Why you should not take your car to a car wash?

I did a test today with a car from the local community car service I am a member of. Took the brand new Toyota Prius with 4000 km on it to the local touchless car wash. Car was not that dirty, just a bit of road dust and a film of bonded dirt but no heavy contaminants.

Car wash cost was 8.39$ with taxes. Once out I took my bottle of Meguiar's Spray Wax and a microfiber towel and did the Hood. You should have seen the amount of dirt on my microfiber towel just from doing the tiny Hood of the Prius.

So ya, will have to go with Junkman on this one, they don't really clean the car in touchless car washes, I will make sure to make a video next time for my website. Don't know why I did not think of it today before going.
 
Calendyr said:
I did a test today with a car from the local community car service I am a member of. Took the brand new Toyota Prius with 4000 km on it to the local touchless car wash. Car was not that dirty, just a bit of road dust and a film of bonded dirt but no heavy contaminants.

Car wash cost was 8.39$ with taxes. Once out I took my bottle of Meguiar's Spray Wax and a microfiber towel and did the Hood. You should have seen the amount of dirt on my microfiber towel just from doing the tiny Hood of the Prius.

So ya, will have to go with Junkman on this one, they don't really clean the car in touchless car washes, I will make sure to make a video next time for my website. Don't know why I did not think of it today before going.
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Bingo. You nailed it and proved it to yourself. At this point, no one can throw fancy terms and phrases at you because who are you going to believe, them or your lying eyes? lol!

Ain't nothing like seeing it for yourself and being able to say that you know the truth FIRST HAND. :xyxthumbs:
 
I don't want to see it for myself. I'll just follow your advice and save me the $10 lol :)
 
hernandez.art13 said:
I know why not to take them, but I am looking to explain to a Non Detailer (who doesn't understand why)

So I can further explain to them of why it's a bad idea.
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I just happen to have an article on this topic with some very good pictures that show the kind of damage that is done to a person's car when they run their car through a tunnel car wash that uses brushes.


Tunnel Car Wash Brush Scratches


We used a rental car yesterday for some product testing and while the car was here and before we did any testing I took a few pictures of the horrendous scratches throughout the entire finish caused by a brush type automatic car wash.


Look around the reflected overhead light in the center of the car hood, you can see fine line scratches running in the direction of front to back, these are the type of scratches you'll commonly see in the paint of rental cars that are repeatedly run through brush style tunnel car washes.

CarWashScratches01.jpg




Here's some close up shots... keep in mind even the sides of the car had these same scratches evenly inflicted throughout all the panels.

CarWashScratches02.jpg




Here's a cropped out section from the above picture in full size...
CarWashScratches02c.jpg



And here's a "negative" of the above to show the pattern of the scratches from a different point of view...
CarWashScratches02cN.jpg



CarWashScratches03.jpg



Here's a cropped out section from the above picture in full size...
CarWashScratches03c.jpg




And here's a "negative" of the above to show the pattern of the scratches from a different point of view...
CarWashScratches03cN.jpg



The best way to wash your car is to take ownership of the car wash process and that way you control the the process from start to beginning.


Now if you purchased a used car, or someone has run your car through a brush style tunnel wash and you see these types of scratches in the paint, no worries, we can help you remove the scratches and restore a show room new finish either by hand or machine.

It's faster and more efficient to remove swirls and scratches by machine but Autogeek.net carries all the products you'll need and through the support of the AutogeekOnline.net forum community, we will see you through to success in your garage.



Save the above pictures to your phone or tablet or print them out like I demonstrated here, which is also the kind of dirt staining that washing a car won't remove.


Here's why you need to polish paint...



Dirty_Old_Ford_006.jpg




Heck you could even print it out on a color printer and put it in a clear, plastic sleeve like this...


Picture_in_Clear_Plastic_Sleeve.jpg




:D
 
All I can say after seeing the Junkman video is WOW and more WOW.

Just yesterday I ran through the touchless car wash not once but twice. That was after doing a manual high pressure wash with the spray gun at the car wash. So let me get this straight, the only way to really wash the car is the 2BM? It would sometimes take me 40 minutes to an hour at the touchless (after drying and vacuuming). Now it's going to take longer. :wow:
 
Fact...touchless car washes do not clean as good as hand washing...I mean, come on man....that's a given.

HOWEVER

In winter getting 95% of the stuff off the car is better than freezing your butt off and doing a half-***ed job in the cold where you are in a hurry and prone to make a mistake. All touchless car washes are not made the same. The one I use works very well for occasional winter use.

Fact...touchless car washes DO NOT remove coatings or even the higher end sealants. I had DG 105 on my car last winter and it protected the paint just fine until April when I abraded it off. The touchless car wash had no negative effect on it. DG says their 105 product will not be removed by touchless car washes, and I can tell you, they are not pulling some marketing game...it works. You wax guys...well, I'm not even going to go there, as my day so far is a very good one.

Fact...touchless car washes DO NOT scratch your car...but improper hand washing (and drying) is the #1 reason we have to correct paint in the first place.

Bottom line...nothing replaces hand washing, but if you have a great foundation on your car such as a really good coating or even a long lasting time proven sealant, a touchless car wash can't hurt it, and when your car is covered in saltly road spray and its 30 degrees out...and you aren't looking to take it to a car show the next day, a touchless car wash has a function, albeit not perfect.
 
runrun411 said:
All I can say after seeing the Junkman video is WOW and more WOW.

Just yesterday I ran through the touchless car wash not once but twice. That was after doing a manual high pressure wash with the spray gun at the car wash. So let me get this straight, the only way to really wash the car is the 2BM? It would sometimes take me 40 minutes to an hour at the touchless (after drying and vacuuming). Now it's going to take longer. :wow:
Click to expand...

It takes me a minimum of 2 hours to do a 'quickie' 2-bucket wash from start to finish. I've missed out on some tail because my car was dirty but I refuse to be seen in public with that much dirt on my car. :D
 
The touch-free wash serves the duty of removing a large chunk of the grit and grime in the winter for me, the rest will get removed by doing a rinseless wash and inparticular I'll be using the Garry Dean method for the 1st time this winter, just wanna try it now that I've got an underground parking spot. The touch-free wash usually has an underbody wash so that helps out as well getting all that crap off of the car during the winter salt attack!

Sent from my SPH-M930 using AG Online
 
silverfox said:
In winter getting 95% of the stuff off the car is better than freezing your butt off and doing a half-***ed job in the cold where you are in a hurry and prone to make a mistake. All touchless car washes are not made the same. The one I use works very well for occasional winter use.


Bottom line...nothing replaces hand washing, but if you have a great foundation on your car such as a really good coating or even a long lasting time proven sealant, a touchless car wash can't hurt it, and when your car is covered in saltly road spray and its 30 degrees out...and you aren't looking to take it to a car show the next day, a touchless car wash has a function, albeit not perfect.
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This is my philosophy. I even found one that does and undercarriage spray as you drive in.

In the winter I'm playing defense and only trying to keep the corrosive stuff at a minimum. The weather just isn't condusive to washing at home. I know it doesn't get the car totally clean and I don't expect it to.

Once the temps get into the 50's the mit, buckets, and hose come back out.
 
Junkman2008 said:
It takes me a minimum of 2 hours to do a 'quickie' 2-bucket wash from start to finish. I've missed out on some tail because my car was dirty but I refuse to be seen in public with that much dirt on my car. :D
Click to expand...

Or maybe you got more because you spent that extra time keeping a clean car.

:dblthumb2:

BTW Junkman, what do you think of rinseless and waterless washes?
 
I wash my car at home until I can't in the winter (part of the hose line runs underground and freezes when the ground does).

At this point I go to a local car wash and just spray the car off once a week from the salt and brine. PA seems to LOVE that crap and just saturates our roads with it all winter :mad:

I dont' think I've ever taken a car thru those brush washes... they scare me :eek::laughing:
 
Here in Los Angeles, IMO winter season is the best time to wash your car.

Summer here though you have to wake up at 7am and by 10-11AM the sun is out and you'll be dripping sweat. (I'm sure situations vary)

People here, take there cars Friday afternoon or Saturday morning to the quick hand car washes. So there cars could be cleaned for the weekend.

I was trying to find something that I could use to explain it to them. Of, why they should not be taken there car to the 5 minute express hand car wash.

Mike's article makes a nice explanation. But a youtube video that I could post on my FB page would be a nice addition to why one should avoid, the swirl automatic car washes.


Side note: I am glad it doesn't snow here, it rains rarely as well. So winter is my favorite season. :)

Winter seasons for you guy, the stories make a lot of sense btw. Here in Los Angeles you could pretty much your car year round.
 
I use touchless washes because I live in an apartment and have no means to wash my car, now my vette is in garage most of the time so it gets dusty and that is all I use the washes for.
 
CamaroSS27 said:
I use touchless washes because I live in an apartment and have no means to wash my car, now my vette is in garage most of the time so it gets dusty and that is all I use the washes for.
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Have you thought about using a rinseless wash?
 
runrun411 said:
Or maybe you got more because you spent that extra time keeping a clean car.

:dblthumb2:

BTW Junkman, what do you think of rinseless and waterless washes?
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I look at rinseless washing like this. I could easily stand in front of my sink, lather up a rag and give myself a bath. I would probably be pretty darn clean in the end, provided I was not that dirty to start with and no one would know different.

Or, I could just take a shower.

My singing sounds MUCH better in the shower. :D
 
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