Clean Your Plenum!

**choppstixxx** · 01-30-2019 05:18 AM

Was just cleaning a few harmless leaves in the engine bay and decided to yank off the plenum cover (the area between the engine bay and the firewall) to assess the drains. Well it was a hot mess, I had no choice but to spend 1.5 hrs Shop Vac'n the crap outta it and extracting all the gunk that the prev. owner let accumulate:

**djn876** · 01-30-2019 05:25 AM

That's on the major service interval to be done every two years, would probably do it annually if the car is parked outside and there are a lot of leaves or pine needles around.

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**TexasDfwS4** · 01-30-2019 05:37 AM

Wow that's surprising to see, glad you caught it before it messed up the drains.

**MK2SQ** · 01-30-2019 05:53 AM

Originally Posted by choppstixxx

Was just cleaning a few harmless leaves in the engine bay and decided to yank off the plenum cover (the area between the engine bay and the firewall) to assess the drains. Well it was a hot mess, I had no choice but to spend 1.5 hrs Shop Vac'n the crap outta it and extracting all the gunk that the prev. owner let accumulate:

nice catch, people wonder why squirrels live in there car...

**choppstixxx** · 01-30-2019 06:05 AM

Originally Posted by djn876

That's on the major service interval to be done every two years, would probably do it annually if the car is parked outside and there are a lot of leaves or pine needles around.
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Yea I'm guessing it was never done and my Q5 only has 38k miles. That or the previous owner parked under a tree every day, weird thing was the paint/hood/roof show no sign of any staining/dents etc. Def. glad I did it now, even tho it's currently 10* here in sunny WNY.

Originally Posted by TexasDfwS4

Wow that's surprising to see, glad you caught it before it messed up the drains.

Mos def., dodged a bullet down the road. Pays to be OCD I guess!

**PNW Avant** · 01-30-2019 08:21 PM

Just did the same on our new-to-us SQ5. It was under a pine tree for 18 months. I spent the better part of a week removing sap and cleaning the plenum. Compressed air and a shop vac work great. A good feeling to know its clean!

**WideSuppie** · 01-30-2019 08:57 PM

I wait until when it's dry for days and leaf blow it.

**SQive** · 01-30-2019 09:09 PM

Clean your plenum. . . . .clean it!

**MK2SQ** · 01-31-2019 08:17 AM

Originally Posted by WideSuppie

I wait until when it's dry for days and leaf blow it.

This could just spread it deeper inside. I would vacuum it with a shop vac but would not to try to blow it.

**PNW Avant** · 02-01-2019 09:15 AM

Originally Posted by SQ5/2018

This could just spread it deeper inside. I would vacuum it with a shop vac but would not to try to blow it.

I have found both to be necessary to get it fully clean. If you blow with 80-100psi you get dirt/leaves out of places a shop vac wont reach. Blow them into areas the shop vac can reach easily (the passenger side is way easier to vac than driver's side).

**Tinpusher** · 02-01-2019 09:26 AM

Originally Posted by SQive

Clean your plenum. . . . .clean it!

Where's the like button? <thumbs up>

**choppstixxx** · 02-01-2019 09:59 AM

Originally Posted by PNW Avant

I have found both to be necessary to get it fully clean. If you blow with 80-100psi you get dirt/leaves out of places a shop vac wont reach. Blow them into areas the shop vac can reach easily (the passenger side is way easier to vac than driver's side).

I def agree, as long as your careful using an air compressor helps. Once the weather breaks I am gonna get back in there with my air compressor to get the last bit of stuff out, but what I removed was probably 95% of it.