Do's and Don'ts of Car Wash

Eventually, anyone that drives a car will have to wash it, either you do it once a year when you have to attend a wedding, or every other weekend, it is entirely up to you and your desire to keep it tidy.

Now you might be thinking, cleaning a car is dead easy, and you are right, it is easy, but there are some rules that you should follow, to preserve your car's look and other mechanical components, and that is what this hub is all about, letting you know of certain things that you should or shouldn't do while washing your car (some are expandable to motorcycles also).

Everyone likes to have clean wheels, get rid of that brake dust and grime caught on the road. It is good that you want to do this, as this area gets a lot of abuse from the elements, and is one of the dirtiest places in the car, but there is some danger to your brake disks also.

Never Ever point your pressure water hose to a hot brake disk, this has got to be one of the main reasons why someone get their brake disks warped/cracked. When  you do this, you will cause a rapid temperature change in the disk, that can cause it to crack and/or warp, and then you will experience poor brake performance and brake judder while braking.

One way to check if it is safe to use water on the wheels is really putting your finger on the disk, if you have to pull out fast to avoid a burn, it is really too hot, when you do manage to keep your finger on the disk without fear of getting burned, go ahead and clean it, because the temperature is low enough to avoid problems.

You might be thinking, "But my auto wash is just a few blocks away, i don't even use the brakes to get there", that can be true, but brake pads are ALWAYS in contact with the brake rotors so as long as you need to move, they will heat up, specially the front ones, because they get most of the car weight when braking.

A good tip that i use is, once i get to the washing point, just check the rotors, if too hot, clean i the inside of the car first, when i finish that, check the rotors again, if they are cold enough, wash the outside, that way there is no danger to the disks. There is really no need to turn your 5$ wash turn into a +400$ repair.

When washing a car, often we tend to forget about places we don't see that much, including the wheel arches, but if we stop to thing about it, these are surely some of the dirtiest places in the car, because they get all the splatter than comes from the tyres collect from the ground.

We need to clean this because if we don't, dirt will start to collect on the exposed components, including the springs and dampers, and that promotes the appearance of rust, some bolts will start to seize and so on. This is even more crucial if you live in a place where salt is used to clear snow from the roads, salt is corrosive, and a general rule of thumb is salt = rust if you don't clean it fast enough.

So if you want your car to look good and be rust free everywhere, don't forget to clean the wheel arches.

Sometimes we have a persistent speck of dirt here and there, some bird poo also, but resist the temptation of scrubbing the paint (don't even think of scraping with the nail). If it comes out with the pressure hose, perfect, if not, there are products out there, specifically created to soften the dirt, so you don't have to scrub it very hard.

Never ever use a regular sponge to work on your paint, only go for soft microfibre gloves, and do gentle passes each time, until the dirt comes off. Regular sponges just carry around the dirt, you will cause swirls on the paint, because you will be basically dragging the dirt and scratching the paint while you do it.

Swirls cannot be removed easily, you have to polish the lacquer of the paint to get it to look good again, or go with the services of a renowned car detailer to do it for you, either way it will be a lot more costly than using patience and proper gloves to clean the car.

There is a lot more to talk about, but i'm really just going for the less obvious things, that one might miss, i'll try and add some more tips and tricks on the matter in the future. If you have a good one that would like to see here let us all know.

If you want to start really taking care of your car, just go for one of those car cleaning kits from well known brands (Meguiars, Mothers ...) and you can't go wrong. Take the time to care for your car, and he will pay the favour back in trouble free years of ownership.