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Intrepid - Drove with hood unlatched, arrghh

I did something stupid today, drove around for about 30 miles total with the hood on my second gen. Intrepid unlatched. Fortunately the latch is strong :) I had planned to check the fluids before I left, but then later dashed off in a rush and forgot about it, and the unlatched hood is hardly noticeable unless you you're looking at it, so I goofed.

Did I do any damage by committing this folly? I try so hard to be good to this car, following all of the maintenance schedules religiously, washing, checking tires, oil, etc and then I do this. Fortunately the roads were dry today although there is still plenty of dried salt on the roads here in NH. I'm worried about getting dirt and junk into the engine compartment where it will never come out again :( Is it that bad?

Reply to
Jerry Taylor
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Not to worry. The secondary latch prevented it from flying up and doing damage, and there was no damage from it not being completely latched.

Bill Putney (to reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with "x")

Reply to
Bill Putney

No harm done. Close the hood and forget it. As for dirt and stuff, the whole underside of the engine bay is open anyway, not much extra dirt is going to come in through that 1/4 inch gap.

Reply to
Steve

Along the same lines, my engine has a lot of white granular stuff (road salt?) and dust/dirt in all of the nooks and crannies. Should I do anything to clean this? I was thinking about doing that after the winter but am concerned that engine cleaning might be more harmful than good.

Reply to
Greg Houston

You have a choice here. Either wait 'till spring drive it in the rain, and sooner or later that rainwater will wash the salt away and replace it with sand...or use a hose. I pick the hose and I've never had a problem doing so. Actually, I get out the brush and the pressure hose at the you-clean-it carwash, and carefully give it a little under-hood scrubbing. As long as you don't rip anything loose with the brush or hit any electrical connections with the high-pressure stream at real close range, it's fine. Works nice!

--Geoff

Reply to
Geoff

Heard of the Landrover, fucknut?

Or the Range Rover?

Reply to
Dave

Hosing the engine down with a garden hose will get rid of salt and grit. Make sure all the caps and dipsticks are fully seated, and don't be tempted to use a power-washer or high-pressure car wash wand. Those can blow gaskets right out from between sealing surfaces. You can safely use a hose-end nozzle to blast it, but not the 1200 PSI car wash wands.

Reply to
Steve

Ok, sounds good I will do that come spring, or July, which over comes first. Is there any chance that spraying with water could make things worse if the salt isn't completely removed? My concern is that spraying water makes the salt more corrosive when wet and could possibly drive the salt into more places.

Thanks.

Reply to
Greg Houston

^ ^ whichever

Reply to
Greg Houston

Flush it very thorougly, then drive it around to dry everything out and you shouldn't have a problem.

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Reply to
Steve

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