Inquire opinion here.
My Karcher K5.7 pressure washer (purchased June 2014, RM1400 that time but use credit card point discount to RM1100) got piston faulty and repair fee by Karcher Malaysia needs about RM650, replacement part only warranty for 3 months.
If I trade in this faulty K5.7 with K.M. and purchase a new P.W., currently K5 Premium is RM1700, after trade in will be RM1200.
Considering the life span of my old K5.7 only lasted slightly more than 1.5yrs, I am thinking whether an industry P.W. more suitable for my usage level.
K.M. gave me an example an industry HD 5/12C, now selling RM2500, after trade in become RM2050. But my 360deg Vario Power Jet Lance (short), a separate accessory I bought myself, and my foam cannon will be unusable because the connection is different.
So, my friends, what do you think?
Worth the RM650 repair? or more worthy to get a new unit, if so, home machine or industry machine?
Anyone here used industry Karcher P.W. before?

Does anyone knows how much is 22PLE coating cost now in our market?

I have found way to purchase and import it but the price is very high due to our weak currency and thus not so justifiable.

My Personal Hari Raya Engine Detailing

I had a long leave here in this fasting month, so I decided to document my routine engine detailing process for sharing purpose and to shed some encouragement to newbies on how to do it.

Most of the people avoid doing engine wash cleaning for the obvious reason - to avoid the risk of water damaging engine vital component. Second, it is invisible to normal eyes sight so no strong motivation to do the work.

Slightly hardworking people who care about cleanliness of engine bay will dry clean the engine as in using a damp cloth and wipe around the engine bay.

With today modern car engine design, a lot of electrical connections and mechanical components already have high resistance to moisture albeit not waterproof. Cleaning the engine regularly also give owner an insight on which part of the engine is leaking oil or fluid, and prevent corrosion as well, for example at the battery holder area.

As long as some common sense precaution steps have been taken, cleaning your engine should be as easy as washing your car.

In this post, I will be working on my own car, a 2013 Perodua Myvi Ezi. While your car model could be different but the procedures will almost be identical.

For a quick glance, I have compile a video which explains and demonstrate everything in brief.




Procedures:

Pre-Check:
Engine is cool to work at.
Sometime a warm engine is better at removing stubborn gunk. I never have such gunk because I regularly clean my engine (another benefit of engine cleaning).
Not at direct sunlight because cleaner products will dry very fast and leave residue.

1) Cover the fender with MF towel to prevent accidental scratching by body when leaning on it during work.

2) Protect sensitive components in engine bay.
Despite modern engine design high moisture proofing feature, some components still need to be manually protected before a wash clean is conducted.
Use your common sense, technical knowledge and experience to judge which components need to be covered.
These components include expose wire connection, air intake hole, expose spark plug connection, alternator, distributor (older car).
Use creativity when come to selection of cover material. In my experience, I used food cling wrap and aluminum foil with great success.
You can add a rubber band or tape to secure the covering because water spraying and blow drying later might accidentally open the covering.

Air intake hole.


Alternator


Spark plug


Headlamp power connector






Ready to start after all sensitive areas are covered.


3) Pre-rinse

Give a low pressure water stream rinsing thoroughly to the engine bay to wash away any loose dirt.
.

4) Cleaning

Usually when dealing with engine cleaning, there is a higher level of grease contamination, so use of stronger dilution degreaser or MPC is more recommended for effective job. Depending on manufacturer, some brand has its degreaser made to be higher cleaning strength than its MPC (like Meguiar's), some is reverse (like Optimum). Thus user needs to trial and error themselves.

Usually a dilution of 4:1 (water:product) is a good start. But can go stronger depending on situation.

Prepare the cleaner solution and necessary cleaning tool such as brushes.


I usually start with the under side of the engine hood first, then the engine bay itself.

From time to time, depending on how fast the product is drying, water need to be sprayed again to wash away the almost-drying product.

Thoroughly spray antiquate amount of cleaner to all surfaces.
















Use different type of size of brush to achieve the desire cleaning and to reach different tight area.

5) Post-rinse

After cleaning is done, spray the engine bay thoroughly with low pressure water.

6) Check for overlook area.

There are a lot of components in the engine bay that could block your line of view during working. One might miss some spots and thus before calling it a day it is safer to do a checking with a lighting tool such as flashlight.

7) Drying

It is best to use some kind of pneumatic aided drying technique, because wipe drying just simply not going to effectively absorb all the water droplets, especially those that trapped in the tiny gaps.

In my case I used a leaf blower. Be careful when blow drying so that the protective cover on sensitive areas do not get punctured or blow opened by the strong stream of air jet.

After blow drying, the rest can be wiped dry.

Engine bay after drying.

8) Remove the protective covers.

Carefully remove the protective covers while avoiding spill out the water that might rest on the covers (especial on aluminum foil).

After removal, these covered area are not wash at all, so give them a wipe clean by a damp cloth with a few spray of cleaner product, then wipe clean with a damp towel.

Engine bay after protective covers removal.










9) Some intricate cleaning

Sometime there will be stain/gunk/grime that cant be cleaned even all the processes above have been carried out. But this type of area is rather isolated and so will be cleaned separately now.

The rubber tubing stain on the under side of the engine hood.


Light polish by hand using Meguiar's Swirl X.


The outcome.


This post has been edited by scoutfai: Jun 28 2016, 04:56 PM

10) Apply LSP.

After all the cleaning and drying, now the engine bay is ready for some application of LSP to prolong the cleanliness and improve the shine.
Yes even engine bay needs to, or can have LSP applied on it.

But unlike exterior surfaces, engine bay surfaces do not exposed to rain and other airborne contaminant, so the LSP applied on it usually will last quite long, even for a wax. Furthermore, the engine bay is invisible to eyes sight usually, thus if you have a cheap LSP which you not willing to use on exterior surfaces, engine bay is a good place to spend this left over LSP.

For plastic components, I used Meguiar's Ultimate Protectant.


To demonstrate the effect.


Haven wipe away the excess, but this is the type of difference one can expect to get.


Another demonstration.


High contrast of darkness and shine.


After all plastic components are dressed.


For painted surfaces, I used Meguiar's Cleaner Wax. I have better wax, but I reserve it for exterior surfaces.

11) Final outcome

After all LSP finish applied.









Now the engine detailing is considered done for me.

Last but not least, try to start the engine and check if all electrical equipment function normally.

Because de-greasing has been done, but some part of the engine actually is better to have grease, such as the pulley shaft, the battery terminal sponge (if you have it), one can re-apply again manually. For me I usually spray a light coat of silicon lubricant on these area.

One can certainly bring up the level of engine bay detailing depending on how many resources you have. For example if you have a steamer, you can do steam cleaning, which is very efficient in removing gunk. If you have long brush, you can reach to the very bottom of the engine bay and do much more brushing.

The method I used is certainly not the only method and it is only best suited for me at the moment. As time progress I might change, you should too.

Finally I hope you enjoy reading my engine bay detailing post. Cheers.

This post has been edited by scoutfai: Jun 28 2016, 04:44 PM