Team-BHP - Avoid washing your car too often; wash only when required!

I normally try to keep up to the following weekly/monthly routine (don't have much time on the weekdays to even dust the car, which is anyway a futile exercise as I live & drive in a very dusty area):

Week 1 - Presoak foam, Wash, shampoo, wax
Week 2 - Wash, shampoo
Week 3 - Wash, shampoo
Week 4 - Wash, shampoo

Disclaimer - All washes are using pressure washer, but my pressure washer is cheap and old, and thus is mostly a glorified water sprayer !

Also - I see a lot of people claiming that they leave the car as is with mud & muck plastered on the running board & wheel well in the monsoons. Believe me guys, you are giving an open invitation to rust. So please do wash off the mud & muck from the wheel wells & running board of the car.

I always have half bucket of water and take wet cloth to clean the car and it does 90% of the job to the required quality. Continuous pressure water wash is simply waste of natural resources. I feel, Thorough car wash with stream of water from the compressor or tap connection through pipe directly is not required.

Once in 6 months, probably, when the car is at service station, we can get the car washing. This should suffice in my opinion

Quote:

Originally Posted by sandman_30 (Post 4473761)

The only time my car goes for a complete bath is when she's at the service Centre.
She gets a wipe treatment every other day and a sponge bath every Sunday that takes about 3-4 liters of water.

Could you elaborate on the wipe treatment?
I have engaged an organisation called Green Salute which wipes the car with some polish every other day. They do not use any water at all.
This works decently well unless the car is too dirty - like in the monsoons.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jomson13 (Post 4474446)

After speaking to body shop guys from the brands that I have owned, especially Maruti, Tata and Mahindra. They all told me not to wash the car unless it's necessary, say full of mud.

I realized that washing everyday was providing water to the small seedlings that we're growing inside the quarter panel. So I stopped water washing the cars (seedlings died, not so eco friendly me) . I got the quarter panels removed and cleaned, luckily no rust.

Now I use ProKlear, it's cheap, available in Amazon and works better than the 3M equivalent. Mix with water and spray this product, wipe off first with a damp MF cloth, followed by a dry MF cloth. Do this panel by panel, you are good to go. Just once a week will do, and yes it provides water beading shine. It uses 500 ml to 1l water per car.

I water wash after a run down some muddy trail, if at all it's needed.

I recommend for your specific car check with the body shop guys, they know every single potential rust spot.

Alternative(in emergencies): I love this one, A good shampoo, yes if it makes your hair feel soft and shiny, it works for the car.

Mix half a sachet of say Dove shampoo in an empty Colin spray bottle with filtered water, use it the same way as ProKlear, works for those bug beard you get in front of the vehicle as well. And it cleans brake dust off the wheels well.

Hope that helps!

Appreciate the thread and all the solutions/work-arounds and alternatives posted but I'd say go a level higher and employ a keep it simple approach.

According to me, there is no escape from micro-swirls and scratches, no matter if you use some petroleum product, soap product or other foams.. the only way to properly clean the car is pressure wash by water, period.

Hence I do a once-a-week proper pressure wash of 2 minutes by water with a microfibre towel pulling off the fine granules with the water running, shampoo, hose off by pressure wash for 2 minutes, wipe with dry towel and its over in 15 minutes flat. Not the most idealistic method but it consumes about 10-15 litres of water approx and that much on a weekly basis is acceptable.

I get both my cars washed at a wash center once a month, or even later if the cars are not dirty. Else, it is either Jopasu or ProKlear waterless wash for me. I also asked the service center to not wash my car as a part of their servicing. I think I got my cars last washed almost 2 months ago. Yet, I see people in my apartment complex balk at a potential vendor who brought water less wash solution which was slightly more expensive than normal wash. They all would rather prefer the local car wash guy who is destroying their car paint with dirty water and an even dirtier cloth.

Talk about being penny wise and pound foolish.

My car can go even a month without a wash provided it doesn't rain. A daily / alternate day Jopasu dusting is all it takes to keep the car clean.

When it does need to be washed and if the last wash was over month ago, I prefer getting a pressure wash for a thorough cleanup. The car just feels so much quieter after a good pressure wash.

I have been sticking to Jopasu daily+ 5 ml of Proklear Raw CX in half bucket of water(2 times a week) for the last 5 years or so. Pressure washer used during servicing of the car and occasional use of my skil pressure washer for wheel wells + running board when it becomes muddy during rains. This has helped me save
a) Lot of water
b) Swirls (minimal )
c) Fading of paint (my 6.5 year car still shining with very minimal swirls even though I haven't had time to even wax it once in last 4 years)

Switched to Proklear from expensive ONR and have been very happy with the VFM desi alternative.

In the late 80's, at Kerala, my car wash was an elaborate affair, using a hose and plenty of water.

Then in the 90's at Chennai, water being a scarce commodity, changed to using just one bucket of water, for the whole ritual.

Now it's mostly dusting off the car, with a wet wipe thrown in once in a while. That's not only enough, it's actually counter-productive to wash more often. Not to mention the water wastage. (Unless there is lot of underbody muck, requiring a professional wash).

OT: How is that members are speaking about water wash at the service center? If 'm not wrong, unless it is a FNG, water based washing is prohibited by rule in all authorized service centers.

Hose or no hose - quantity of water used is important. If one is using a pressure washer drawing water from a bucket I think it can be rationed well.

Until two years back, I used to hose down the entire car to loosen the grime and muck, followed by shampooing, and then again hose down for rinsing off the soap. This used to be my ritual every Sunday morning. This practice resulted in lot of water wastage :Frustrati. With the water hose in your hand, you tend to spray the water rather lavishly.

Nowadays, it is just three buckets of water. First bucket for wetting the car, to loosen the dirt and grime. Then I use the second bucket with diluted shampoo (usually 3M) with mitt/sponge for cleaning the car from top down. Windshields, windows, roof, hood, doors, hatch, bumpers and at last the wheels, in that order. I use a different cloth/brush for cleaning the wheels with mucky shampoo water at last. Third bucket to rinse down the shampoo from top down, starting from the roof, followed by wiping off with micro fiber cloth.

Occasionally I use diesel to wipe off tough grit and grime.

Also washing is done just once in a week. Daily cleaning is done by Jopasu duster for the body and wet micro fiber cloth for the windshields and windows.

I get a full body pressure wash done, once in a month. Waxing is done once in three months. My car is dark colored (Sea Grey, Ford Figo) and yet looks pretty much clean, with the basic cleaning that I do.

Water wash is available with A.S.S, at least the ones I go to.
Now the issue with Swirl marks, It will happen with all contact washing methods.Certainly less with full pressure washing.
A rub down with a good wax polish twice a year will help. I have been following this routine for around 4 years now, works well.

The Swirl Mark King is your local car wash guy who washes the cars for the entire pin code with just one bucket of water. I took services of this person once, within 3 months I had to do a rub and polish, never again.

I use the Resqtech (http://resqtech.in/products/) 8 LITER MANUAL WASHER (CS-8L-2) every couple of days. The brush provided is pretty soft and I first spray the car so as to loosen the dirt/grime. Then apply light shampoo with a micro-fiber cloth and finish of with the second round of spray-rinsing.

One also gets some excercise while pumping up the air-pressure :D, which needs to be done at-least 3 times during the entire washing-cycle.

Biggest advantage is that only about 8 litres of water is used.