Need to do a little cleaning of the engine area and was curious to know how others have gone about the task.

I was thinking pressurized steam to get to those hard to reach places with nooks and crannies.

Are there shops/places that do this type of thing and how much might they charge?

Want the engine area to be clean for when I or others work on it.

Suggestions and shared experiences appreciated.

I wash my car several times a month, and usually every 4th time I also wash the engine. Since I have washed it for so long and so often, I never really have any kind of build up.

But, that being said, you can get an engine degreaser from a parts store, but they smell really bad, and you will smell it in the cabin for a week or longer.

I use the left over car soap from my car wash, but for the harder stuff, I usually shower it with some Simple Green.

Another import suggestion: I armor all my engine, especially the rubber parts and the rubber boots around wiring harnesses. You will see that the rubber bits get dried out and turn grey. If you let it go too long, they will start to deteriorate and you will have some problems. So every 3 or 4 months I soak all those bits in armor all, and to this day, the rubber bits in my 8 year old engine look like new.

I've got 103K miles on my car, and I can tell you that the engine bay looks just like it did when I bought the car new. I have a problem, I should seek help.

Thanks for the suggestions

I would have to agree with Christian about the simple green. He suggested the same to me and that is all it took after I bought my A4 to get most of the gunk cleaned up. Once you get it clean, it's much easier to keep it neat and tidy.

The last part prevents water spots on hoses etc.

I just let the car idle in the garage and never drive it. Never gets dirty.

DAMN WINTER!

The car is not moded/chipped, so high flow rate air is not a possibility. . .

GET THAT THING CHIPPED!!!!!