plA4keeps

Scotty,
Could you clarify your post a bit. Are you saying that non-contact washes usually use a strong Traffic Film Remover?

--plA4keeps

plA4keeps

Can any of you Audi owners tell me if there is a self-service car wash in (or around) Rochester, NY? I would really like to continue handwashing during the winter if at all possible. I've heard that places might even have heated bays.

Thanks in advance.

-- plA4keeps

Spacecadet_CC

Heated bays and able to handwash would be such a nice treat. I think I have one more chance at washing outside coming up this weekend - supposed to be warm.

It is either wandwash or touchless here. I think that the laser touchless is easier on the car than the wand, but I am not sure about the cleaners in the touchless. As said above - they might strip the wax and end up being worse than wand.

plA4keeps

Spacecadet,
What is a "wandwash"?

-- plA4keeps

Hobbes

It's a self-service car wash bay with a pressure-washer-style wand hooked up to a hose. You can dispense soap through the wand as well as rinse with it with high-pressure water. There is usually also a separate wand with a brush at the end for scrubbing the car while dispensing soap.

I would never let such a brush touch my car, particularly a black car.

i3adSaab

you know, in NH I've never found a touchless that did a good job in winter, and it's just too cold up here to try to wash in one of these garages.

I try to find a car wash that does a couple things:

1. Has someone to power rinse the car right before it goes in the wash cycle. This gets the worst stuff off right away, and gets the difficult stuff on front and back wet to loosen it a bit for later.
2. Drops a ton of soap on the car in the beginning, just covers everything totally.
3. Has very soft cloth washing strips that don't rotate too fast when they're hitting the car. But bottom line, just like washing with a sponge, it's always better to have some contact. This is especially true in winter when the salt gets layered in there.
4. Has a powerful undercarriege wash.
5. Has high speed blowers for the dryers that never touch the car.

With this combo, I've never gotten my car scratched. Maybe I've just been lucky??