I have had my Mitsu Triton for nearly 6 years now and never had the motor cleaned and it's starting to look pretty dirty, mainly dust I would say. Are the regular car wash places OK for an engine clean or should it be done by a specialist? I don't want water getting into the electrical system obviously.

I used to clean my own engines by buying spray degreaser, which is a combination of hydrocarbon solvent and detergent. Spraying on a warm engine works better in terms of penetrating grease deposits. Allow to sit for an hour, then wash off with a pressure spray. Never had a problem with the electrics, I knew where they were.

I can't comment on whether Thai car wash places know what they are doing, perhaps a specialist would be better for peace of mind.

The Triton is a good vehicle, Mitsubishi IMO is an underrated brand. Owned one myself in Australia.

1 minute ago, Lacessit said:

 

The Triton is a good vehicle, Mitsubishi IMO is an underrated brand. Owned one myself in Australia.

Never had one problem in 6 years.

I get mine done at a car wash, looked brand new again.

 

Most car washes, especially the bigger ones, will know what to do to avoid any problems. Your truck electrics will be well insulated against water due to the purpose of the truck being a "working" vehicle and likely to encounter extreme conditions. Unless there have been any oil leaks, the dirt is most likely just dust and one wash will bring it up looking like new. I'm always impressed by the care and quality of car (and motobike) washes here.

 

Get it done in a local car valet place. As it hasn't been done in 6 years more than likely take a couple of times before it'll come back like new. Don't panic about water getting into electrics, they know what they are doing. 

 

I get my engine cleaned every time I take it in for it's full valet (normally once a month) never had a problem with 3 cars and over 16 years of having it done.   

It's always funny to see cheap cars being pampered when some owners of very expensive cars would never do such a stupid thing as cleaning an engine...

 

 

11 hours ago, fredob43 said:

they know what they are doing.

5555555555555555 the joke of the day !!! thank you !!!

it's famous that they know what they are doing here ! You know very well !!

 

 

 

Whenever I go for a car service at the dealer the engine get cleaned, and the car washed as well

Cleaning a car engine is a bit like polishing a bucket.

5 hours ago, l4ml4m said:

It's always funny to see cheap cars being pampered when some owners of very expensive cars would never do such a stupid thing as cleaning an engine...

 

 

It's a little something called pride. 

9 hours ago, l4ml4m said:

It's always funny to see cheap cars being pampered when some owners of very expensive cars would never do such a stupid thing as cleaning an engine...

 

 

Why bother to clean the outside, doesn't make the car run any better, does it?

1 hour ago, giddyup said:

Why bother to clean the outside, doesn't make the car run any better, does it?

Mine always runs better after a good wash.

Just now, EVENKEEL said:

Mine always runs better after a good wash.

I agree.........????

19 hours ago, giddyup said:

Why bother to clean the outside, doesn't make the car run any better, does it?

 

When the exterior costs 8 MB trust me, you care about it !

 

10 minutes ago, l4ml4m said:

 

When the exterior costs 8 MB trust me, you care about it !

 

Hahaha... so $250,000 USD just for the bodywork... plus at least the same for an interior... and it must be double that for superior quality engine, trans, brakes and suspension... so your daily driver in Thailand is a million dollar US car. Yeah right.

21 hours ago, giddyup said:

Why bother to clean the outside, doesn't make the car run any better, does it?

Written by a man who wants to clean his <deleted> engine

1 hour ago, mikebike said:

Hahaha... so $250,000 USD just for the bodywork... plus at least the same for an interior... and it must be double that for superior quality engine, trans, brakes and suspension... so your daily driver in Thailand is a million dollar US car. Yeah right.

HaHa.    We both know what he ment was.     Pay 8M for a car and you really do care about the paintwork.   But good maths on your part though. ????

On 1/2/2021 at 11:19 AM, soi3eddie said:

I'm always impressed by the care and quality of car (and motobike) washes here.

Im  not they often miss  places and then  just wipe  the dirt  over  like a scouring pad as they dry it, never take mine there anymore, do it myself, takes  about 3 hours with polishing once a month

24 minutes ago, PFMills said:

HaHa.    We both know what he ment was.     Pay 8M for a car and you really do care about the paintwork.   But good maths on your part though. ????

I guess the point of my sarcasm was that whether you drive a Ferrari or a Fiat you can express pride of ownership...

50 minutes ago, PFMills said:

Written by a man who wants to clean his <deleted> engine

If you'd bothered to read the posts you would have seen I was replying to 14m14m comments who suggested it was a waste of money cleaning the engine, so try and keep up.

48 minutes ago, PFMills said:

HaHa.    We both know what he ment was.     Pay 8M for a car and you really do care about the paintwork.   But good maths on your part though. ????

You care about the paintwork but not the engine? Makes sense, not.

3 hours ago, l4ml4m said:

 

When the exterior costs 8 MB trust me, you care about it !

 

Sounds like an excuse to big note about how much your car is worth. Am I supposed to be impressed?

3 hours ago, l4ml4m said:

 

When the exterior costs 8 MB trust me, you care about it !

 

a lot of money for a Trabant, but i think most of it was import duty

7 hours ago, giddyup said:

If you'd bothered to read the posts you would have seen I was replying to 14m14m comments who suggested it was a waste of money cleaning the engine, so try and keep up.

I did read that post   It was wrong of me to wind you up ????   sorry. ????

On 1/4/2021 at 6:44 AM, bodga said:

Im  not they often miss  places and then  just wipe  the dirt  over  like a scouring pad as they dry it, never take mine there anymore, do it myself, takes  about 3 hours with polishing once a month

 

Correct ! Only people who really know nothing can think that ANY car wash is food here.

Yes, they are good to remove the bird poops by making swirls, this is all they can do.

 

On 1/2/2021 at 10:10 AM, giddyup said:

Never had one problem in 6 years.

And this helps the OP.... how ?

The better car cleaning places will do an engine clean. Our Toyota came up like new when we had it done over on the dark side 3 months ago. Doesn’t cost a lot either. 

The pressure washer (initially with soap) at a car wash would suffice for a dirty motor (mostly dust, mud and other non oil based grime) however it won't do such a good job on grease.!
25 years in the garage, we found a 50/50 mix of kero (parafin in UK) and CT14 cleaner made an excellent degreaser.

Yes, liberally sprayed on a warm motor, left to penetrate for 5 - 10 minutes and washed off with the pressure washer.
In the early days pre 2000 with kettering ingition (coil, points and distributors) we occasionally had to blow the water out of the distributor cap with compressed air, but these days the waterproofing of the ECU and other associated electronics is so good you could probably drive them underwater (with snorkel) without any problem.
I've never had a problem pressure washing a modern engine.!

I took my 400 cc motorbike to one of the local cleaning places and it looked brand new after the finished with it. It only cost 70 Baht. Unfortunately the tachometer and various dial lights no longer worked after their vigorous pressure cleaning.