely for me when cleaning up the engine bay.

 

[meicalnissyen]

Got that beat. A week or two into owning this car, I had a high-speed bird strike bullseye in the intercooler ducting inlet. No damage but, as you might expect, bits and bobs everywhere. Ruddy nice to clean up, that was.

In fact, I'm on my third bird kill with this car, in about 10 months. 2 more and I get to be an ace.

well at least you didn't have to land it in a river

 

[Darth Vader]

Yeah, sorry, if it's between plunging into a river and bird death, bird's gonna lose every time....

 

[hugador]

This reminds me almost hitting a bird the other day. Normaly they would be quick to move out of the way but not with the speed3 i guess. I spend 5 to 7 minutes a week wiping the engine bay with a damp cloth. It's a good way to keep it fro getting dirty.

 

[the_caruch]

Got that beat. A week or two into owning this car, I had a high-speed bird strike bullseye in the intercooler ducting inlet. No damage but, as you might expect, bits and bobs everywhere. Ruddy nice to clean up, that was.

In fact, I'm on my third bird kill with this car, in about 10 months. 2 more and I get to be an ace.

i got a bird story!

Within a month or 2 i was on some scenic roads and stopped for lunch and on the way back to the car i noticed something resting on the black plastic tray right behind the lower grill.

turns out it was a bird, except it was bigger than any of the grill hole openings. my only thought it that it did a little "compressing" when it got forced through the grill. no grill carnage or anything, totally dry everywhere.

 

[Sport6]

There's a bird story on this forum from a 2010 Speed; it was captured by the hoodscoop.

 

[eg6motion]

Don't run water over the TMIC.

you've got to be kidding...what happens when you drive in the rain...water gets on the TMIC....

 

[Sport6]

you've got to be kidding...what happens when you drive in the rain...water gets on the TMIC....

I see no problem with taking the TMIC off and then running water over it to get the crap out. But with the coils under the TMIC I wouldn't suggest hosing it down on the car..

 

[eg6motion]

I see no problem with taking the TMIC off and then running water over it to get the crap out. But with the coils under the TMIC I wouldn't suggest hosing it down on the car..

Next time it rains heavily or you go through an automatic car wash, pop the hood... TMIC will be wet (least for me it has). Not to mention the 2010 MS3 has a hood scoop = water on TMIC and on coils in rain.

 

[Sport6]

Next time you have a hose, put on a sprayer that has a shower or mist setting and spray yourself. Then take the spray off and do the same.

 

[Darth Vader]

How 'bout this:

In less than 20,000 miles, I pulled the stock plugs and all 4 had cracked insulators from RUST contamination so, no way would I be putting anything near those holes, if I were you.

 

[SallySpeed3]

I see no problem with taking the TMIC off and then running water over it to get the crap out. But with the coils under the TMIC I wouldn't suggest hosing it down on the car..

Just take the time, take off the intercooler, lay it in your driveway and then clean it. You do not want to run water over your engine. It only takes a few minutes and it's worth it. Lots of dirt gets stuck in those fins. I speak from personal experience, after numerous engine baths because I'm OCD about that stuff, I had several misfires because my spark plug wires were basically covered with water. Learned my lesson, take the IC off.