I normally detail my RS every 2 months and a wash once a week, but work has been so hectic lately I have let her deteriorate in the last 3 months. The outside of the car is aboslutely minging so I am thinking of using this new soft cloth car wash near work.

The thing is, my car is almost swirl free despite being corrida red. And everyone knows colours red and black, especially non metallic pick up swirls the easiest.

So has anyone out there used one of these car washes ?

Are they safe ?

Also, after 3 months of non-washing I have an unbelievable amount of brake dust on the wheels. I am sure some of it will have pitted in under the laquer on the wheel by now. Will the usual wheel cleaners do the job, or will I need to resort to something like petrol ?

thx

I haven't used an automatic wash for years so cant really comment if the soft cloth is better than the traditional bristle style.

I suppose it could be ok, as long as the cloths dont have any bits of mud etc. stuck to them.

Normal wheel cleaners should be ok, although there will be some pitting it shouldn't be to bad and a bit of elbow grease should see to that.

If you are not sure that the car wash won't damage your car then that should be reason enough not to use one. QED.

I applied the same reasoning during my flying career. If unsure whether or not something is safe, don't risk it.

Firstly, the car wash. My personal opinion is never trust a collection of motors & brushes to clean what is a very expensive possession, ie, your car.

Secondly, the wheels.

Be VERY careful if any of the brake dust has become pitted into the wheels. If theres the slightest surface damage then wheel cleaners will get underneath the lacquer and play merry hell with the surface. Perhaps some of this marvellous Swissol MultiClean is required here

Get yourself a cheap Pressure washer and blast as much muck off as you can, then attack it with some proper car shampoo and hot water.

Yes, and do it whilst the weather is still ok-ish...

Know the feeling on the brake dust - I left mine for just a fortnight, and they were SOOO black, they were starting to look like anthracite! :( - But, luckily, water & a cloth and some elbow grease (wonderful substance) and it all came off.

For the paintwork, no car-wash but one I'm doing is good enough for me. Personal view of mine, that's all.

Im unsure if you have any in ur area, but i reckon you should do, they are the 'Self Service' car wash places, located in petrol stations, such as BP and Total.

They cost around

one word.... "Swissol"

Flanno,

I'm in the same position myself but took a chance on the soft wash. Did a decent job without leaving scratches or swirling that I could detect. You'll probably have to give it a wash afterwards; because it's less aggressive it doesn't get your car as clean as a normal car wash would. It is useful for taking the rough off. though.

You pays yer money etc. etc.

Frankly, anything whacking across the paintwork of a car will cause marking of the paint. Softwashes are less abrasive, but abrasive non the less. The pressure wash solution would be the best IMHO.

Rob

I have always been advised never to pressure wash a car as it simply drives the dirt at/across the paint causing scratching, and so the only way to wash the car if you want to reduce scratching is hose and hand wash.

I fully understand why you might not though, time is a killer for everyone.

Like Kentish I never use a pressure washer on the paintwork, I just think they do more harm than good. On the wheels fair enough but obviously you still have to do them by hand after.

An automatic car wash is also a no no in my book whatever sort it is. I've got slight swirls on my car just from hand washing and leathering off, I can live with that because I did it. But to spend four quid and let a machine mark your paintwork for life... :eek:

Originally posted by devonutopia in this post

Know the feeling on the brake dust - I left mine for just a fortnight, and they were SOOO black, they were starting to look like anthracite! :( - But, luckily, water & a cloth and some elbow grease (wonderful substance) and it all came off.

Jason, stuff the elbow gease I would have just used a wheel cleaner like the Comma one, which seems very good value and makles cleaning wheels a doddle, although the in the wind the spray can blow back at you and breathing it in is not recommended! Seems as if your mouth, nose, lungs and throat are on fire the time I did it. I now ware a mask or cover my mouth with my jumper.

As for the car wash, as with others it depends how much you car for your paint. I have never used one but others in the family have with no trouble, and they can be a good back up if you have little time to clean the car but need it clean for a funeral etc at short notice. I always wash by hand, but if you haven't washed for months then the paint may have already be damaged/not as goog as previous. A car wash will give the surface a good wash, but they can damage spoilers and not remove all the dirt from alloys etc. Best to take your car to a guy who hand washes them. We have several round this area outside Tesco's, Ikea etc. and they are quick and effecient and from what I hear they do a damn good job.

Last minute funerals? Begby is alive and well on Briskoda!

No way will I use a car wash, it swirls no matter what the brushes are made of, It's actually the dirt on the car that causes the problem IMHO. Best to just let it get minty until you get a chance to do a hand job...pardon the expression !

Thx for all the advice.

I managed to give it a quick powerhose and handwash last night. Looks much better now, but probably needs another wash over the weekend. I used Turtle Wax wheel cleaner and it did an amazing job. It got rid of about 90% of the dried on brake dust. The Autoglym wheel cleaner could never manage this. The paintwork is still virtually swirl free I might add, but of course I have a few new stone chips. Not surprising with the crap roads we have.

I have been using car washes for years, only ever had paint marked once, and a quick polish sorted that. The car I have now is second hand, and it has a fair few swirl marks, so I dont know what the previous owner did with it. Some work with Turtle Wax scratch and swirl remover fixed most of it.

The truth is however I have found that Skoda paint does seems more funerable to damage than that on any other make I have owned. But if you buy a used car or within a couple of months of owning a new one, you realise that small marks are totally unavoidable and that you will enjoy the car more if you forget about them.

Also hand washing does not avoid marks caused by having to move the dirt over the surface as you wash it off. so in my opinion if you dont have time to do hand washes the car wash is less risky than letting the dirt stay on the car.

Well I went with the power hose and hand wash. I always find if you use the correct technique when washing by hand you can at least avoid those circular swirl marks, but of course this takes time.

Anyway for now the car looks good. Only noticed one or two new stone chips. The only swirls I have are on the spoiler and rear quarter panels and some light micro marring on the bonnet caused by dirt and grit. But the swirls were a result of a friend who borrowed my synthetic chamois the day I got the car, and he used it to wash his own car. I used it the next day without inspecting it and of course ended up putting swirls on the laquer. Some Imperial Hand Glaze hides them for a while, but inevitably I would need to use something a bit abrasive to rub them out. Reluctant to do this, as from past experience if you don't use a rotary buffer or at least an orbital buffer, and do the thing by hand you end up causing lots of smaller swirls. Unless you are prepared to spend hours at it by hand. Oh..and the rear spoiler on the rs is not clearcoated as it is made from polyuroethane. So you end up taking paint off. Hiding them or filling them is a better option.

Now that my car is clean, I can feel this obsessive detailing behaviour coming back.

feckin ell flanno i get a little upset when i realise ive left the dirt triangle on the windscreen... but my god man you've taken cleaning the car to a whole other level, im just wondering how you lasted three months

At one stage I was thinking about trading my Sept. 02 RS with 8k miles for a brand new one You know those little stone chips on the bonnet really annoy me even though I touched em up pretty good -I know they are still there. The dealer wanted 7.5k euro. Enough said.