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2010 2011 BMW 5 Series Forum F10 F10 Technical Topics Wash, Wax, Detailing and Cosmetic protection/repairs What kind of carwash do you guys use?
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      04-10-2017, 05:51 PM   #1
ndinh
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What kind of carwash do you guys use?

Ok, I had a bad drive-thru carwash experience this weekend and am now looking for an alternative. I, honestly, have no time to wash my own car in my driveway and am looking for a once every 2 week carwash, not full on $100+ detail. Just curious what you guys normally do to keep the car nice and shiny. BTW, pic is of dinged wheel and cracked CF lip from the wheel rail thing at the carwash. Lucky me, the very next day, I hit a deep pothole that scraped my other wheel. Can't do much but just sit back and have a beer at this point. Also, had the lip on the car for a total of 6 days
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      04-10-2017, 07:10 PM   #2
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Garaged?? I use my Cal Duster daily and a quick detailer a couple/3 times a week. Detailing takes me about 45 minutes; but that is with some goofing-off time.

My dealer used to do car washes... until the drought got them in trouble. I would check with the dealer.
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      04-10-2017, 07:26 PM   #3
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So I never go thru an automatic carwash with my car, i have taken my wife's MDX through a touchless to rinse of salt, from our recent trip to tahoe, but she doesn't have low profile tires like my car.

If you work from home i've found that mobile detailers, are good, and i'll schedule a guy to come out to my house when my wife's car is home as well, and i'll work out a deal with him where he'll charge me $35 per car (vs $40 per car), thats here in NorCal.

Another option is waterless wash, you can look chemical guys, as well as other websites, where they have waterless wash, which means if your car isn't too dirty you can use this method, its quick and you can do it with minimal water.

One i've used is Optimum No Rinse, to wash the car if its not too dirty, you can use this stuff as it works well....This could be a good option to use once every 2 weeks and will only take you an hour or so....and you can take it to a detail shop for a nice wash or use the mobile detailer when the car is really dirty.

Personally Here's my step by step process if the car isn't too dirty (typical maintenance wash in good weather) takes me about 45 mins start to finish.

Spray wheels with Sonax wheel cleaner (or other good wheel cleaner)
While the wheels soak (about 5-6 mins each) I'll setup my power washer/foam cannon and fill with soap/water...

Rinse the wheels with the power washer
Foam the entire car (while dry) - i'll use car pro reset or wolfgang auto bathe or any other good soap (chemical guys/adams polishes) basically anything without WAX in it, as i have a Ceramic Coating on my car,windows,wheels etc
Let car soak for 5-10 mins.
Rinse with power washer.
Dry with Leaf Blower.
Wipe down door jams and open hood/trunk and wipe down the jams there too
Use a quick detailer (I use Kenotek Show Room Shine)
Dress the tires.

I can do this in about 45 mins, early sat/sunday morning before the wife and kids are up, and be inside in time to make everyone breakfast, and then we can go on with our days...Or i can do this once i'm done with my work day (I work from home alot) and be done before kids get home from school/day care.

I usually end up doing this every 3-6 weeks depending on how much i'm driving the car and how dirty it gets.

Having a good wax/sealant/ceramic coating helps to keep things from sticking to your car's surface, and using good chemicals, will help in quicker cleaning, I used to cheap out and buy the wheel cleaners from auto zone, and still ended up scrubbing the wheels, to get them clean.

Now the only time it takes me longer is when i wash my car the first time after winter (when its really dirty) specially this year since we got SO MUCH rain.

here's some pics after my last wash which was to wash way most of the grime from the winter!

http://f10.5post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1359087

Hope that helps!
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      04-10-2017, 07:28 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ezaircon4jc View Post
Garaged?? I use my Cal Duster daily and a quick detailer a couple/3 times a week. Detailing takes me about 45 minutes; but that is with some goofing-off time.

My dealer used to do car washes... until the drought got them in trouble. I would check with the dealer.
Does your dealer do hand washes?

mine runs it through a machine, i have to tell my SA that i don't want them washing my car!

and half the time the wheels are not properly cleaned, as i can see brake dust in the inner barrels etc...
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      04-10-2017, 10:17 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by xxpanipuri View Post
Does your dealer do hand washes?

mine runs it through a machine, i have to tell my SA that i don't want them washing my car!

and half the time the wheels are not properly cleaned, as i can see brake dust in the inner barrels etc...
They do hand wash and I get the same basic result with the wheels... They're about 95% cleaned from brake dust. I use Wheel Wax so the wheels stay pretty free from dust and what dust there is usually rinses right off anyway.
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      04-11-2017, 11:36 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by xxpanipuri View Post
So I never go thru an automatic carwash with my car, i have taken my wife's MDX through a touchless to rinse of salt, from our recent trip to tahoe, but she doesn't have low profile tires like my car.

If you work from home i've found that mobile detailers, are good, and i'll schedule a guy to come out to my house when my wife's car is home as well, and i'll work out a deal with him where he'll charge me $35 per car (vs $40 per car), thats here in NorCal.

Another option is waterless wash, you can look chemical guys, as well as other websites, where they have waterless wash, which means if your car isn't too dirty you can use this method, its quick and you can do it with minimal water.

One i've used is Optimum No Rinse, to wash the car if its not too dirty, you can use this stuff as it works well....This could be a good option to use once every 2 weeks and will only take you an hour or so....and you can take it to a detail shop for a nice wash or use the mobile detailer when the car is really dirty.

Personally Here's my step by step process if the car isn't too dirty (typical maintenance wash in good weather) takes me about 45 mins start to finish.

Spray wheels with Sonax wheel cleaner (or other good wheel cleaner)
While the wheels soak (about 5-6 mins each) I'll setup my power washer/foam cannon and fill with soap/water...

Rinse the wheels with the power washer
Foam the entire car (while dry) - i'll use car pro reset or wolfgang auto bathe or any other good soap (chemical guys/adams polishes) basically anything without WAX in it, as i have a Ceramic Coating on my car,windows,wheels etc
Let car soak for 5-10 mins.
Rinse with power washer.
Dry with Leaf Blower.
Wipe down door jams and open hood/trunk and wipe down the jams there too
Use a quick detailer (I use Kenotek Show Room Shine)
Dress the tires.

I can do this in about 45 mins, early sat/sunday morning before the wife and kids are up, and be inside in time to make everyone breakfast, and then we can go on with our days...Or i can do this once i'm done with my work day (I work from home alot) and be done before kids get home from school/day care.

I usually end up doing this every 3-6 weeks depending on how much i'm driving the car and how dirty it gets.

Having a good wax/sealant/ceramic coating helps to keep things from sticking to your car's surface, and using good chemicals, will help in quicker cleaning, I used to cheap out and buy the wheel cleaners from auto zone, and still ended up scrubbing the wheels, to get them clean.

Now the only time it takes me longer is when i wash my car the first time after winter (when its really dirty) specially this year since we got SO MUCH rain.

here's some pics after my last wash which was to wash way most of the grime from the winter!

http://f10.5post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1359087

Hope that helps!
Awesome, Thanks! I'll look into investing in the tools and materials for this setup. Honestly, I haven't washed a car on a driveway for decades mainly because of all the dirty looks from neighbors because of the so-called drought in SoCal. If I can get all this done early before the dog walkers are out then that may work. Otherwise, they just look at me like I've committed a felony.
Anyone ever try those gas station car washes where you just drive in so there's no metal rail to deal with? I guess there's also the do-it-yourself carwashes.
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      04-11-2017, 12:51 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ndinh View Post
Awesome, Thanks! I'll look into investing in the tools and materials for this setup. Honestly, I haven't washed a car on a driveway for decades mainly because of all the dirty looks from neighbors because of the so-called drought in SoCal. If I can get all this done early before the dog walkers are out then that may work. Otherwise, they just look at me like I've committed a felony.
Anyone ever try those gas station car washes where you just drive in so there's no metal rail to deal with? I guess there's also the do-it-yourself carwashes.
you can also use the DIY car wash, just don't use their brush. Rinse the car, and then take 2 buckets with you one for wash (filled with soap) and one for rinse (clean water) and wash the car with a wash mitt.

using a power washer, actually uses LESS water than using a hose. Also, up here during the drought, there was no restriction for washing cars, as long as you used a hose with a shutoff valve, so that when you weren't using the water its not running, you can always check with your water company (this is what i did) so that if anyone did give me dirty looks or they said something i can tell em that the water company says its ok, so why do you have a problem with it.
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      04-12-2017, 01:50 AM   #8
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i use to use car washes all the time until i learned how they will *uck up your paint and cause scratches/swirls. because i didn't have access to wash my car nor did i have a hose hook up to use i temporarily used Chemical Guy's EcoSmart Waterless Car Wash after i initially did a full paint correction. tho i was skeptical about using this product i watched more than enough Youtube videos to convince me to give it a try. i highly recommend this product if you don't have access to washing your car. but stop using those automated car washes!

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      04-14-2017, 08:59 AM   #9
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Quote:
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stop using those automated car washes!
This is the best advice we can give you.
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      04-15-2017, 10:26 PM   #10
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Never understood people spending $60+K on a car then take it to a gas station car wash for $5.

That is what you get for doing it.

1. Research and look for hand car wash folks in your area (In Seattle there are none)
2. Find a detail shop that offers hand washes at a reasonable price.
3. Learn how to wash your own car.

There are tons of good quality car wash services in CA. Do some research and find the right one.
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      04-28-2017, 03:25 PM   #11
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+1 for a mobile detailer. If you're a repeat customer you can usually get some sort of monthly deal.
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      04-28-2017, 04:27 PM   #12
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I bought a foam cannon from ChemicalGuys and wash my car myself. I don't even trust the dealer washing my car.

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      04-29-2017, 04:27 PM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ickdeep View Post
I bought a foam cannon from ChemicalGuys and wash my car myself. I don't even trust the dealer washing my car.

i gotta get one of these! LOL when i picked my car up the other week from the Dealer to get the maintenance done he asked me if i wanted a courtesy car wash and without hesitating i said "OH HELL NO!" I sounded like a total a$$ when i said it but i didn't mean it to come out like that but once you've done a full paint correction and put all those long hard hours you get really jumpy when it comes to someone wanting to wash your car lol
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      05-07-2017, 03:17 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lsturbointeg View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ickdeep View Post
I bought a foam cannon from ChemicalGuys and wash my car myself. I don't even trust the dealer washing my car.

i gotta get one of these! LOL when i picked my car up the other week from the Dealer to get the maintenance done he asked me if i wanted a courtesy car wash and without hesitating i said "OH HELL NO!" I sounded like a total a$$ when i said it but i didn't mean it to come out like that but once you've done a full paint correction and put all those long hard hours you get really jumpy when it comes to someone wanting to wash your car lol
So true. I won't let anyone wash mine, esp not the dealer and their sandy rags. I have to make the service advisors write "NO FINGERPRINTS" in huge print on the repair orders so the tech doesn't hand my car while it's in the shop. If i dont, literally every panel has hand prints on it when I get it back, all of which must be re-polished to remove the fine scratches they left behind. Infuriating. I dredd taking my car to the dealer for anything.
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