Just wanted your opinion...

Should I go to a car wash or do it myself? Definitely, it would be better with me. But if I don't have the time which type should I go to?

How are those Hand Wash car places, or Brushless? I don't really know what's good. But I know my 6 week old max needs a bath.

Thanks for all your help!!

 

One thought is to drive by a couple (of whichever type you decide on) and see what types of vehicles are in ant out of that particular shop.

You can even pretend to be interested in certain cars, strike up a conversation with the owners and see how many times they have come there and also get a closer look at the paint on thiers (to see if scratches, etc. are pronounced).

Personally I would go for the brushless, but that is just me.

 

the best car wash is going to be the one you do yourself, but in the winter, i usually go brushless for ease and low cost. brushless does a crappy job, but takes most of the crud (winter road salt, etc.) off the car. if you use an automated brush car wash, make sure the brushes are natural fiber, nylon will scratch your paint surface.

 

As if EVERYTHING else doesn't??

 

yeah, i'd stick with brushless, even tho it doesn't really get clean. hand wash sounds cool, but you don't know how often they clean the mitts, towels, etc.

i usually do a quick DIY-spray (quarter-fed kind), or if i'm desperate, a drive-thru brushless and just make sure they DON'T towel dri at the end, as i don't trust the towels. (plus it's usually not clean enough to warrant hand wiping, just scratches it worse).

not having a driveway makes it a lot harder...

 

How about those car washes where you use the high-pressure nozzle? I just did that yesterday to give my Max a quick rinse (get rid of salt and most of the dirt). It obviously isn't even close to a hand wash, but for the time being while it's cold and nasty out, I figured it's better than just leaving the salt on.

Are these high-pressure washes ok for the paint? By the way, I found one which uses warm water to spray (unlike most places that use cold water).

 

well, as jjs pointed out, everything can scratch nissan paint , but yeah brushless (high-pressure washes) are safe enough, just won't get the car very clean. (i'd think warm water would work better (dissolve more solids).)

 

I'll second that. In the winter time, I'll go to the brushless wash just to get the salt off. I make sure the carwash has a good undercarriage wash (some have barely any pressure). But no matter where I go, the right side is never as clean as the left since the damn machine is set to wash the widest vans/trucks (Hummers?). What do people with econoboxes do?

My other choice is a complete hand wash for under $20 near where I used to live (damn, I don't get to these guys as much as I used to). Local dealers use these guys to detail the cars after they are sold or before are put on the showroom (which poses a problem if you show up during the wrong time of the month as far as sales go). These guys even blow the water out of all the crevices with an air hose (I'm not sure how many other washers do, but I haven't found anyone else that manually do it). All I have to do is detail the car myself afterwards. IMO, nobody will do as good a job as you, unless you luck out and find somebody like these guys.

 

A hand-wash is probably much better for the paint, but carwashes also do the undercarriage, which can get very salty if you live in an area where it snows a lot.

 

Ain't that the truth!

 

I'd just go to a self serve place, bring a bucket, and do it yourself. Most people don't use the self serve in the winter so you shouldn't get many hassles about using a bucket.

Most "brushelss" car places that I've seen have brushes in them. What's the deal with that?

 

True. Or they use some kind of hanging/spinning filthy cloth like material that hasn't been changed in years. Plus as your driving in some guys are using broom on your cars and if you opt for some "wheel bright" on your rims you're going to get some powerful solvent used on them. Then on the other side you'll have some guys rubbing filthy rags on your car which will scrap the living hell out of it. I you have a black car take a good look at the finish before you drive into one of these "brushless" car washes. When your "wash" is done you'll puke after you see the swirl marks on your paint.

Hand car washes are somewhat better but they still usually don't use high quality towels to dry with, which is where most scratching occurs.

For a quick fix, use a touchless car wash with high pressure nozzles that some have mentioned here.

When you wash it yourself, use 100% cotton towels or better yet, microfiber towels.

If you want to really learn about this stuff check out
http://www.autopia-carcare.com/
Prepare to go insane with the amount of info there.

 

When I bought my max, I got this coupon for 4 free car washes for a month to this brushless car wash. A bit nervous, I figured, "alrite, I see all these beemers, mercedes, lexus's, and acura's going in too, so what can it hurt?" As I watched my Max being rolled through the car wash, I noticed that they do use a powerhose, but there's actually people standing inside the carwash as the cars roll through using those car-mitts to wash the cars. I was like "wow, this is pretty cool, because I use those too!"

When the max finally came out through the wash, it looked sparkling clean, and that was before they dried it. I noticed that there are rolling tables with small storage bins, and in the storage bins hold all the dirty towels, while the clean towels are stacked on the table. I knew they were clean because I actually grabbed one to wipe a water spot that one of the guys missed. So depending on where you go, not all towels in these car wash places are filthy; some car washes actually do care.

 

IMHO, your best bet for winter washing is to:

#1 Hand-wash & wax your car in the fall, before it gets too cold.

#2 After it gets cold, take your car through a "touchless" wash about once a week. Preferably one with a warm-water wash and a "vortex" drying cycle, which blows most of the water off.

#3 Once you get home, use one of the quick-detailing products that people on here recommend. Spray it on, wipe it off... 15 minutes max.

#4 Hand-wash & wax your car again, AS SOON as it's warm enough in the spring.

 

Go to one of those do-it-yourself car wash places. Use the high pressure spray to get all the nasty stuff off your car and then run your car through the automatic brushless car wash. it's beautiful; you get all the hard to get gunk stuff off yourself and then let the auto brushless wash to rinse your car and dry it.

I'm battling my 5th Michigan winter in my superblack Maxima.

 

Hopefully you've washed it prior to it's 6 week B'Day! Good God. That's like against the law or something!

Don't make me

 

Yea, my buddy (with an Accord) is hooked on all those detailing boards. This weekend he was using my garage to detail his car. It took him about 14 hours and he was using the microfiber cloths during it. He couldn't say enough good stuff about the microfibers!

Be careful when going on that board, you can be sucked in just like my friend and have another money pit to dump all your hard earned cash in. He must have spent at least $300 in cleaning supplies

 

OT, but it p!sses me off when I'm in the very high humidity enclosed car wash and the dumb as$ climate system doesn't allow me to use the defroster in recycle mode. Run it recyle mode to the face/feet and it steams up the windows; run the defroster and bam, a blast of humidity comes in.

I bet that's one scenario the Nissan enginerds didn't consider.