Cleaning the beast

T

thomasj1107

New member
I just got my 5th gen 2 weeks ago and I am anxious to take her off road as soon as I can get some time off work. Any tricks to keeping them clean after off roading? How do you keep the engine compartment clean or how do you go about cleaning it afterwards and avoiding any damage? I have one of the auto washes down the street with the undercarriage cleaner, is that usually enough for underneath if I run it through a couple times?

Any other advice would be great, I just mainly don't want to go hosing down my 35k dollar vehicle's engine and ruining something...
 
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It's a 4Runner. Don't sweat it!
 
How to clean the roof is my question. I can get a ladder, but my driveway is on a slope and its not the easiest for the duration. I can wash it with an extendable and rinse with a hose, but its the waxing. Living in FL, I dont want to end up with a FL roof (clearcoat/paint damage. When I had my jacked up 3500, I could at least stand in the bed
 
thomasj1107 said:
I just got my 5th gen 2 weeks ago and I am anxious to take her off road as soon as I can get some time off work. Any tricks to keeping them clean after off roading? How do you keep the engine compartment clean or how do you go about cleaning it afterwards and avoiding any damage? I have one of the auto washes down the street with the undercarriage cleaner, is that usually enough for underneath if I run it through a couple times?

Any other advice would be great, I just mainly don't want to go hosing down my 35k dollar vehicle's engine and ruining something...
Click to expand...

Power wash it. I do it when the engine is cold, then let it dry for a few hours before I go anywhere.

thecalm_7 said:
How to clean the roof is my question. I can get a ladder, but my driveway is on a slope and its not the easiest for the duration. I can wash it with an extendable and rinse with a hose, but its the waxing. Living in FL, I dont want to end up with a FL roof (clearcoat/paint damage. When I had my jacked up 3500, I could at least stand in the bed
Click to expand...

I use a ladder and an extendable automotive washing brush. Only takes a couple minutes.
 
Depends on the type of off roading. Each trip is followed by a visit to the self serve wash because a normal car wash won't put a dent in the mud.

For the engine use Simply Green and a regular hose.
 
If your worried about keeping it clean, I suggest you stay on the pavement. :baby:

Seriously, you live in Florida. Expect heavy pin striping if you go to any of the WMA's. :laugh:

If you hit mud, park on top of one of those lawn sprinklers to soften up everything underneath.
 
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thomasj1107 said:
I just got my 5th gen 2 weeks ago and I am anxious to take her off road as soon as I can get some time off work. Any tricks to keeping them clean after off roading?
Click to expand...
Pressure washer. The sooner you do it the easier it is. If the mud gets a chance to dry it'll just take longer to clean. The longer you leave the mud on there, the greater chance it has to get into seals and moving parts like wheel bearings. The stuff that mud wrecks is usually pretty expensive to replace. Also make sure to really get in there on the suspension components. Mud loves to cake in there and ruin shocks, uniballs, and ball joints. Anything that moves. Can you tell that I hate mud?

thomasj1107 said:
How do you keep the engine compartment clean or how do you go about cleaning it afterwards and avoiding any damage?
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Pressure washer, but hold it a few feet back from the engine. Be careful with this though. Around here it's illegal to clean your engine if the water goes directly into the sewer system because of the grease and oil.

thomasj1107 said:
I have one of the auto washes down the street with the undercarriage cleaner, is that usually enough for underneath if I run it through a couple times?
Click to expand...
Depends on the mud. I just get down on the ground to spray the undercarriage with the pressure washer. Since I do it on my way home from wheeling my clothes are already dirty so it's not a big deal.

To clean the roof I just stand on the sliders and spray. You can also just open the door and stand on the sill. I'm 6' tall so YMMV.
 
A few pro tips, as a guy that has been driving on shitty muddy roads every day for work for the last 15 or so years:

1: Definitely try to wash it while the mud is still wet
2: Who cares about having a pristinely clean engine - it's a truck
3: If you don't follow tip #1, set up the lawn sprinkler under the truck for an hour or two to soften up the mud - it will make your time at the car wash a lot easier.
4: Mud sucks ass, avoid it whenever you can.
 
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I have one of those car washes hear that does an unlimited monthly price for 19 dollars so I was thinking I could just run it through there 4 or 5 times right off the bat to get a good amount of the mud/dirt off....

And yes, I do live in florida, but that doesn't mean I want to trash my brand new 35k dollar vehicle either. You can enjoy something and still keep it in good shape.
 
If you want to prevent extensive washing do yourself a favour apply a nano coating sealer on your truck paint. I was sceptical but it works. You might have to do a lot of reading to make a good choice. Just my 2 cents
Cheers
 
Clean Machine

I think mud dries at highway speeds before you can get home or to the car wash. I get a lot of dirt and fine dust here on the other side of the continent. I usually hose the outside and undercarriage over my gravel driveway as well as I can before driving a couple of miles to the coin-op self serve car wash that has a power sprayer. If I'm cleaning the engine area I look for all of the electrical components, fuse boxes, alternator, etc and clean them carefully with a sponge and bucket first. Then I cover them up with plastic bags when I get to the power sprayer. I wish I could let it cool before washing or let it dry before leaving but that isn't practical for my methods. :washing:
The area I can never get clean is the back spoiler. Several weeks after my last dirt road trip it's still dripping dirt on the bumper. Everyone says that's normal.
 
thomasj1107 said:
I have one of those car washes hear that does an unlimited monthly price for 19 dollars so I was thinking I could just run it through there 4 or 5 times right off the bat to get a good amount of the mud/dirt off....

And yes, I do live in florida, but that doesn't mean I want to trash my brand new 35k dollar vehicle either. You can enjoy something and still keep it in good shape.
Click to expand...

If you are talking about a car wash with brushes, then you have just nixed your second part of your comment.

Brushes, especially on a dirty truck will scratch your paint beyond belief!


YMMV..........


just sayin
 
I do not off-road the T4R, but do own two full size 4WD trucks. One has a 6 inch lift with 35's. Here is a cool step that gets me into the engine bay and on top of the roof of my Yukon.

HitchMate TireStep - Sam's Club

Also, WD-40 is great for tight areas that are hard to clean. I spray a light coating prior to mudding and it comes off easy.

A great product for the engine bay after the heavy stuff is washed off is scrubbing bubbles used in showers / tubs (not kidding). Spray it on and let it soak, bubbles do a little work, then low pressure rinse.
 
I see that you are in Florida so if you plan on hitting any mud when you are out then stop by Home Depot and buy a 1 Gallon Sprayer and fill it with your choice of mud release agent. As mentioned by Rmack, you can use WD-40 and it works well but depending on where you are wheeling you might want to choose a non flammable biodegradable spray.

When racing dirt track I've seen everything from WD-40, baby oil, pam cooking spray, dollar store furniture polish and even liquid commercial car wash wax used. We had to spray it on the body and underneath to make the mud come off easier after hot lapping or packing the track. Sometimes you only had 15 minutes to remove 150lbs of mud off your suspension and frame before the race start so every little bit helped.

There is a company that sells Mudd Off that works well but the stuff is expensive. I used a biodegradable water based metal cutting fluid that was half the price and worked the same. When I take my 4Runner out I fill my gallon sprayer and spray the wheel wells, frame and suspension components but I keep it off of the tires and wheels because the oils can stain your clear coat. I've heard Mudd Off doesn't stain the clear coat.
 
Avalon786 said:
I don't understand why this is an issue?...I am 6ft7 :D
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Living in FL, I see many roofs on cars faded, rusted, clear coat eaten away, so I want to take care of my roof, the whole car, but I dont want to end up with the mentioned problems. I'm 5'9, so its a ways up there to the roof. I dont have my nerf bars yet to assist. Ladder could be used but my driveway is on a steep slope causing it to feel unsafe. Washing isnt so much the problem as a hose and standing at the top of the slope fixes that. Waxing is the issue.

Its a learning curve. I'm accustomed to vehicles I can see well over or a truck bed to stand in. That made waxing the roof/roofs easy. But I think I've got it figured out now. Put one leg of the ladder in the hole in a cinder block and it keeps it from tipping. That seems to work until I can get Cirq du Sole or Tom cruise's suspension set up (from mission impossible I) to hang over my roof.
 
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