1st Winter Wash - Anyone doing pre-soak these days

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mobiledynamics

New member
I have some Auto Finesse Citrus that I did not use all season last year. Today was potentially going to be the second warmest day before it drops so the cars got a bath today. Hopefully the next time I take a drive, the streets will be clean with the forecasted rain....



I don`t wash inside the garage......and past experiences with pre-soak has been in colder weather - about 10 degrees less than today . I did a pre-soak with AF Citrus and definitely did see snow splattered oil/grime as the lather dripped down. I honestly cannot remember ever seeing this in prior times using it. I know we have spoke in depth about the relationship of water and soap and how one`s experience may differ from another.

I`m kinda also saying today, depending on ambient temp, maybe the experience of a pre-soak is different as well based on temps.
It did not remove the salt off the panels. But for sure it did emulsify some grime off prior to the HP rinse.
 
I presoak before most washes (exception being if the car is barely dirty or I’m in a rush). But I generally presoak with waterless wash during maintenance washes, not anything tough like citrus (although I know nothing about AutoFinesse’s offering).

If I’m doing a strip wash or simply plan to reapply something, I may use Feynlab Pure Rinseless as my presoak prior to a prep wash, but that’s about as strong as I’ve tried.
 
mobiledynamics said:
I have some Auto Finesse Citrus that I did not use all season last year. Today was potentially going to be the second warmest day before it drops so the cars got a bath today. Hopefully the next time I take a drive, the streets will be clean with the forecasted rain....



I don`t wash inside the garage......and past experiences with pre-soak has been in colder weather - about 10 degrees less than today . I did a pre-soak with AF Citrus and definitely did see snow splattered oil/grime as the lather dripped down. I honestly cannot remember ever seeing this in prior times using it. I know we have spoke in depth about the relationship of water and soap and how one`s experience may differ from another.

I`m kinda also saying today, depending on ambient temp, maybe the experience of a pre-soak is different as well based on temps.
It did not remove the salt off the panels. But for sure it did emulsify some grime off prior to the HP rinse.
Click to expand...

Do your cold weather pre-soaks with the car and heat running, along warm water in the foam canon. Increase in panel temp will help the cleaner do it’s job.
 
I`m probably not relevant on this thread as I do my winter washes in a climate-controlled shop, but FWIW I`ve pretty much quit doing a serious pre-soak. Now I just wet the whole vehicle, rinse it as best I can with the pressure washer, and then *maybe* let my initial foamgun-output application dwell for a *little* longer than usual.

I used to be serious about the presoaking, even using a dedicated product for it instead of just a shampoo mix...but TBH it wasn`t really necessary as I haven`t noticed any downside from just skipping that.

BUT..IMO this is one of those (properly) subjective topics where different subjects are gonna have different needs/experiences and you just gotta do what works for *you*.

Speaking of which...oh man do I feel for people who don`t have a heated garage, that`s gotta be so challenging! A few winters of that back in the `70s were enough for me, I simply *had* to find a solution (black single-stage cars back then, challenging enough *with* a decent shop).
 
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