Winter Wash? How?

T

thedarksyde

New member
So I am a learning all the things i need to learn as I am reading this site, and more questions keep coming...



The newest question?



How do I wash my car in the winter? Do you wash your car? Do you use that no wash stuff? Do you just wax it and detail it with spray in the garage?



I live in Texas so I can sometimes even in the winter wash the car, but how do others do it? If I ever move I would need this info...
 
Browse the first couple pages here or search around for the topic it's been disscused a ton lately. One search to look for would be QEW it seems to be a favorite for winter washes.
 
I still wash the car in the normal way, if it is very dirty I will rinse the paint first with water (+ shampoo) and then wash in the normal way.



The other considerations are washing late in the day with a high chance of freezing temperatures and using cold or tepid water to wash and rinse.
 
If it is really cold and you have no other choice, run your car through a "no-touch" carwash, then when you get home you can use a quick detailer to get what was missed by the carwash. It is better to wash by hand, but a cold winter dosen't leave many options.
 
Winter road contamiates are the harshest on all parts of the vehicle. What I try to do is wash with warm water and rinse with no spray nozzel so most of the water will come of the finish in one sheet. But before I do anything for the paint I rinse as much of the underside as possble then wash the paint. Drying can be tricky. Sometimes you do what you can before ice forms. But just think, no bugs!!! I hates bugs!
 
I always rinse off the car after I drive it in the snow or rain to get all the crap off before it has a chance to dry on the paint. (Nearly all of the dirty water or slush is on the sides of the car, so I don't bother rinsing the roof or anything).

If it is below freezing, that means you need to rinse it with warm water, and you can try to dry it too if the car is clean after the rinse. (If the car was clean before you drove it, you can get it pretty clean with just a rinse as long as the dirty water hasn't dried on the paint.)



If the car being this clean isn't clean enough for you, then you move on to the method I use to wash the car completely. It's very similar to using QEW, but with car soap and warm water instead.

Here's the link:

http://autopia.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=46060
 
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