There have been reports that some automotive detailing clay has crumbled. This crumbling has been exuberated with the use of detergents, or car wash shampoo/soap. I personally never experienced crumbling, probably because the clay I use was manufactured by John Kucala before the final judgement.
The only lube I have ever used is car wash soap, and Dawn a few times, and have never had clay deteriorate. I still have some of the good yellow clay that was made by Kucala that is no longer available in the states due to the bogus patent by Autowax.
Autowax owns the patent on any product called detailing clay, used for cleaning automotive paint finishes etc. This means that only Autowax, by law, is allowed to manufacture detailing clay in the United States. It also means that all clay manufactured in the US, comes from the same factory, although some clay may come from Japan under the same patent owned by Autowax.
Autowax manufactures clay for giants in the car care industry, such as Meguiars, Mothers, Pinnacle, Sonus ect. Autowax may manufacture detailing clay to it's customers specifications, therefore, even though it comes from the same factory, it is not necessarily the same.
Formulations can vary significantly, mainly density or plasticity, abrasive particulate size, abrasive used (i.e. silica sand, calcium carbonate, alumina, ceramics, or silicon carbide) abrasive density ratio, (abrasive content to clay) color (to identify differing abrasive strengths).
A lot of people have claimed that the elastic clay (Erazer clay/Kucala clay/KEL/Yellow clay) is far superior to clay that is manufactured from Autowax, and I would definately agree.
:buffing: