Car wash? - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

Sammy · 03-04-2007, 02:17 PM

I know, I know, I should always hand wash my car but unfortunately my birthday brought a big surprise (yes, it happened on my birthday) in that my daily driver was broken into and the stereo stolen (literally they shattered the driver window to get in). I expect the vehicle to be in the shop for a couple days and I'm going to be looking to Nicole to drive for a few days. I was hoping to wait for warmer weather and the salt rinsed off the roads, but I don't see a better option (rental car seems a bit dumb since the snow is gone). For you guys that drive year round in the Chicago area what do you do to keep your car clean? It's one thing to hand wash the exterior with the Optimum No Rinse but I'm hoping to use an automatic car wash to clean the underside? Where do you guys go? What type of car wash should I be looking for? Or should I just go to one of those quarter high pressure places to clean the underside and then hand wash the exterior?

I may be able to find a better alternative, but I'm also interested in a good way to clean the undercarriage regardless.

03-04-2007, 02:27 PM

Sammy, ride your bike, man!

I wonder if Delta Sonic Car Wash would just run the car through, and turn everything off, until the end where the undercarriage washers are?

Sammy · 03-04-2007, 02:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bmussatti

Sammy, ride your bike, man!

I wonder if Delta Sonic Car Wash would just run the car through, and turn everything off, until the end where the undercarriage washers are?

Have you ever seen a fat guy in spandex riding a bike? It's not a pretty sight...

03-04-2007, 08:48 PM

I go to the quarter operated car washes. I say put in a buck 50 and rinse it well, then spot free it.

C5150 · 03-04-2007, 09:40 PM

I've read everywhere (including the owners manual) to never use a car wash. And so I don't. But I am still confused as to why. I know it has to do with the soft top - but can someone please give the run down as to what exactly is so detrimental?

Much thanks - C

bosxter7 · 03-04-2007, 10:10 PM

I took my car through the new car wash we got at work it was ok i guess lol well beside the fact thatwater came in each side of the car only where the windows meet the soft top other than that perfect I did the under car wash and every thing. now when I go through i just hold a small towel againt the top of the window and my gf does the same on her side and its perfect just a weak seal of the window no complaints yet

besides my spelling

bosxter7 · 03-04-2007, 10:13 PM

ohh and also soem carwashes like the one i go to has the undercar wash first then a 10 second delay befor the rest of the carwash and if you do not pull up far enuff it wont wash the rest of the car so you can just do the under car was and keep drivign right through when its done then get out walk in to the gas station complain about how the car wash stoped get a rewash go home get your other car and do the full wash its mandatory for us to give rewashed if it doesnt work properly

Perfectlap · 03-05-2007, 06:17 AM

don't put your Boxster through a car wash unless you have hard top.
Even then I wouldn't do it more than once in a blue moon when its too cold
to do it yourself outside.
You don't want any soap or detergent on your canvas top. If you have done it get out the hose and rinse the top plenty to get out all the soap. I would suggest getting an oxo feathertip brush and brushing out the soap. You only want to use Renovo or Raggtopp canvas cleaner on your top.

on the RARE ocassion I visit a hand car wash, I tell not to soap up the top and I've gone so far as to give them a brand new chenille wash mits to use. I also don't let them dry the car. You're better off pulling over to the side and drying it yourself with a clean waffle weave. The use of dirty wash mitts and dirty drying towels are pretty much standard at every tunnell or hand car wash I have ever visited. Many cars are not clean after one pass through the car wash and are then dried which soils the drying towels which are then used on your car. Not to mention they use the cheapes quality (most likely to scratch) towels and mitts.

djomlas · 03-05-2007, 07:03 AM

funny thing you talk about the dirty materials they use at carwashes.
my buddys m3 was sitting in his lot for a few months now couse he lost his licence for some time, so we got the car running again and decided totake it for a carwash finally by his house.
WOW just WOW those are horrible.
car goes trough full of soap and gets hosed off, then 5 guys (one of them actually dropped his already dirty towel on the ground once) and whipe it off, sideways, in circular motion, then and one guy was doing the right side of the car from bottom up with a dirty towel, so yea...
i guess that one time was enough that i will never put my car trough one of those ever again, all those scratches.
so either you drive a dirty unscratched car for another day or so untill it gets warmer, or drive a cleaned up but scratched up car from that day on and spend more money on either a detail or detailing supplies if you do it yourself.

sorry for long post, but that was just outrageous

Sammy · 03-05-2007, 07:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Perfectlap

don't put your Boxster through a car wash unless you have hard top.
Even then I wouldn't do it more than once in a blue moon when its too cold
to do it yourself outside.
You don't want any soap or detergent on your canvas top. If you have done it get out the hose and rinse the top plenty to get out all the soap. I would suggest getting an oxo feathertip brush and brushing out the soap. You only want to use Renovo or Raggtopp canvas cleaner on your top.

on the RARE ocassion I visit a hand car wash, I tell not to soap up the top and I've gone so far as to give them a brand new chenille wash mits to use. I also don't let them dry the car. You're better off pulling over to the side and drying it yourself with a clean waffle weave. The use of dirty wash mitts and dirty drying towels are pretty much standard at every tunnell or hand car wash I have ever visited. Many cars are not clean after one pass through the car wash and are then dried which soils the drying towels which are then used on your car. Not to mention they use the cheapes quality (most likely to scratch) towels and mitts.

Would you recommend using a high pressure wash for the undercarriage instead of going through a full wash?

If I do go through a full wash I won't be going anywhere that will use towels or mitts. I was thinking of the brushless wash with the hair dryers.

Perfectlap · 03-05-2007, 08:30 AM

I used to live next door to this lot that housed one failed eatery, lounge, and catering hall after another, they all closed. One guy was smart enough to tear down the building and build this huge automatic drive through tunnel car wash
with a Mobil 1 oil change garage and full detailing shop.
It was all glass and you see the cars driving through it. He had a big section inside where he sold detailing stuff hinges.
The place runs 24 hours a day and you could get a half price car wash after midnite. I think I calculated that he was making $300 per hour or at least $5,000 a day, a million dollar a year car wash??!! (wonder what the water bill was like). It was located just off a big highway so he had a never ending line of cars going through it.
I was truly intrigued by this whole operation and I took my old black car there, and in doing so it ruined the paint. But because of this stupidity I was forced to learn about the PC and swirl removal. All that damage was erased in a few hours.
Something the autobody shops forgot to mention when they said I would need a full repaint!

As for your undercarriage, Unless you have a concours car or live an area where they are doing allot of road work and have tar issues I wouldn't worry about cleaning under there. When the weather breaks just get some of those Meguiar's Gold Class brushes with the long handles and a bucket of soapy water, Simple Green and go to town. For the areas close the outside of the car like wheel wells, under the bumpers and rockers you can use the same OXO type feather brush with a No-Rinse solution. It's only going to get dirty again...

C5150 · 03-05-2007, 11:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Perfectlap

don't put your Boxster through a car wash unless you have hard top.
Even then I wouldn't do it more than once in a blue moon when its too cold
to do it yourself outside.
You don't want any soap or detergent on your canvas top. If you have done it get out the hose and rinse the top plenty to get out all the soap. I would suggest getting an oxo feathertip brush and brushing out the soap. You only want to use Renovo or Raggtopp canvas cleaner on your top.

As I've done - but still don't understand the "why?" What damage does this do to the top?

Perfectlap · 03-05-2007, 12:19 PM

the soap that is used to wash the paint is not recomended to wash the soft top. Soap detergent actually attracts dust, and dust is the big culprit. It breaks down the threading and with the stretching and pulling over the bows it leads to tears and wear marks. You want to keep the canvas as dust free as possible year round. A bi-weekly rinsing with a strong stream of water is great.

Also, high volume car washes don't really make a practice of changing/cleaning their equipment/towels/mitts often enough. I had a friend who ran a new dark blue car through an tunell car wash only a couple of times and I could alreay see visible swirling and micro marring. Believe it or not it was a BMW M5! It's shocking what people subject pricey car to.

Those automatic tracks are also a concern, I bent a pricey BBS wheel driving onto one of those things at a very slow speed. Sometimes if you hit something at the wrong angle with enough force its just enough to bend cast alloy.

Then you have the Milenium Falcon jet dryer which has too much suction for some cars. It actually tore the aging stiching around my old convertible's rear window.

Automatic car washes are just a bad scene....