Can automatic car washes damage your car?

These car wash tips can help your wallet, and your ride
Automatic car wash machine can save time and hassle. But are automatic car washes safe for your car? In fact, in many instances, they are the safest course of action for many car owners who want to keep their car clean.
Often, do-it-yourselfers don’t use enough water to safely remove dirt; or they wash the car in direct sunlight, which softens the paint and leads to water spots. Or they use the wrong type of soap (such as dishwashing detergent), which removes protective wax and leaves a chalky residue on the finish. Or any one of several common mistakes can end up doing more harm than good.
Keeping your car clean and the finish looking good can also mean higher resale value when it’s time to replace it. All else being equal, a car with faded paint and a dingy overall look sells for 10-20 percent less than an otherwise identical vehicle that’s been well maintained.
So how often should you have your vehicle washed? That depends on how quickly it gets dirty – and how dirty it gets. For some cars, once a month or so is sufficient, especially if the car is lightly used and parked in a garage. But some cars will need a bath more often; those that are parked outdoors and exposed to bird droppings or tree sap, or driven in areas with long, severe winters, where the roads are salted to remove snow and/or ice. Here are a few important things to keep in mind when it comes to automatic car washes:
Brushless is best
Some older car washes still use abrasive brushes (instead of cloth), which can leave small scratches in a car’s finish. On older cars with single stage paint (i.e., no clear coat above the color coat), light scratches could usually be buffed out. All modern cars, however, use a “base/clear” system with a thin, transparent layer of clear coat on top of the underlying color coat to provide the shine. Once this thin clear coat is damaged, often the only way to restore the shine is to repaint the damaged area.
Another safe(r) bet is the touchless car wash, using only high-pressure water jets and detergents to clean the car – without physically touching the car. With this system there is virtually no chance of your vehicle suffering any cosmetic damage. Also, some areas have self-service coin-operated hand washes, which are great for spraying away heavy dirt buildup. You’ll usually need to bring your own bucket, wash cloth/sponge and dry towels, though.
Watch out for the after-wash wipe-down.
Most automatic car wash machine use a strong jet of heated air to force excess water off after the car goes through the wash. Many full-service car washes will then have you drive the car (or drive it for you) away from the wash area to be hand-wiped by attendants. This is usually OK – provided the attendants are using fresh, clean (and soft) towels to do so. Be alert on busy days, however, when a number of other cars have gone ahead of you. If you see the attendants using obviously dirty rags to wipe the car down, you should say “thanks, but no thanks” – and drive away in a wet car. Dirt and other abrasives in the rags can scratch the finish just like sandpaper. Simply driving away from the wash and letting air flow over the car to dry any remaining water won’t hurt anything, and is the best guarantee of a no-damage experience. Any lingering streaks can easily be cleaned up at home yourself using readily available spray cleaners designed for just this purpose.A bugs, tar and road grime, etc. without water.


Post time: Oct-14-2021