I guess as you get older your not as picky. I use to wash
all my cars by hand. Vettes and the 370. there is a well
maintained car wash in my town so they do my 370 once a week
depending on the weather. no issues with swirls or the rims.

+1 I've taken both my Z's to the same auto car wash once every 2 weeks for years with no issues.

unfortunately I don't have the time to always hand wash my car but I take it to a place that is brushless and utilize only soft-cloth. No Swirlies on my car that I can see yet but I don't plan on keeping my car beyond 3 years anyway. You can always have a paint correction done in the future to fix the problems.

Car wash isn't as clean as hand-wash.

like i was telling alcheng a while ago, i prefer girls with clean underwear. :ugh2:

salt on the chassis is what we are trying to clean off, not so much the appearance of the paint. it's about preservation in the salt/snow belt states in the winter.

True!!

That's why I only drive the Z when the road is all clean.

But it is really hard to get the salt out of the car without going through drive-thru, right?

:iagree:

not really. you can put your car on a ramp and just wash the undercarriage with a lawn sprinkler. let it run for 15-20min, then do the other end. some MINI folks were doing it and it is a very effective way to clean the bottom actually without splashing water in your face. :icon17: will be doing the same on my G in Spring. :)

Morning, Mr. Kenchan! :tiphat:

hello, mr. onzedge! :tup:

can't do that in here, because we turn off the pipe in the garage and empty it for winter, otherwise the water in the pipe will become ice and break the pipe, and big trouble will happen. :ugh2:

in the Spring.... water freezes here in the USA too starting 32F. :icon17:

LOL, I think we have something in common: hate that number.

:icon18:

guys, I was in the car wash equipment industry..... touchless uses more aggressive chemicals.... over time, overly done, tough on your clearcoat, polycarbonate headlight lenses and lesser plastic trim pieces. The right "friction eqipment" does a respectable job and is endorsed by the majors and the german luxury majors. It uses sope, water and friction, like washing your hands, or a hand wash of your car.


So, do what you want, but don't be lulled into thinking touch free is good for ur baby.

No car wash for Z! I Did it with my G35 coupe, had so many swirls... went to one place, and they cleaned it well, but over time, always going to get swirl marks. I rather leave filth on my car then have someone scrape the car up...

With all the advice guess ill be hand washing. My only problem my nismo is so LOW it cant even get up the driveway :(

Ride on airbags you'll have plenty of clearance then. :icon17:

I run mine through a touchless car wash all the time.


I have done every car I owned that way even my G that I had to be oh so careful with the paint.

will never run my Z through a car wash, nor will I let a hand wash place or a dealership touch it.

been spending the last few weeks fixing years of swirl marks. looking great so far :)

I will trust an occasional touchless wash (maybe 4 times total in the 2 years of ownership) when she gets really dirty and I don't have the time to hand wash. I never hand dry the car after the touchless because I don't trust that it's actually clean enough to run a towel over the paint.

I would never consider letting someone else hand wash the Z unless I know them personally and have seen their car wash habits in action. The hand wash places around here cost $50+ for the basic service and are guaranteed to swirl your paint from what I've seen. Their hand drying procedure is horrific, typically using the same small towel ($hitty, regular cotton towel - not even microfiber) for the entire car, folding it over maybe once if you're lucky :shakes head:

I ran it through a touch less car wash once. There were different levels of cleaning you could choose so being me I chose the highest one with the clear coat protectant. There was some leftover white residue left inbetween some of the panels of the car and between the seam on outside mirrors that runs around the outside of the plastic housing. I always wash my car by hand but only did touch less one time because it was towards the end of winter and drive during the winter so I didn't wanna freeze my hands off. I would do it again if I had to, but I would just choose the lower level of cleaning with basically just soap and water being sprayed on.

:tup:

it's better to carry some QD and wipe, or wipe as your dry wax, or even better, waterless carwash spray when you're done autowashing the car cause there's still a lot of crap left on the paint. :eekdance:

I take my Eclipse to a touchless car wash. It's not a conveyor belt one; the arms actually move around the car while I chill out inside; and it's not *too* powerful when it's doing the real washing. Then I move forward under my own power below giant jet-like turbines that blow the water off.

Now that I have a Z and care about the washing, I realize this was never *truly* getting my car clean. Thankfully the Eclipse is silver so it hides it very well.

I have taken the Z through this same carwash, but only because I was in between normal washes and got nailed by birds and had tons of bugs from a rural drive in the middle of the week. I think it's fine, as long you realize it's not *really* clean until you manually do things like the wheels, wheel-wells, and other nooks. But I think it's a valid once-in-a-while habit.

Your mileage varies depending on the car wash, of course.


That said, if I had my own place and driveway, I'd always do a handwash or touch-up on my own. As it is, I am still figuring out a good routine at a local coin-op wand-wash place. I really just use them for drainage, shade, water-sprayer/rinse, and vacuum.

:icon17:

Car washes are for Priuses and Honda Fits -- and lazy folks.

I want to quote that post but I think I will hold the horse on this one.... :bowrofl:

I have ran my 2012 silver through a touch less several times and it does a pretty good job. I haven't noticed any damage? I get them for free and it's a quick high pressure spray that seems to do the job and a blower at the end that you can fully take your time on blowing it dry! I have read the manual about chems that are harsh but I use the soap and water option. No complaints yet..... No damage I can see after about 20 washes so far? Looks better then when i pulled it out of the dealers lot.. So guess when I notice something like spots I will complain? So far so good! I don't have 3 hours in my busy life to go and detail the Z every week. Seems ok to me....:happydance::happydance:

It's harder to see swirl marks on the silver but you should check for them.

This is the state I got my Z in. Still fixing the paint.

Before/After

http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1369295772


http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1369295772

Here the car washes are advanced. You see anything and everything at them. My local Aral station has nice wash that is typical of Germany -
You drive in, set the brake etc and walk out.
The machine moves around the car and they have a nice rotary brush that cleans the wheels etc. Cleans under the chassis in winter.

I use it 20% of the time and hand wash the other other 80%.

Zero issues. Even my neighbor takes his R8 there. No worries here at least.

That's what I do, except I don't use their nasty sponges or brushes - that's just begging to get swirls all over your car. Dirt gets trapped in those things.

This is what I do. I've got it down to a science.
1. Bring a big bag full of microfibers and a wash bucket with a dirt catcher in the bottom.
2. Insert $5 and use the high pressure soap wash to take off as many bugs and debris as I can. Get the whole car soaked. Then before the time runs out, I fill up my bucket with the soap water, so that I don't have to keep inserting $$.
3. Wash the whole car by hand with the microfibers and get all of the dirt loosened up. This is the most time consuming step.
4. Put in another $5 and use the high pressure rinse to blast away all the soap and dirt.
5. Use a low pressure spot-free rinse to lightly coat the car before time runs out.
6. Use the remaining half of the microfibers to hand dry the car.
7. Open up the doors and hatch and clean all of the interior panels, which should already be somewhat wet.
8. Use a second bag to discard all of the wet and dirty microfibers for washing later.
9. Dump out the soap water in the bucket, pack up everything and drive away spotless.

I'm in an apartment also and try to bucket wash at the coin operated self wash. I only use their normal water though - I use my own cash wash soap.

I do have a problem though - how do you fill your bucket? The sprayers on the ones near me are so strong that they just blast the water out of the bucket when trying to fill lol.

What is your process?

Same if you do it by hand, spraying water on your car doesn't get it clean..............its the hand work after words. See the other stuff I do at home but I use the touchless car wash to get started then do the rest by hand at home. I don't understand the lazy part as in many places you CANT wash your car in your drive way. :shakes head: I know I can't.

Hell no!!!!

This is pretty much exactly what I'm honing towards. Thank you! The first time I went I did a terrible job, mostly because I took one look at the plastic brush (that no doubt hits the ground with every other user) and said no way. I'm washing my car every weekend (rain or shine, whether I need it or not) until I get a good routine the ends up with me being satisfied. After that, try out some clay and sealant and start being proactive.

What are you afraid you might ruin your Rolls Royce?

Used junkman's:

http://www.the370z.com/detailing-was...ge-videos.html

Washing
Claying
Cutting
Polishing
Waxing

Hello fellow Z'ed Heads-

I wanted to chime in real quick with my car wash experiences. I drive a 2011 base and I was told by the US Nissan Motor Corp. that automatic car washes were not recommended. I asked, "So the Nissan Motor Corp. is telling me that I cannot take my car through a car wash?" "Yes", was the reply. This had just come off the heels of me purchasing the vehicle and the first time I drove it through a car wash. I was also told by the service personnel at Nissan service dept. not to take it through a car wash with a undercarriage wash. It seemed that the undercarriage wash was shorting out electrical somewhere and I would lose all my gauges. The car would still run, but if I turned it off, then I could never restart the vehicle. This ended up happening twice and each time it was towed back to the dealership to have the ecu reset. Eventually we found a grommet on the firewall passenger side that was being blown out by the pressure of the undercarriage wash. They popped it back in and so far so good. So regardless to say, I have heeded these warnings and I hand wash my car now. The other day a pack of unruly, wild birds flew over my car and desecrated it with a shower of...well you know. I was scrambling and nowhere near my house, so I pulled in to a car wash and asked that the undercarriage wash be turned off. They obliged my seeing my awful predicament. This would get me by until this weekend when I have a hand wax scheduled. I went through and everything was fine. I do think there is another issue with automatic car washes. Our sheet metal do not take the air dryers well. I could hear the roof waving with the dryers movement...not good!! I only use them now if I absolutely have to....just my 2cents...

Carry QD an a microfiber cloth with you. That should take care of the dreaded bird onslaughts. :ugh2:

I have yet to even consider taking her through a wash of any kind. :)

:iagree:

...on both counts

My wash routine isn't the only thing I do, I also have a clay bar and random orbital with various polishes and waxes. But I don't do that every week or anything.