Washing your car in the Winter

[Whelan]

Due to the weather being so inclement, washing your car becomes a pain, but a HUGE necessity in keeping it not only clean, but also protected. All the snow, ice, sand, salt and other items can just be torturous to your paint and body. So I put together a few things that should help you this winter.Rule 1, never, ever use a brush wash drive thruDon't do it, resist the urge to get clean for $5 by pulling in and pulling out. Your doing more harm than good. Just think of all the other muddy, sandy cars that pulled through those brushes and pads being slapped and dragged across your car. Your essentially bathing in their leftovers. It's probably the easiest way to ruin your finish and leave you with lots of work to do in the spring. So just stay away from these places.Hands Free is your friendThere are several styles of this kind of car wash. One is the separate bays where you pull in, use their power washer and soap to clean your baby off. Be sure when you are washing to bring lots of quarters as a 3:00 round is not enough. Take that sprayer and be sure to start from the bottom up, yes the bottom up. If you start spraying from the top down all that runoff coming down the sides of your vehicle will gunk up with the dried stuff lower down and leave all kinds of fun marks and swirls. If you start from the bottom and go across then up in a donkey kong ladder kind of fashion, you will remove more dirt and sand and stuff than from the top down. Also be very sure to get down and spray underneath your car really really good. Don't hesitate when steam pours from the hot exhaust, spraying underneath will clean off any salt or sand gunked up, lessening the corrosion. Don't forget to hit the wheels and brakes getting all that nastiness out of there as well.Time for another rule. Do Not use their brushes! I don't care what their little sign says about your own buckets and sponges. I bring my own mitt. Once the car is rinsed, you can soap it up with the gun and soap the mitt quick, then go over the car periodically resoaping spots to keep it wet. Once the car is covered and sudsy, go ahead and add some more quarters cause you wanna make sure when removing the soap that you get it all out, leaving nothing. Be sure to spray your panel gaps and other areas to ensure all the soapy water is out. Frozen soap is not fun to remove.Once the car is all rinsed off, you can go about drying. In the winter I tend to use the water blade for removal as the temperatures are so cold that a towel or chamois does not absorb as well. Remove most of the water with the blade and then towel off the rest.Quote, originally posted by ColonelPanic »Thought I'd add something... when drying... I make it a point to never forget to fully dry off the inside of the doors, the door sills/jambs and all of the weatherstripping associated with them. Keeps all the doors from freezing up! I always do that anyway, but make it a point to pay extra attention in the winter.The other Hands FreeI have had good experience with this one. A Mobil station near my house has a touchless carwash. You basically pull in, doors close and you park. A big L-shaped arm goes around your car rinsing, and soaps with a special leave on chemical. Then it coats it again, then it sprays clean and you drive through the other door slowly as the airblasts your car dry. I typically pull around and dry off what it missed but for the $7 it costs for a good wash, it is well worth it and you stay much dryer and warmer in the process.I would typically reserve this for when your car is lightly covered in crap. If it is pretty bad looking and your car is two different colors of brown and white, then I would wait for a sunny weekend day and hit the DIY wash mentioned above. The Best WayWhich I'm sorry to say I don't have, is a garage made for this at your house. You spray off the car outside getting the nasty off, then drive it in, and continue with the cleaning. An indoor hose with warm water, a light spray, and a drain system to allow your floow to dry quickly. This is ideal since you can work at your own pace, and do a really proper regular wash as if it were summer. However most of us do not have this setup as most environmental laws nowadays require special drains and pumps for the runoff. No longer can you connect to the city sewer. If I had cash, this would be me, but I guess I have to resort to the other methods above until I get rich.I hope you got some insight on this, it is pretty standard but there are a few things I hope you take into account, namely not using the car wash brushes, and not going to those $5 drive throughs. Enjoy! and have a safe winter!

[ajflan]

Good tips. My car is filthy and needs to be washed asap!

[kunkstyle]

Some good tips there. Over winter I usually use the brushless drive-thru washes. Although I find huge discrepancies between them. Same company - one will complete each cycle twice around the car, the one 6 blocks over only does one go around through each cycle, and charges the same amount. Quote, originally posted by Whelan »Time for another rule. Do Not use their brushes!I usually use my own sponge, but I've found in a pinch spend an extra buck and use the pressure washer on their brush to get the gunk out (although there can still be some hiding in the bristles.)

[Whelan]

In a pinch I would opt to not use their brush at all and just soap and rinse really good. Spraying into the brush will help, but the bristles themselves are tired, used and not very helpful in cleaning as much as spreading the dirt.

[ColonelPanic]

Thought I'd add something... when drying... I make it a point to never forget to fully dry off the inside of the doors, the door sills/jambs and all of the weatherstripping associated with them. Keeps all the doors from freezing up! I always do that anyway, but make it a point to pay extra attention in the winter.Just got back from washing mine - sprayed it off in the bay first. I did use their brush - on the tires and wheels. (case in point why you should never use those things on the paint because some idiot like me was probably there before you! ) After that, I drove through the automatic with blow dryer, then gave it a good drying off by hand at the end. 36 degrees out so it wasn't too bad.

[Whelan]

Added to the main post above, thanks for that input. I always do mine, it is crucial so you don't have frozen doors.

[Toasted7]

Thanks for all the tips... those are great! I need to wash mine soon, most of the snow is gone from around here... for now.

[p8md]

Another tip... After I initially "clean" the brush I will set the car wash control to Soap. This dispenses a nice foamy soap from the brush. I will go around the car and put soap on the car so I can use the mitt/sponge later. I do not actually use the brush on the car but just to squirt soap on the car. The soap from the sprayer usually is very thin and dries quickly. The foamy soap seems to stay sudsy and keeps the car wet.

[Sublimewind]

I would like to make an addition.... Weather stripping, can be made "non-stick" by spraying a little silicone spray on a paper towel and applying it to the gaskets.... This will halp A LOT for doors getting frozen shut....!!!!! I also want to dissagree on the "bottom up" VS "top down" washing... but the more I think about it, the more it makes sence... now.... nevermind...

[Whelan]

Glad to see others throwing in their $.02, helps to build a nice little topic.Quote, originally posted by Sublimewind »I also want to dissagree on the "bottom up" VS "top down" washing... but the more I think about it, the more it makes sence... now.... nevermind... haha

[MRCN RCE]

one of the reasons why i'm glad i live in cali for now. when i was in south bend, i used to spend around $100 a month during the winter washin my car. washed it every 3 days, 4 at the most

[scheung1990]

touchless car wash doesnt dry ur car completely. but went to a car wash recently and paid $6.00, car came out clean, no water spots, completely dried including the wheels and rims. SHINEN

[WaveAction]

i just use the carwash at work, it's free and cleans well..leaves some water spots but usually i keep my chamois in the car and quickly go over the car to drive it up