Just got my RX8 running today after changing the steering rack. everything was fine till I decided to stop at the car wash and give a good clean outside and inside.

So I decided to clean the engine bay with the car running with engine cleaner I did let the car run from start to end while in the car wash but before I left I did turned the car off than it won't turn back on. If I push the car down the road and hop in on second gear is does start.

Any ideas what I have done lol please help.

 

First of all, don't wash your engine bay ever again. Just leave it. Unless the dirt is affecting the electrical connection, blocking something, leave it be. Too many electrical stuff you can short out on modern cars, and no one gives a crap about how clean your engine bay is. If you must, use a vacuum/shop air to clean the engine bay.

So yeah, you could have shorted out something. If your car runs, you could have a short in the starting system.

 

after couple hours digging cleaning, drying all the connectors and sensors that was visible and easy to access, I did checked the starting system included the ignition coil "was dry so i cleaned it anyways" . Put everything back together and now my rx8 is running again.

Thanks for the input UnknownJinX .

 

 

Yeah, I am aware of this video.

But is the benefit worth it? For a part that no one looks at?

Meanwhile, there is a lot of room for errors. Expensive errors.

I occasionally wipe the engine cover, battery cover and airbox clean and that's it.

 

i pulled out all the ugly insulation which made it easier to keep clean. that and removing unnecessary stuff helped too like installing an aem, air pump delete, vfad etc. its free to pull out the insulation but can be a pita

 

I don't see an issue with washing the engine bay, as long as you are careful of electronics and give it time to dry before setting off again. I've always washed my engine bays with low-pressure misted water, never an issue.

Yea, there is a lot of stuff in our engine bays. I'm contemplating getting an AEM intake and relocating the battery to the trunk. Insulaton, air pump and piping is going, as well as anything else I can ditch that isn't required. Is there a reason the AEM/MS intake has so many joins? Seems like a straight shot other than the MAF pipe's slight kink, yet the straight area is broken into three sections.

 

probably easier to install and there are the screens in there