I bought an Unlimited Car Wash for the next 3 months (Done by hand..). My car usually gets very dirty in the winter, last year i spent a good $500 in car wash during that period. But i am wondering if washing the car every 2 days for example could be a problem ?
Not sure where you take your car, but I use the local hand car wash for my Audi, and every time those clowns climb in and out of the car they manage to leave dark heel marks in the carpets, a scuff on the sill cover and some kind of mark on the seats. Also they leave micro scratches on the taillight lenses. It's my daily driver, so I don't get too worked up about it, but I would never take a "keeper" car to these guys. As for the water itself, I'm sure it's fine. Cars are rustproofed well these days, and if they salt the roads in Chicago it's probably a good idea.
As long as they don't use those huge rotating brushes on it.......or if done by hand, they don't wipe it down with those plastic brooms without properly rinsing it first, you'll be OK. I'd watch their process once or twice to make sure first. Only downside is during -10 or colder I never wash cars......you can do more damage than good with freezing wipers, freezing weatherstripping, door locks, etc, etc........
Thanks for the advice. I went there a few times, and they do a good job, nothing spectacular but still a good wash. When you say -10, is that in F or C ?
There has got to be a better local car wash for your Audi ! Paying to get dark heel marks would drive me crazy and im not the type to go crazy over these things.
Well... -10 degrees Celcius is +14 degrees Fahrenheit. -10 degrees Fahrenheit is -22.3 Celcius. I'd say you don't want to wash your car at either temperature, as pretty much everything is going to be frozen. As a rule of thumb, if water is freezing then don't order the car washed. All the best, Andrew.
Yep, i thought of that but -10 Celsius inst that uncommon here during winter..so i guess ill have to stick with a dirty car for longer than i like.
I guess it depends on where the washing is taking place. I have seen (but not used) places where they wash and dry the cars indoors, so all your cleaning products have dried before the car is exposed to freezing temperatures. Do these guys have any sort of facility like that? All the best, Andrew.
Yup, it's done indoors but im sure the car inst fully dry when i drive off as i always see a few drops on the rear view mirror etc.
I have heard that washing a car should be done as infrequent as possible. I realize that even if we live in a bubble life gets dirty but washing does remove some of the paint surface? So best to do as least often as possible. Again, make sure its not clowns, or what I have seen, kids doing it at one of those bulk car washing places. I've heard too many horror stories. I just saw 2 things while out and about today, on this very topic of washing cars. 1) Fat Cat Car Wash...car wash and cat & dog wash. Since when do you wash your CAT at the same place you wash your car!?!?!? 2) A service station with a car wash, advertising "daily car wash for 90 days, inquire within". Personally, do I really need or want to wash my car every day?!?!?! Chris
Living in the frozen north is different. Minnesota loves it's salt. And there is nothing you can do to your car that's worse than salt. For myself, I would never use a car worth more than $10k in the winter, period. I have an 02 GMC 4x4 that I bought this summer for $6800. I use this alone in the winter months. Before I had a 96 Lexus SUV that I sold this summer for $4500. Salt destoys everything. It ruins electrical systems, ruins paint and rusts and corrodes metals and aluminum. It even damages the concrete in my garage. You have to decide for yourself depending on the climate in which you live, but for me I'll take the car wash over the salt any day. And I do.
You know, that's a good point - I hadn't considered that. I'd not heard that before, so thought I'd look it up. Most of the metallic oxidation studies I looked at described high temperatures accelerating the oxidation by making the metals more reactive to the oxygen in the atmosphere by moving electrons into higher energy levels with the addition of extreme heat. The temperatures required for this are into the hundreds of degrees Celsius and studies typically cite experimental conditions of 250-500 degrees Celsius. It also seems that the oxidation process is exponentially proportional to temperature, meaning that a change of a few degrees at hotter temperatures has a greater effect than a change of a few degrees at lower temperatures. I can't imagine any heated garages being warmed to hotter than about 25 degrees Celsius or external temperatures plummeting much below -25 degrees Celsius... so we have a delta of about 50 degrees giving all benefit of the doubt. Working on that theory, while I can't fault the validity of what you said, I suspect that a change of 50 degrees Celsius at what is quite a low temperature for metal won't have a particularly great effect on the rate of oxidation. Perhaps regions that have heated garages are also regions that are more likely to salt heavily. The salt, it seems, doesn't actually do anything to the metal directly but I found some reading material that said salt accelerates oxidation processes by enabling water to more readily carry ions away from the metal being oxidised. So a salty wet car is the worst thing you can have. Or I wonder if a heated garage would also be humid? Perhaps its the humidity rather than the temperature that interacts with the salt, thus causing accelerated oxidation.... ...ow, my head hurts. It's too early in the year for postulating. I think I'll leave it there. All the best, Andrew.
I'd want to make sure they're really flushing out the car's undercarriage with water and not just raining water over the car's top because, as Andrew (above) points out, adding water to the mix actually makes oxidation worse. For fun, here's what the Scots have found out about 'wet' road salt vs dry: http://findarticles.com/p/news-articles/scotsman-edinburgh-scotland-the/mi_7951/is_2009_Dec_2/road-salt-cars-rust/ai_n42477088/
That's an interesting article, thanks Chris. Fortunately, here in Glasgow, they appear to be approaching this particular winter season (and the several inches of snow we've gotten recently) with an altogether more friendly approach regarding the metalwork of road-going vehicles... by not salting the roads at all. Some roads are impassable unless you have a 4x4, and others are impassable even then. Some residents amongst the hills have actually shovelled large piles of snow and made their own signs to block the more dangerous roads to prevent people attempting to drive them... there were a fair few cars sliding off the roads and then down some fairly steep banks. It's starting to thaw out now though, so just black ice to deal with until that melts too. There was a rumour going around a few months ago that with the financial crisis going on, the councils had cut back on the amount of road salt that they'd stored in preparation for the winter. The councils said it was naturally rubbish and rumours spread by the opposition. Judging by the distinct lack of salt spreading this winter, I wonder if there was more than a little truth to those 'rumours'. All the best, Andrew.
You're very welcome. I thought it might have more than a passing interest! And I'm sorry to hear about the lack of salting (and consequent immobility). While a day or two of snowpocalypse-induced leisure are fun, it grows old quickly. Of course, not salting begs the question. Which is worse: rust or damaging your car's bodywork by, say, sliding off the road into someone's kitchen. We'll hope for warmer weather for 'ya, and soon!
