My silver 09 base fit is getting hammered by pollen

Im fed up.

I think im going to buy a 1 month unlimited car wash for 45 bucks from this place
Welcome to Sonic Soft Car Wash

After 1 month I will decide if I got a good value.

I plan on going 3 times a week.

Will it harm anything to get this done 3 times week?

Here is what is done.
Soft Touch Friction Car Wash
Spot Free Rinse
100 HP Blow Dry
Hand Towel Touch Up
Vacuum Floor and Seats
Wash 2 Pieces Rubber/Plastic Floor Mats
Trunk Vacuuming by Request Only
Streak Free Window Cleaning
Wipe Down Dashboard
Gold Wash +
Outside Wash & Dry
Vacuum & Windows
Dust Dash & Light
Console Cleaning
Sonic Polish & Wax
Undercarriage
No Rust
Wash 1 Set of
Rubber/Plastic
Floor Mats
Wheel Brite
Tire Shine
Vision Clear
UVP TRIPLE FOAM
POLISH
Teflon Wax
Dust Door Panels
Light Cleaning of Center Console
Sonic Express Wash
Door Jambs Wiped Down

 

My opinion is if you take the time investment and do a very complete wax job with a decent polymer wax; it will actually be slick enough that pollen and such do not stick and should off super easy.

Even if some pollen somehow sticks, a once over with a duster should pick it up.

But if you get frequent car washes, especially from a car wash place, this will
1) wear away the wax
2) leave residue that is not as slick as the polymer wax. No matter what they do, they have to recycle water to some degree and can't use perfectly clean water so you will get some residue.
3) the wipedown and drying will remove molecules of wax. No matter how careful they are, there will be micro particles that will scratch away layers of wax. Once all the wax layers are wiped away, then the scratches are into your clearcoat layers

So the result is that without intermediate waxing, the more you wash the car, your car will actually seem to get dirty "faster".

Overall, you won't permanently hurt anything that can't be corrected with a good detail and polishing job;

But frequent washing is a "debt" that you have to pay later with polishing and paint correction later to get back to the same paint status.

 

yea youll get swirl marks. I am anal about keeping my car clean and I will NEVER NEVER go to any car wash even if its a brushless place.

-Think of all the dirt from the previous cars that is still on the brushes that are now being slapped apon your car.
-Then even if you go with their base only wash your still getting some harsh detergent that will take any wax off your car. not to mention that pressure washer they initially use
-also any blow dryer will still leave water on your car no matter how powerfull so you will need to have it toweled off and again dont even think of using their towels since they are washed in that same recycled water.

I wash both my cars on a weekly basis, its like laundry for me but i enjoy it. Clay them both 2x a year and put a solid coat of wax on every 3 months

right now everything is green and i hate it but at the end of the week ill wash it all off in my driveway where its nice and controlled

 

A friend of mine owned a car wash and said that every morning for five years his father put his Audi through the wash and then parked it outside, just to show people that it doesn't damage the car (this was about 20 years ago).

That said, you could wipe your car with a wet rag every morning at least as fast as going through a car wash, even if the car wash is across the street and there's no waiting.

 

Yeah, I've got these massive oak trees in our front yard which hang over our driveway, and cover my car(s) with heavy, yellowish-green pollen and those weird little stringy things that have what looks to be micro flowers. ( Hey, what do I know about oak trees? )

So, keeping cars clean for about a month or two every year is a lesson in complete futility for me.

If I were you, I wouldn't go to any car wash that uses brushes, or ANYTHING that actually touches your ride... they WILL put heavy swirls marks in your paint, or worse, what I call "swirl streaks". Take your ride through a brushless car wash.

Otherwise, just rinse off your ride quickly as needed. If rinsing doesn't work then use a micro-fiber towel/cloth and wash it down quickly as needed.

 

i wouldnt do that unless you have a good paint sealant or finish. The Fit's paint seems a bit on the soft side to me. A simple waterless wash and a clean microfiber is more than enough

 

Don't use a touch car wash...they're awful for the finish of your car. I have the same issue this time of year but I just deal with it and wash the car once a week by hand. Crappy part is, by the time I'm done washing it, it already has a layer of pollen on it.

 

A lot of the "$5 drivethru" car washes seem like a bad idea to me, as I've gone in the past and noticed almost every time that there is a soapy residue left on the paint.

Washing at home doesn't work for me either because of the hard water (if I fill a glass from the sink you can't even see through it being so cloudy and full of crap). I agree that the best defense you have is a really good wax job, it's hard work but pays off tenfold!!

 

I would suggest hand washing your car with a micro fiber wash mit, and drying with micro-fiber towels for starters. You can also use a quick detailer, or California Duster if it's not to long between washes. I would suggest investing in a good dual action polisher, and some good polish. Every time you wash your car you are almost always going to put a few swirls in the clear coat no matter how careful you are.

My car care steps:

Hand wash car once a week or so. A quick detail job in between if I'm not too busy. Wax, and seal car every couple of months. Polish car maybe twice a year with dual action polisher. Don't forget to wax, and seal after polishing! Clay baring occasionally as well.

The nice thing about using a dual action polisher with a good polish and pads is that you really can bring your cars finish better than when you drove it off of the Honda lot. I just got my first bottle of Menzerna polish, and that stuff IS amazing.

I might be getting a touch off topic. Bottom line, yes all of this is about the worst thing you could do to the finish of your car. Well I guess you could ice skate on the hood, that would definitely be worse.



Automatic car wash is to hand wash like Beneful is to Orijen.

 

a lot of car wash snobs up there.

I'd like to bring some balance to the discussion.
The place the OP described seems to be a pretty professional place, not a free-with-fillup place, it looks like they will do a decent job, and not too far off from a home wash. It's not like they're washing your car with scouring pads. A properly run and maintained car wash won't damage your car, even if they use cloth that "touches" your car.
An improperly run car wash, even if it's hand wash, will damage your car.


You could do more damage in the $5 or free-with-fillup washes, or even washing your own car if you do it improperly, or from a "fund-raiser" (aka bikini) wash where the people washing really aren't car-wash professionals.

But regardless, I still stand by my post that
1) If you invest time to do a very good wax job, dirt won't stick as easily. Your car will stay cleaner longer, and the dirt should be very easy to clean off.
2) Frequent washes, no matter if it's from a car wash place, or doing it yourself is rubbing away molecules of wax. This happens no matter how careful you are. Your car will actually get dirty faster the more you wash it, if you do not wax in-between.
3) Once all the wax is gone, then you're actually doing minor damage to the paint. Mostly can be corrected with polish, but it'll save you time effort and money if you can avoid it in the first place.

 

Great points... However, would I also be rubbing away molecules of wax as well if I just use a soft car wash brush with soft bristles (the one with a long handle) to gently brush off the dirt as I spray fresh water from my garden host as the same time.. I seldom use detergent and then let it air dry....

 

Depends on how durable your wax is. I would say if you followed the advice and used a really nice wax, the dirt shouldn't adhere that well. You'd be better off using a duster instead to pick up the light dust instead of using water. For tricky spots, can use some detail spray.

Every time you get your car wet and leave it to air drying, it is adhering residue of dirt or water impurities onto your car's surface, unless you are using say the Mr. clean system. After time in the sun, the residue will focus the sun's rays and wear through the wax layer unevenly at those spots.

But at this point you are splitting hairs. If you have enough time to put this effort into car care, you can also spare time to throw another quickie coat of wax on every so often (at a minimum on the horizontal surfaces).

 

Yes, constant handling of the paint will reduce the paint's life.

I currently drive a 12 year old black car. For the first 4 years of ownership, I washed the car weekly and waxed the car monthly. Now the paint has swirls, and I don't think there's much clear coat remaining. Contrast that to my friend who washed his Camero once a month and waxed it twice a year. The car often looked dirty, but when he sold the car 7 years later the paint was like new.

 

Invest in a car cover?

 

get a soft water filter


car cover is a decent idea i have one but what ever dirt you get on the inside may come back to haunt you.

 

very true but you sound like you have a very very similar cleaning regiment as I do. I also know that black shows a bit more then white but gets just as dirty and there are a million different elements to why this could be the case, such as storage, weather, and even paint thickness. Right now I am wondering about products used. I have always stuck to products like mequires (mirror glaze) or auto glym. now as far as acura goes the trim level I have was not a very thick paint job unlike the more expensive levels with a 3 stage so my clear isnt very thick but there is no clear coat cancer and she sits outside 70% of the time and has been daily driven up until recently. but as you can see for yourself very little swirls, very little dirt, very little orange peal, and 0 pollen

 

Yes, I guess I am a bit of a snob when it comes to detailing. lol. Just trying to give some information that may be of use.

You make some very good points as well.

 

I think of car washes as a conditional thing. I'm a bit of a detailing snob myself (owning a Porter-Cable, not being freaked out by words like Zaino, Klasse, Menzerna, etc; and spending a day and a half now and then on one of my cars I think qualifies me lol) but I still see the benefits of a good automated car wash. If you've had to drive your car through a crapton of road grime, mud, and/or salt I think it's certainly going to do more damage to leave it be for a few days than running it through a decent automated wash until you can get to doing it properly.

BUT as I said it's a conditional thing. I never use soft touch, only touchless. They're not perfect but there's less likelihood of swirls. And certainly if you do a soft-cloth three times a week as the OP is thinking of you're going to be facing more paint damage than if you do it more sparingly. As someone else pointed out, trying to wash your car more often can be far more damaging than doing it a lot less sparingly but with more care and proper technique. My old Infiniti G35 coupe and my current sports car are both black but everyone always complimented me on their like-new finish despite only washing them twice a month and doing a full detail twice a year.

I'd suggest taking some time to do a proper hand detailing and using a good polish/sealant/wax first then depending on the situation use a good detailing spray for small touch-ups and then the occasional automated wash for bigger jobs about once or twice a week to maintain things. A good sealant like Klasse All-in-one especially combined with a good synthetic topcoat like Zaino can do wonders to reduce the damage of contaminants.

Definitely don't use those crappy brushes at the self-serve washes. The grime on those will etch your car up like nothing else. For hand washing I use a good microfiber or sheepskin mitt to apply the cleaner (a good car wash soap or Protectall Quick & Easy Wash) and then a good waffle weave microfiber towel for drying.

I'm not a fan of car covers since I garage all my cars but I see their merit too if you HAVE to park your car outside and are likely to get bad stuff like sap and bird poopoo on it. Just be sure to get a well-fitting quality one so it doesn't cause more damage by billowing around.

If anyone wants to know more about detailing I like to suggest the autopia.org forums. I didn't know crap about proper detailing until I went there but since absorbing a lot of info there this is the result:

 

Ask about car finish care, or car washing and waxing and you are going to get a LOT of opinion. Most all of it True...

I think, you get what you put in...basically. You want to do it by hand, with special buckets, mitts, clay bar, sealents, waxe's, polishes and multi-layering coats? Your car is going to look better than if you run it through an automated car wash.

When I was younger? I did most of the above. At this age? I look for shortcuts. For most winter months, I take my vehicle to a well maintained automated car wash, which purists and perfectionists will tell you is dangerous.

I often will use the drive thru, followed by Turtle Wax ICE spray polish and/or Spray Wax...

It looks good enough to me, and I spend about 15 minutes instead of an entire day.

Also as I age I find myself using the ICL method. This is when you notice dirt or dust build up on the finish of your car, and you say to yourself I'm going to Care Less about this....

It's taken several ICL treatments over several years with different vehicles but I now see a certain level of dust or dirt as a badge of pride and proof of useability.

In the OP's case? I think 3 times a week is excessive. I wouldn't subject my vehicle to any mechanical car wash that many times per week. What I would do is wait out spring...eventually the pollen should dissipate or lessen.

I'm not as against using mechanical car washes as many people. But I do think part of the trick of reducing potential damage is to have a good coat of wax or protectant on your vehicle to start with, and maintain it inbetween cycles. Also, I like automated car washes where they spray your whole vehicle down well, BEFORE entering...that way your finish is not going into the cloth and brushes "dry".

It's up to individuals. I really go through the entire gammut. During the nicest spring and summer weather, I will easily spend a morning hand washing and applying wax and polish..but I also admit during lousy weather and winter months...I compromise by using ICL or running through a car wash.

I think a lot of the spray waxes available now are good to use in conjunction with a car wash. The long lasting properties might be limited, but application on a vehicle as small as The Fit literally takes minutes...so it's something almost anyone can do.

 

Geez guys... the day I have that classic MG-TD that I dream about sitting in my garage, I'll worry about this level of detailing.

For now, driving a cheap-o car that is a daily driver, getting parked daily in various public places, with shopping carts, fat people squeezing between cars, kids on bicycles and skateboards, plus salt air from the Pacific, sand blowing off the sand dunes, road grit on the freeway, etc... it's a bit futile to care this much.

I regularly use a California car-duster to keep it looking presentable, do a real wax about once a quarter. I wash maybe once a month, but that seems to just invite rain. Usually after I wash I'll use Meguiars spray-wax to keep the surface glossy enough to use the car-duster.