Don't ever take your car to a "detailer"

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Kraze

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Ok so I took my car to get detailed. Bad idea. When I go to pick it up I notice that they "steam cleaned" the engine. I don't know about steam cleaned, it looks, and feels, like they dumped a whole bucket of armor all over the engine. So I kind of just shrugged that off, I had used a gift certificate for the detail so it's not like I wasted any of my money.

But now here's where the problem is. I start my car and notice it's idling horribly. I think to myself.. ok, maybe there's just a little bit of water where it shouldn't be and it will dry out and everything will be fine. Well, I was wrong. It's running really rough at idle, almost feels like it's going to die. And then on acceleration it feels really rough too. I'm thinking maybe one or more of my cylinders are missing?

Well anyways, I get it home and I decide I'll replace two of my cop boots that some other idiot (ok fine, it was me lol) broke back when they were replacing the spark plugs. They had cracked and I just duct taped them back together until I could get new ones.

So anyways I get to them (wasn't easy being that everything was soaked in armor all so it was very greasy/slippery) and I pull them out. One of the boots is so bad that it doesn't come out with the connector and spring and just stays in the spark plug whole, but I end up getting it out. Now I notice my next problem.. my spark plug is sitting in about an inch of oil. Oh boy. So I do my best attempt to soak up the sitting oil by stuffing paper towels down in there. It worked moderately good.

Next problem. I put the boots on fairly easy, but now I go to put them back on the spark plugs and they just don't wanna stay on. They keep on popping back up (probably because of all the oil that coated the tops of the spark plugs.)

So at this point I'm beyond pissed. I just say screw it and put the cover back over the COP's and call it a night (I was already mad because I noticed my brand new headlight I had just put on was cracked to hell and a big chunk of my paint was missing.)

Now my question is what could they have done to cause these problems? It was running fine when I dropped it off. The car is a '97 Mark.

Thanks
 
Bad timing (coincidence)? Vacuum leak?

Those boots were bad, but the valve cover seals them up pretty good. My guess is that there is a vacuum leak. Check over all the hoses first. Steam could KILL a bad vacuum fitting. There is one at the back of the intake manifold, someone here has a pic, check it out.
 
Well I just did a visual check for any damaged hoses and I didn't see any. I'll do a more thorough check when it's light out though.

Also, my Xcal is saying there are no DTC's, so that's good I suppose.
 
Both of those hoses look brand new on mine. Oh, that's probably from all the Armor All lol. But yeah, both of those are in good condition.

Anything else they could've messed up when they gave my engine a bath?
 
Off the top of my head, no. Steam cleaning is typically safe if done right since the hot water evaporates so fast.

I would still hunt around for a vacuum leak. You can do the ether trick and spray some around the engine and listen for a rev - but your pretty Armoral may spot.
 
Oh I could care less about the Armor all.. it looks way too fake anyways.

What can I use to try that trick? Will starting fluid work?
 
Starting fluid should work fine. Best to spray in little spurts.
 
I'll try that tomorrow then.

It also seems to be an intermittent problem. Sometimes it will idle fine and accelerate smoothly, but more often than not it idles real rough and is rough on the acceleration.
 
Well check the leak situation first is all I can suggest, from there move onto plug/COP and IAC etc...
 
What's the test for the IAC again? Is it just unplug it and see if the idle changes?
 
Well I'll tell you what happens with that tomorrow.

Thanks for all the help, I appreciate it!
 
I've taken my car to a detailer a few times now and very glad I did! The car turned out amazing, 1000x better than it did, especially considering what the paint looked like when I got it (it only had ever seen an automatic brush wash!) They did under the hood etc as well. No problems at all.
I would have had to spend many days literally to get the same results (I know because I did my old black '95 myself, I spent over 16 hours on it!)


Duct taping the boots like you mentioned would not help any and duct tape will not last under the hood, that would be the first place to look... If they keep popping up as you mention then they will not be making a good or any connection and will make the car run like crap.
In your case it may have just bought up an existing condition quicker by washing under the hood and dislodging dirt or a hose somewhere etc. It happens.
Sorry to be blunt, but it sounds like it has nothing to do with the detailers work and your poor attempt to fix a different problem that it causing it...
 
I would NEVER ever take my ride to a detailer, a mechanic or anywhere else! There are way too many idiots out there that really have no clue & no respect. Besides I detail & repair my vehicles far better then any shop that I have seen yet.

Take your car back & tell them what's up! Either that or just start trouble shooting like you are now. You will figure it out sooner or later. Sorry to hear about your frustating experience.
 
I usually would never take my car to a detailer either, but I had a gift certificate for it so I figured I'd try it out. The guy did a horrible job. I can make it look the exact same with a nice hand wash and just some simple spray on/wipe off wax. AND I'd never use all that Armor All on my car (pretty obvious that I don't like Armor All huh? lol)

As for the boots, the duct tape was just a temporary fix until the boots came in to the dealership. And even with them being duct taped, the car still ran fine.. until I took it to the detailer. Now the boots are replaced though, but I'm guessing because of all the oil sitting around the spark plug that the boot isn't getting a good grip on the plug (not the detailer's fault at all.) I think after I put the cover back over the top of them they're probably held down pretty good though.

If it's not a simple fix like cleaning the IAC or a vacuum leak then I'm taking it back and requesting that they pay for whatever repairs it needs.
 
How could an auto detailer be held responsible for the leaking O-rings in your valve covers?

more than likely your getting a missfire because the oil is grounding out the spark plug.

I know this issue stayed "hidden" until a particular day, but I really dont see how a "detail job" could cause oil to leak from your valve cover O-Ring.

Now if your plug wells were full of WATER, then the detailer might have some liability for "drowning your motor"..

but its OIL from inside your engine causing the problem, not the water the detail guy sprayed.
 
P.S. I got a gift certificate for a FREE OIL CHANGE at PepBoys.

But.. I threw it in the trash where it belongs.

now your seeing how much "FREE" actually costs in the real world.
 
I had a similiar problem on my 97. Water got into the sparkplug wells and the COP shorted out. I had a C.E. light for a misfire. It actually happened at Geno's meet back in 2005
 
lack of maintenance is not the detailers fault.

Case in point, My friend had a 15 year old cutlass never had the radiator flushed, Then he had it flushed at the repair shop, and of course it leaked like a sieve, And of course he blamed the poor mechanic!!
 
XLRVIII said:
How could an auto detailer be held responsible for the leaking O-rings in your valve covers?

more than likely your getting a missfire because the oil is grounding out the spark plug.

I know this issue stayed "hidden" until a particular day, but I really dont see how a "detail job" could cause oil to leak from your valve cover O-Ring.

Now if your plug wells were full of WATER, then the detailer might have some liability for "drowning your motor"..

but its OIL from inside your engine causing the problem, not the water the detail guy sprayed.
Click to expand...

I'm confused here. I said right in my post that the oil around the spark plugs was not the detailers fault. I'm just not sure if that's what's causing my problem.

brentalan said:
I had a similiar problem on my 97. Water got into the sparkplug wells and the COP shorted out. I had a C.E. light for a misfire. It actually happened at Geno's meet back in 2005
Click to expand...

Yeah my car isn't throwing any codes so that's why I'm kind of wondering if it even is a misfire. And the problem seems to be worse after the car heats up, but it's still intermittent. It does pretty good when it's cold right after you start it.

There's also a strong, almost sulfur type smell coming from the exhaust. No idea what that is.

MERIJONS97LSC said:
lack of maintenance is not the detailers fault.

Case in point, My friend had a 15 year old cutlass never had the radiator flushed, Then he had it flushed at the repair shop, and of course it leaked like a sieve, And of course he blamed the poor mechanic!!
Click to expand...

The car has never seen a lack in maintenance since I had it. The only reason I taped up the boots and put them back in like that was because no place in town had any boots in stock so I had to wait for the dealership to order them. Everything else has been maintained very well.

It just seems too coincidental that the very second that I started it up after it got detailed that it starts doing all this. Especially when it was running fine when I dropped it off.
 
Ya know... the 00-early 03 LS's have leaky valve cover gaskets... it's pretty much one of those things that you expect to do (if you're informed)... kind of like a 60k mile service. And to be honest, that is exactly what it sounds like to me.

The oil got there somehow... if your PCV is fine, then you just need to do a gasket replacement.
 
I still say vacuum leak.

Your getting a bad smell from the exhaust and its rough idle. I really think its vacuum still.
 
Could be a vacuum leak... use starter fluid....

But you still have an issue with oil in your plug wells... that will cause you problems at some point if not addressed!
 
unity said:
I still say vacuum leak.

Your getting a bad smell from the exhaust and its rough idle. I really think its vacuum still.
Click to expand...

I would probally agree. The high pressure could have knocked something loose or even caused a vacuum line to fail. Have you check all of your spark plug holes for water? That could explain the exhaust smell too.

I think that it is fair to say that maintenance issues didn't cause this to happen since everything was in working order before hand. I just don't buy that. Something had to of happened while at the detailer. It might be very simple. Just a matter of finding the issue.
 
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