Washing Gen3

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Still Learning to Type
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Posts: 47
Joined: Wed Sep 24, 2014 9:35 pm
Location: College Station, TX
Chassis:
294
PostPosted: Tue Feb 16, 2016 6:17 pm
I was wondering if anyone knows if it is safe to power wash new Gen3 cars? My typical post race weekend steps for my Gen2 included:

1. Take off all body panels
2. Vacuum all the grass from my off course excursions and rubber out of the car.
3. Power wash the entire car to get off all the brake dust and grime, being careful not to physically damage anything with power washer.
4. Blow dry the car with my leaf blower (a trick I found from a post on this site). Then dry the rest with a towel.
5. Perform repairs, general maintenance work, and chassis setup for next race. This step is much better with a clean car.
6. Spray car down with WD-40 or Corrosion-X. I have open trailer....so this is a must.

I never had any problems with the Gen2 and was wondering if there are any electrical concerns or something else that I should be concerned with. I don't want to mess up my new toy. Thanks.
Joe Frederick
Texas Region
SRF#65 Chassis#294
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Needs a Life!!!
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Posts: 767
Joined: Wed Nov 30, 2011 12:21 am

Chassis:
595
PostPosted: Tue Feb 16, 2016 9:33 pm
As with all electrical components, it's wise not to hit them with a strong stream of water (especially from a power sprayer.) That said, I have not had an issue, except in one instance, with a mild hose spray around the engine area. The electrical connections appear to have better sealing than the Gen2, though I would be careful around the large connector in the harness.

What I've done historically and with the Gen3 is to put a touch of dielectric grease into all the electrical connectors and plug wires (the large connector on the Gen2 by the fuel fill was a notorious problem.)

The one area I did have an issue is with was the connector between the O2 sensor and the ECU. This showed up during my first rain race when the engine started running poorly. Checking the data, I saw that the Lambda reading was very low (0.7) causing the car to run rich (assume this is a "default" mode for safety purposes.) The secondary problem after I fixed that issue, is that it fouled the plugs so I changed those as well.) I now have an alarm on the Lambda so I can see the problem on startup. One characteristic which may be normal is that it seems to take several seconds for Lambda to start reading out above 1.0 from initial starting. May be related to the pre-heating needed to get correct readings from the O2 sensor (or I've got another issue...)

I've been through three rain races and a couple of test days with rain (including a pretty good soaking at Auto Club Speedway) and had no rain related issues, so, so far, so good...
Bob Breton - SRF 51 - San Francisco Region
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Posts: 481
Joined: Wed Nov 30, 2011 9:08 am
Location: Lisle, IL
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217-2 169
PostPosted: Wed Feb 17, 2016 9:27 am
If you have a data acquisition system installed in your car, be careful spraying water near it. The old AIM MXL was not sealed very well. I had one that started acting strangely. When the AIM tech opened it up, there was water sloshing around inside the case. The AIM tech suspected it was due to power washing.
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Joined: Mon Dec 05, 2011 10:03 am
Location: Greenwich, Connecticut
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860
PostPosted: Wed Feb 17, 2016 10:27 am
If you use Simple Green to clean off grease, remember that the original Simple Green isn't all that friendly to aluminum. Luckily, Simple Green has a product for this, "Simple Green Motorsports" formula.

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