Car much worse off after car wash

[metabo]

As we have had a snowstorm recently here in Boston, I went to wash my car, just a self-serve bay. In our local wash you get 4 minutes for 3 dollars, so I just spent most of the time spraying the undercarriage nice and good, and a quick wash of the body. The whole time, the setting was on final rinse ("spot free rinse"). There was a good long line at the car wash, people also wanting to wash the salt and muck off in the relatively warm weather.

After I drive home and let the car dry, I notice, everywhere I sprayed, is absoluted CAKED white ... it was much much worse than before the wash. Where the individual drops dried, it is white, and even jagged-looking salt(?) crystals can be seen.

Has anyone have this happen after a car wash? Do you think they just reused the water? If so, then I just spent 3 dollars to spray my undercarriage with salt water

[ncsu]

It is very difficult to get the salt off a car with just water pressure. You really need to wash it off with a wash mit and soap. Do NOT use the brush at those car washes unless you want to swirl the hell out of your paint.

I have done this a few times when I lived on the east coast - I was always upset about the results.

Before next winter make sure you get a couple of good coats of wax on the car prior to the snow/salt season. This will help you remove the salt more easily.

[insomnia816]

The truth behind those self-pay/machine-wash stations really is, making the paint looks more swirly than before. That's why I always wash with my own hand and with car wash mit. It is always important to have the car pre-soaked first with the tar-bug removal sprays to break down the stains. I would never use a cleaning cloth to scratch down the black stains as it will create more swirls. For the road salt I would prefer using warm household water to wash down. For most type you can use a gentle shower-type of hose head to wash it off from roof to bottom. Make sure all the soaps are showered off with a sponge. I would pay special attention to the weatherstrips under the doors because alot of mucks and rocks get traps easily. After finish wash use a micro-fibre dry cloth to wipe out the remaining water drops to ensure no water marks were left behind. I ususally wash the car twice a month to makes sure the paint stays nicely aways from corrosive stains such as bird-drops and road salts (although it hasn't snow much in my city this winter yet) But the longer the stains stayed on the car the harder to remove it off. Also, I don't like to wax my car because of the amount of work to remove and re-apply. Currently my car right now looks perfectly new even after six months. Hope this would help you next time when washing your car.
Modified by insomnia816 at 12:50 AM 1/5/2010

[insomnia816]

The truth behind those self-pay/mechine-wash stations really is making the paint looks more swirls than before. That's why I always wash with my own hand and car wash mit. It is always important to have the car pre-soaked first with the tar-bug removal sprays to break down the stains. I would never use a cleaning cloth to scratch down the black stains as it will create more swirls. For the salt I would prefer using warm house-hold water to wash down. For most type use a gentle shower-type of hose head to wash it off from roof to bottom. Make sure all the soaps are showered off with a sponge. I would pay special attention to the weatherstrips under the doors cause alot of dirts and rocks get traps easily. After finish wash use a micro-fibre dry cloth to wipe out the remaining water drops to ensure no water marks were left behind. I ususally wash the car twice a month to makes sure the paint stays nicely aways from corrosive covers such as bird-drops and road salts (although it haven't snow much in my city this winter yet) But the longer the stains stayed on the car the harder to remove it off. Also, I don't like to wax my car because of the amount of work to remove and re-apply. Currently my car right now looks exactly new after 6 months. Hope this would help you out.

[Pescakl1]

The whole time, the setting was on final rinse ("spot free rinse").

I think this is your mistake: To remove salt from a car, you need high pressure water. Final rinse (I understand normal pressure, right?) is not enough to remove the stain.

When I am in a hurry and I just do it fast, you can see after where I put the high pressure nozzle and where I forget to go. And yes, it is uglier that not washing it as you can clearly see the differences.

So now, when I have no time to wash my car myself (as the others explained) I bring it to a no touch washing machine at a gas station close to my home (It is a shell station if that helps (ultramar, not that good)): It uses high pressure, wash the underbody when you enter the bay and put some wax at the end.

[kerrton]

Good advice Pescakl, I agree.

Also, my personal opinion considering we all live in the real world and don't have tons of time to worry about detailing our cars, is that the brushes at the car washes, if in good condition and clean, are safe to use. The manufacturers of these brushes actually gaurantee them to be safe for clear coats, the danger occurs when they get dirty. However this can happen just as easily with a hand mit, one small rock or sand imbedded in the mitt will wreak havoc on your paint, and where I wash you don't have access to a bucket of water to rinse as you wash, which is improper use of the mitt. I think I'm in the minority here, but I feel strongly after a decade of using these brushes that they're safe provide you use them correctly. I've used the mitt a lot and have found that sand gets in there and sticks very easily, whereas the brush has a tendancy to release these abrasives which are so dangerous to the paint job.

So my advice is to turn the wand to soap, as others have stated using the rinse setting will do nothing. The salty residue you noticed when you came home wasn't from the rinse spray but from improper washing technique. I always spray the brush first to eliminate any sand, dirt etc. Then spray the vehicle to eliminate the large particles. Then turn on the soap to the scrubbing brush, carefully brush the whole car, then rinse everything really well to eliminate all of the residue. Then find a place where you can at least dry out the door jams, and preferably the paint too before it freezes in winter.

Also, I hate to tell you this but you're going to need more than 3 bucks for a good wash!! I'm not surprised you had all of the white residue after only spraying for 4 minutes. Plan to spend at least 5 to 8 bucks, then you can do a good job. If you just want to do a rushed cheap job it's not worth it, as you already found out.

This is just my opinion from living in the real world and taking care of many cars through winter over the years. A professional detailer or a show car guy would disagree no doubt, but keeping the car professionally detailed in winter is not an option for me. If I try to pull out my hand mitt in the wash bay people get angry in a hurry, and there's no bucket available to rinse the mitt which IMO makes it more dangerous than the brush. My car looks great and every spring a good wax job buffs out fine scratches and swirl marks from winter, leaving my car looking great.

[metabo]

Thanks everyone for the helpful comments and advice.

I agree with the points mentioned... yes, it looks like 3 bucks worth of sprayed water definitely won't cut it....

But I could swear, the saltiness was MUCH MUCH WORSE than prior to the wash... I took a good look at and under the car prior to wash. Was some salt but not too bad. Afterwards, the wheel well and suspension springs were COATED (like a candy shell) with salt, and every drop that dried on the windows were white w/crystals. Maybe I redistributed the salt?I was worried that the reclaim system filter broke down and I was washing my car with leftover crud from the previous customers of the day. Anyways, I went to another wash, spent $9, using the soap, did high pressure wash instead of the spot free, now it's all good...

Lesson learned! From now on, no cheaping out on my Rogue..

[RogueGuy45]

I guess we are spoiled around here but we have really good touchless car washes in our gas stations here. I usually run my car through the Holiday wash about once a month or so in the winter and try to get it into the full service car wash here a couple of times a winter. They vacuum it out and clean the windows ect.

I'm not that fussy, I get them washed when I can weather permitting but those old fashioned washes you are talking about? They never worked that well for me unless I brought a bucket of soap water and a sponge with and then people waiting get impatient.

[ncsu]

I would still advise against useing those nasty brushes at the car wash. They may release most of the crap, but they swirl the heck out of the paint. If you want to keep the car for a long time, don't use them and get several coats of good wax or sealant on it before the winter and all during the year. I do not live where there is a lot of snow and the idoits here refuse to plow or salt when it does.

A product you may want to try is Liquid Glass - I have been using it for about 2 years and the results are amazing. It lasts a long time and can even be used on glass. I do not work for the company that makes or distributes LG. This is not a compensated recomendation.

[Elton Noway]

Also, my personal opinion considering we all live in the real world and don't have tons of time to worry about detailing our cars, is that the brushes at the car washes, if in good condition and clean, are safe to use. The manufacturers of these brushes actually gaurantee them to be safe for clear coats, the danger occurs when they get dirty...

True enough... but... I have some additional "insider" information some members may want to consider before letting car wash brushes near their cars.

First... it depends on the car wash company itself. The scratch free brushes are more expensive than others. Car wash owners have choices when it comes to heir supplies and how much they want to spend. Like most products, material choices effect the price. Brushes bristles can be made of boars hair, foam, and plastic to name a few. The scratch free brushes are usually advertised as being made of extra-fine polystyrene with flagged tips. Plastic bristles "will" scratch" a clear coat every time. It pays to know if the owner of the car wash runs a quality operation... or is just out to make money. That said, most car washes have a 1-800 number posted that you can call to report problems, request refunds etc. Call the number and ask if they can tell you about the brushes... ( i.e. are they scratch free etc). If they don't know or avoid the question... find another car wash. Some car washes will actually advertise the fact they use quality brushes on their website or billboards (e.g. "All Speedy Car Wash locations feature soft foam rubber brushes do not scratch or cause damages while giving your vehicle the best wash possible.)

Second... it also depends on which brushes we are talking about... the hand held foaming brush or the motorized brushes in the drive thru car wash. For the most part the hand held foaming brushes are safe to use "IF" you have inspected them first and determined the bristles are of the scratch free variety and you give the brush it a good cleaning before using it, by spraying it down with the high pressure soap wand to blast out any dirt and/or debris left in it by the last customer who used the brush to remove the dirt and mud from his off road 4-Wheeler... or clean the Barbecue grill in the back of his pickup. I generally lay the brush on the ground, bristles up, and with one foot on the handle to keep it from moving, blast the heck out of it with the high pressure soap before I let it any where near my car.

However, if we are talking about the drive thru car washes with revolving brushes... I wouldn't let them within 10 feet of my Rogue... unless... I saw the 2 or 3 cars in line ahead of me and verified they hand minimal surface grime. Why? ... Well, between my bother and brother-in-law they own 16 self serve car washes. Each car wash has at least one "touchless" drive thru bay (i.e. a series of high pressure wands that revolve around your stationary vehicle, as well as spray the wheels and undercarriage). Before they converted to the "touchless" bays, they had the top dollar mega expensive swirling brushes that were as soft as rabbit fur and guaranteed not to scratch. The brushes were cost a couple grand each due to their size and the properties of the scratch free material. However after numerous lawsuits by unhappy customers with scratched or swirled clear coats... they converted all their car washes over to touchless. During the lawsuits the manufacturer stood behind their brushes as scratch free. The problem was the investigation of the scratched cars showed it wasn't the brushes... but dirt trapped in the brushes from the car that went thru ahead of the scratched cars. My brother added longer rinse times to the brushes between car washes in an effort to clear out any dirt but the problem still occurred. If a car was super dirty (i.e. mud covered)... nothing short of a concentrated effort of individually washing and rinsing each brush could guarantee they were free of dirt. As a result... they cut their losses... pulled all the brushes and converted all brush bays over to touchless.

NET: If you're going to drive thru a swirling brush car wash... and you didn't see the vehicle that went thru just before you... then cross your fingers and pray it wasn't Bubba in his pickup after a hard weekend of 4 wheeling.



Modified by Elton Noway at 9:13 AM 1/6/2010
Modified by Elton Noway at 9:14 AM 1/6/2010

[crayb]

This is usually who I go in behind...

The wench wiring through the grill is a nice touch.

Ray