Will a Touchless Car wash damage my hood deflector/mud flaps?

[bull77]

Long time reader - first time poster I want to wash my '06 Vibe during the Winter but I'm concerned that my deflector will fly off.Any thoughts?I'll post a pic of my Vibe later this week

[ragingfish]

If it's installed properly, you'll be fine.

[redlava]

I wouldn't use the ones that have the mats that hang from the ceiling, but I use the brushless ones all of the time with no problems at all.

[ragingfish]

Quote, originally posted by redlava »I wouldn't use the ones that have the mats that hang from the ceiling, but I use the brushless ones all of the time with no problems at all.Eh, I still think you'd be ok with those. They don't have as much punch to them as people seem to think they do.

[scherry2]

I have a deflector on mine and have been through a car wash with the mats from the ceiling with no problems.

[bull77]

Cool - the dealer installed my deflector - here's a pic I promised

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[ColonelPanic]

Quote, originally posted by ragingfish »Eh, I still think you'd be ok with those. They don't have as much punch to them as people seem to think they do.Wha? Car washes that touch the body? Eek! I keep having flashbacks about the second car I owned, the previous owner apparently enjoyed running it through car washes with the brushes or something. Scratches all over! Thank god it was white and therefore they didn't show THAT much. It's always funny the number of people around here who use those, many of our car washes have one touch free automatic bay and another for the "foam brite" or whatever they call it. 9 times out of 10, I'll pull right up to the touchless and get right in, yet the line of people waiting to get their paint ruined in the automatic that's going to rub all over their car stretches out to the street. What the? One of the guys over on this Hyundai board I hang out at had a nightmare of a wash at a non-touchless wash. He started hearing something metal whack the side of his Sonata all the way down from front to back. It turns out the last car lost an ANTENNA and it was stuck in the brushes. Fortunately, they paint their cars at the factory so it didn't do much damage if any. I wouldn't be worried about the hood deflector, it'll be fine with a touchless wash. I don't recommend one that has the brushes, that will scratch the hell out of that plastic. The splash guards will likely be as well, only way I can think of that they won't be is if you go in at the wrong angle and they hit the track or something. But I never had that problem with mine and many a times I went in crooked. The only thing I was ever worried about was the antenna, so I removed it each time.

[keithvibe]

I have used both. I tended to find the touchless car washes that have high pressure sprayers that swirl around the car spraying water and soap just leave nice clean swirl marks, they really never got the car clean and the filters that they use to clean the water aren't given the attention needed to insure the fine dirt gets sprayed back on to your car at a hi pressure acting like a nice sand blaster.I use a soft touch car was called rudy's. All of their brushes are made of very soft cloth. I have been taking all of my cars past and present threw their car washes and have never ever had a problem with scratching. I did have an issue with some ad on components such as vent-visors and vanity front plates bending or coming off the car, and that was only because of my own fault in mounting the products. Their car washes are mantained much better, changing the filters for the recycled water when needed and if for some reason the car doesn't come out clean the first time all I have had to do is go over to the manager and point out the issues and I have be given a second pass threw the car wash for free with up-grades.