Effect of Multiple Touchless Washes per Week

[LittleDozer]

For those who know a good deal about our clear coat or any modern automotive clear coat in general: are touchless car washes multiple times per week safe for our paint? If it were Meguires soap or something in my driveway obviously keeping dirt off the car is a good thing but it sounds like some of these touchless washes use chemicals to help strip dirt from the car. Will this cause the clear coat to degrade over years of bi-weekly washes?

[justr0]

Kinda hard to confirm this without actual testing. Most of them also spray layers of protective wax...so in fact it's quite possible that you might actually build up layers of wax on top of the clear coat and protect it.

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[pdqgp]

For those who know a good deal about our clear coat or any modern automotive clear coat in general: are touchless car washes multiple times per week safe for our paint? If it were Meguires soap or something in my driveway obviously keeping dirt off the car is a good thing but it sounds like some of these touchless washes use chemicals to help strip dirt from the car. Will this cause the clear coat to degrade over years of bi-weekly washes?

Multiple times per week? Serious question, are you encountering mud or bad dirt throughout the week? I get the "obsession" with clean, I have it. However, touchless won't fulfill the need to be clean like what I call clean so I only use them in cases of lots of dirt or winter. I also always follow up with a rinseless wash of my own.

The acids used in their pre-soak are not good for the car but they are usually quickly neutralized with the soap they apply next. If you are noticing etching on the paint from the residual water or specially on the windows, steer clear from those washes. That's a sign of the acid not being neutralized or washed away. Mainly on glass as it's harmful to the window more than the clear coat.

Honestly, I'd strongly recommend you take up Rinseless washing. Not waterless, rinseless. I can elaborate and have posted here about the products and technique. 100% safe and very effective. Way faster than the traditional method too. I rarely if ever use a traditional wash method on my cars.

in the end the chemicals can be/may be harmful if you do a touchless multiple times per week but I think what you'll notice more is that they will play havoc at stripping your LSP aka wax or sealant. If you go that route, I'd likely make it a habit of using Collinite #845 as your LSP. I'd also steer clear of their optoins that apply any type of "sealant" or gloss coat. Do a basic wash or one with an underbody wash too. Ones around me offer a basic for $9 include an underbody for $10 and then from there up, I don't use them as the products they spray are nasty.

[icutrauma1]

If you are talking about these car washes that do not use the large rollers. You are getting what you pay for. If you want your car to maintain the elite upscale look you have then you need to hire a good detailer that uses elite upscale products. Go to Detailers Domain and you will see the type of products that exist to care for your car. These are the type of products that are used on higher end cars by great detailers. Now I get a great kick using all these different type of products for my car I love the process of keeping my BBS wheels sharp. The plastic on the exterior having a sheen and seeing the water bead on my car and roll off when its sitting in my driveway while its raining.

I'm not a detailer, I work in an Emergency Department.

[LittleDozer]

Multiple times per week? Serious question, are you encountering mud or bad dirt throughout the week? I get the "obsession" with clean, I have it. However, touchless won't fulfill the need to be clean like what I call clean so I only use them in cases of lots of dirt or winter. I also always follow up with a rinseless wash of my own.

The acids used in their pre-soak are not good for the car but they are usually quickly neutralized with the soap they apply next. If you are noticing etching on the paint from the residual water or specially on the windows, steer clear from those washes. That's a sign of the acid not being neutralized or washed away. Mainly on glass as it's harmful to the window more than the clear coat.

Honestly, I'd strongly recommend you take up Rinseless washing. Not waterless, rinseless. I can elaborate and have posted here about the products and technique. 100% safe and very effective. Way faster than the traditional method too. I rarely if ever use a traditional wash method on my cars.

in the end the chemicals can be/may be harmful if you do a touchless multiple times per week but I think what you'll notice more is that they will play havoc at stripping your LSP aka wax or sealant. If you go that route, I'd likely make it a habit of using Collinite #845 as your LSP. I'd also steer clear of their optoins that apply any type of "sealant" or gloss coat. Do a basic wash or one with an underbody wash too. Ones around me offer a basic for $9 include an underbody for $10 and then from there up, I don't use them as the products they spray are nasty.

The reason for this post is because I usually tend to bring it to a wash once per week. If I have time I'll wash it myself. With how often I go, I considered getting the "unlimited" wash package and at that point, might as well wash a few times per week. I've heard good things about Wolfgang Uber Rinsless wash. Would you recommend it?

[bakedziti]

I use a delta sonic touchless wash frequently; 4-5 times a week, but more so in the winter. Its more of a work therapy for me, because they are all over the place here, and there's something about it that's relaxing. No spinning brushes, and a hand dry each time for $29.35/month after tax. I can't say that I have noticed any ill effects in the year and a half I have owned the car. You get what you pay for however, and I don't expect it to be a full detail by any means; instead I supplement a full detail when I have time to do it right myself. My car is also a lighter color, so I don't really worry about swirls or anything.

[pdqgp]

The reason for this post is because I usually tend to bring it to a wash once per week. If I have time I'll wash it myself. With how often I go, I considered getting the "unlimited" wash package and at that point, might as well wash a few times per week. I've heard good things about Wolfgang Uber Rinsless wash. Would you recommend it?

Gotcha. Wolfgang is the best. Optimum is the next one. I use both but have moved to Wolfgang nearly 100%. I'm using up my ONR as a detail spray and on my wife's van vs my car

[waxxonMTL]

long story short ;

I think the quality of the product is one thing, but the technique is WAY MORE important. so you could waterless wash your car for a full year and end up with less swirls than some one who wash with water his car improperly..

However, why would you need to wash it more than once every week ? I'm a detailer myself and I must be washing my car maybe 30x times a year.. Maybe you should invest into seeing a pro detailer that could properly protect your paint so leess dirt stick to it and thus less need to wash it more often.

Also, you might be living in a condo, but... how come you can't have acces to water anywhere to wash it the regular way from times to times ?

I prefer waterless wash for touch up on a road-trip or a car meet or a quick fix like bird shit or spil gas..

[TappaNuKegga]

I am no expert but I have experience detailing 5+ yr old cars that have been washed various ways throughout their life. Obviously never: let the dealer wash your car or use any brushed auto-wash, use the brush at a self-wash, use a wash mitt that was dropped on the floor, or let people dry your car with towels - if you care about swirl marks that is.

Long story short, touchless washes will never create swirls are pretty harmless to your clearcoat. Except if you want to account for the fact that the detergent will strip most of your hard-earned wax/sealant layers - leaving your clearcoat naked. And no getting the gimmicky ultimate wash with multicolored and scented conditioner/wax won't do anything for paint protection. Audi uses an extremely hard (possibly ceramic) clearcoat(at least from my experience with my phantom black pearl S4 and a brilliant black Q7). I'm talking some of hardest clear I have ever encountered; up there with Porsche's clear. Hard clearcoats hold up to swirls and light scratches slightly better than other manufacturers', but stand up to oxidation, etching from detergents or bird shit, and old-age flaking considerably better. For detailers, polishing a Audi's dark colored paints(I have no experience with lighter paints but I assume they'd use the same clear) can literally take twice as many passes with a buffer and twice as much "umph" in general than regular clears. Really tough stuff.

Clearcoat aside, touchless washes CAN definitely be harmful to a car's paint however, due to the high pressure water possibly exacerbating preexisting paint damage. This is only an issue if your car's paint is exposed due to catastrophic damage down past the clearcoat (collision/scraped areas, rust spots, large rock chips, bumper gouges/rash, etc)

Be wary of touchless washes if you have large rock chips that haven't been repaired yet.

Touchless cars washes are the only way I recommend having your car washed if your pressed for time/resources but they won't get your car completely clean.

Nothing beats the traditional 2-bucket with a clean long-fibered wash mitt method with proper technique, except for maybe an ONR + multiple microfiber rinseless wash as long as your car isn't dirty enough that it fails the finger wipe test.

Correction: Nothing beats typing out long posts at work.

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[torinalth]

I stopped using them, I'd rather keep it dirty until I can do it myself. what I found was they were leaving residue on the car that made it worse over time. ultimately I had to do a deep clean and rewax to clear all the crap off of it. it's better than letting a moron wash it, but I don't care for them anymore.

[LittleDozer]

Has anyone here done Opticoat Pro or Opticoat Pro Plus? Sounds like a lot of people have good results and seems to basically bulletproof the paint job for a matter of years.

[amz]

CQuartz or OptiCoat your car, then just hit it with a hose, dry, and you're done washing your car.

[LittleDozer]

CQuartz or OptiCoat your car, then just hit it with a hose, dry, and you're done washing your car.

Have you done it? Just wondering if that effect really lasts the 7 years over the warranty, and if they'll really re-do it just because it doesn't wash by just hitting it with a little bit of soap and water.

[14S4GWM]

Have you done it? Just wondering if that effect really lasts the 7 years over the warranty, and if they'll really re-do it just because it doesn't wash by just hitting it with a little bit of soap and water.

I have C Quartz and love it, this brand is only a two year warranty though. There is more to it then just rinsing it off. Dirt does stick to it but it does comes off very easy when doing an actual wash.

[hotleadsingergu]

I stopped using them, I'd rather keep it dirty until I can do it myself. what I found was they were leaving residue on the car that made it worse over time. ultimately I had to do a deep clean and rewax to clear all the crap off of it. it's better than letting a moron wash it, but I don't care for them anymore.

Sounds like you were using a poor wash. The good ones are amazing when you use the first 2 levels (wash and double-wash), but the third level is a bad idea (the one that includes a wax/polish compound). Stay clear of that, but the first 2 do a great job, in most cases.

[MrFunk]

I stay away from any and all automatic washes. Touchless or not. Often they recycle water.
I'd rather my car dirty.

[TMurt]

Not an expert but basically you are picking the lesser of two evils. I only use touchless in the winter because the salt on the car is more harmful than a touchless wash. Then I always give it a full detail in March or April. I haven't worried too much on my current car because the previous owner ran it through automatic car washes frequently and I haven't had a chance to polish any swirls out. On my old black A4 though, the touchless wash was never very satisfying for me and just a temporary fix.

Overall I wouldn't use a touchless wash more than 1x a week. They will strip some wax off for sure too

[LittleDozer]

So a shop near me can do the car and wheels with Opticoat Pro Plus (7 year warranty) for around $1200. Is this too expensive? For 7 year warranty it seems pretty good to me but idk.

[14S4GWM]

So a shop near me can do the car and wheels with Opticoat Pro Plus (7 year warranty) for around $1200. Is this too expensive? For 7 year warranty it seems pretty good to me but idk.

Make sure you get a full paint correction with that price, get the details first. The last thing you want to do is put that on with your paint not in excellent shape.

[LittleDozer]

Make sure you get a full paint correction with that price, get the details first. The last thing you want to do is put that on with your paint not in excellent shape.

Sounds like full paint correction is included in the price. Doesn't sound too bad to me. Only thing is that this seems like something someone could easily do in a day and can't imagine materials are that expensive. So you're paying like what, $1000 for labor?

[14S4GWM]

^ I wouldn't say 1k but it is a business, labor and expertise are part of it. I don't think you get the warranty unless the coating is installed by a certified dealer. My guy had my car for 2.5 days for full paint correction and ceramic.

If your good with paint work and have a fair amount of time on your hands then give it a whirl.

[Powderhound]

So a shop near me can do the car and wheels with Opticoat Pro Plus (7 year warranty) for around $1200. Is this too expensive? For 7 year warranty it seems pretty good to me but idk.

That sounds fair if it includes paint correction. I paid that for my wife's car, 10 year warranty, and it did not include wheels. I think the number of layers they apply increases how many years warranty. Seem to remember she got three layers. Also requires a yearly maintainence check so I just have it detailed while it's there. Holding up great so far and she goes to touch less wash almost weekly except when I hand wash once in a while.

That said, your expel areas will not receive the same coating, they use a "sport" coating on expel, I usually get one to coats of "sport" on the expel on my car twice per year at a cost of $80 a visit. The expel is more porous and coating doesn't last as long...I could get by with one visit per year but like to keep the "wet" look on expel. BTW, my entire car is expel so that $80 cost would be much less for you if only frontal areas.

[snowmuch]

CQuartz or OptiCoat your car, then just hit it with a hose, dry, and you're done washing your car.

I use something similar, its called CSII (Titanium coating) with 10 years life time, super glossy, self healing, super hydrophobic, anti dust.







This is what it looks like a week in the muddy rain.

[LittleDozer]

I use something similar, its called CSII (Titanium coating) with 10 years life time, super glossy, self healing, super hydrophobic, anti dust.







This is what it looks like a week in the muddy rain.

Woah that looks amazing even without being washed


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