How does every clean their model 3? Is Automatic car wash a bad idea?

[joebruin77]

I either do a rinseless wash using ONR or a waterless wash using Meguiars D115 Express Wash and Wax or Mckees 37 Waterless Wash on the Go.

I have a foam gun, but it honestly sits on the shelf. Although it is fun to make lots of foam, IMO 98% of the time it really isn't necessary

Avoid commercial car washes. They induce swirls and scratches like crazy. I personally also avoid touchless car washes. They do not scratch your paint, but because they do not make contact, they also do not clean your paint that well. And, most importantly, to compensate for the lack of contact on the paint, touchless car washes use chemically strong soaps with high Ph. These soaps will often degrade or completely remove waxes and sealants. So your car may look somewhat clean but as you leave the touchless wash, the paint is unprotected since the wax or sealant is reduced or gone.

No matter how careful you are when washing the car, drying is the step that is often overlooked as a source of inducing scratches and swirls. Larry from Ammo NYC has a great video about this. He sells a drying aid called Ammo Hydrate and I love this product. You basically dry your entire car with a single damp MF towel. I know it sounds weird but it really works. If you drag a dry MF towel across paint, it will likely scratch the paint. But if you move a damp towel with a drying aid such as Hydrate lubricating as you go, then you do not induce scratches.

 

[john5520]

Another thing about car washes, even the touchless ones, is they spray powerful jets of water. On a Tesla with the sensors and cameras, I'd be concerned about possible issues as a result.

 

[toolman335]

Another thing about car washes, even the touchless ones, is they spray powerful jets of water. On a Tesla with the sensors and cameras, I'd be concerned about possible issues as a result.

Based on my experience, I believe you're correct. The last three times I've been to a touchless carwash have not ended well. My driver's side door has all kinds of issues and I finally had to schedule a service appointment. Almost immediately upon leaving the carwash I get all kinds of blaring warnings. While driving down the road the car tells me I've activated the manual latch, all 4 windows in the car go up and down crazily fast because the car thinks I've opened the door, and my drivers door window won't go all the way up(again, because it thinks I've opened the door).
By the next day the car has apparently dried out enough and it starts to behave again. That being said, my drivers door window still won't go up all of the way under any condition. It has been a blast in the rain! I'll also say that 5+ days after a carwash that I still have a lot of water showing up on the windows if I had them down and rolled them up.
In heavy rain the vision system has issues seeing the road.
I changed my car name to Gizmo because it clearly doesn't like water.

 

[Bill Foster]

ok, I’ll ask. Which GSM from the Rag Company? 300, 420 or 500? And how many towels to wash and dry the car?

Currently around 20 of the 36 pack of Costco towels ( nominally 365 GSM) are used by me to wash and dry the car. One is quartered, dipped in the ONR bucket, about 1/10 of the car wiped wet, flipped eight times so dirt is never reapplied to the car. Then dirty towel pitched into empty bucket. Then another dry towel, quarter folded, is used to dry off that section of the car. Then that now slightly wet and abit dirty towel is also pitched into the dirty bucket.

Then I move to another dirty part of the car and repeat the process. So I use 20-24 towels to wash the car.

I never reuse a microfiber towel to dry the car. There could be some residual dirt removed by the towel as the car is dried. It seems somewhat dangerous ( swirl mark danger) to use the same microfiber towel to dry the whole car.

When I’m done washing and drying the car, the dirty bucket of microfiber towels goes into the washing machine with a tablespoon of soap and they are washed clean for their next use.

Is there a simpler equally safe way?

yeah, glass done with Invisible Glass and a couple more microfiber towels...

I have the eagle edge less 500. They were on sale when I bought em. I use 4-5 to dry the car.
I bought one of the “dry me a river” ones but honestly it didn’t seem to work any better then the cheaper edge less ones.

I got the Costco ones as a gift and they definitely don’t work as well, at least the ones I received

 

[N54TT]

Pretty much wash once a week...maybe stretch to 1.5-2 weeks depending on weather, schedule, how dirty the car gets.
PF22 Foam cannon with regular Adams shampoo, 2 bucket wash, rinse with deionized water and finish off with either quick spritz of gyeon wetcoat (wheels as well) or gyeon cure. All door jams,frunk,trunk get wiped down every wash. Tires get full treatment of Adams tire/rubber cleaner and topped off with CarPro Perl.

 

[N54TT]

I either do a rinseless wash using ONR or a waterless wash using Meguiars D115 Express Wash and Wax or Mckees 37 Waterless Wash on the Go.

I have a foam gun, but it honestly sits on the shelf. Although it is fun to make lots of foam, IMO 98% of the time it really isn't necessary

Avoid commercial car washes. They induce swirls and scratches like crazy. I personally also avoid touchless car washes. They do not scratch your paint, but because they do not make contact, they also do not clean your paint that well. And, most importantly, to compensate for the lack of contact on the paint, touchless car washes use chemically strong soaps with high Ph. These soaps will often degrade or completely remove waxes and sealants. So your car may look somewhat clean but as you leave the touchless wash, the paint is unprotected since the wax or sealant is reduced or gone.

No matter how careful you are when washing the car, drying is the step that is often overlooked as a source of inducing scratches and swirls. Larry from Ammo NYC has a great video about this. He sells a drying aid called Ammo Hydrate and I love this product. You basically dry your entire car with a single damp MF towel. I know it sounds weird but it really works. If you drag a dry MF towel across paint, it will likely scratch the paint. But if you move a damp towel with a drying aid such as Hydrate lubricating as you go, then you do not induce scratches.

100% agree with overlooking the drying step. But wet or not dragging anything over the paint can induce micro swirls. Only way to really help prevent it is to not drag anything additional other than the wash media. Especially on a coated car the water should just sheet off and using a blower will blow any standing water right off. I use an ego blower to blow standing water off the car, wheels and out of crevices. Using a DI rinse, can let anything left over just dry by itself.

 

[Fernand]

This is my 2018 during a road trip, so it should be dusty/grimy.
Maintained w/ ONR+W in a gallon of distilled water, and a spritz
of Opti-Seal per panel.

 

[LACALawyer]

I'll have to watch my guy sometime and let you know what he does...

 

[john5520]

This is my 2018 during a road trip, so it should be dusty/grimy.
Maintained w/ ONR+W in a gallon of distilled water, and a spritz
of Opti-Seal per panel.

View attachment 579647

I've heard of this stuff (opt-seal), but never really checked it out. Will have to get some.

 

[Fernand]

Opti-Seal is strange stuff. It can be used as a "wax"
detailing spray. It creates remarkable luster. But the
way most people use it is as a "drying aid", with
a single spray per panel while drying with a waffle
weave microfiber towel, after a rinseless wash with
ONR or ONRW. I prefer the latter, it takes a tad more
elbow grease because it leaves a little carnauba wax.

1) rinse off gritty dust/dirt off the paint/glass with a tap
water hose, then 2) spray down entire car with ONRW
in $1 Gal distilled water. It dilutes the mineral-bearing
tap water, and 3) wipe away with clean microfiber cloths
wet with the ONRW solution. 3 teaspoons in 1 gallon H2O
easily does a car, including all the outside glass, plus the
seats and dash.

Then 4) dry using drying towels w/ a spritz of Opti-Seal
per panel. Don't use more, it's a waste and it can streak.
Don't use the Opti-Seal on the seats ;-)

Altogether half an hour if you're vigorous ;-)

My $30 bottle of Opti-Seal has lasted 2 years on 2 cars
so far, as has the $20 bottle of Optimum No Rinse w/ Wax
w/ bi-weekly washing. Insanely economical on cost and time.

I'm a big fan of carnauba wax, but I switched to the above
sequence upon finding it took 1/10 the time and looked
just as good. Dirt doesn't stick to the surface - a 5 min
dusting wipe and it looks freshly waxed. Remarkable stuff.
.

 

[Lo-voltage]

Head over to self wash. use a little bug remover on the front then soap the car With the pressure hose. Let sit for a few then rinse
I don’t use automated car wash ever, I’m very careful with the hose so as not to focus on sensors or cameras or door seals. Drive out and dry with drying towel, drive 5 minutes home and a quick once over with meguiars ceramic wax (the yellow bottle)
The megs is amazing for long term beading and it really helps keep dirt from sticking to the paint

 

[Fernand]

Maybe "dirt doesn't stick to it". But ash and debris ...
That's what we get for not properly raking the 1.4 million
acres of forest that burned (so far).

And wow, that crap really ate into the paint. Gonna need
a trip down to Chinese lady with claybar tickee washee.

 

[Xambler]

After only 8000 miles of highway and steep gravel mountain roads the Tesla still looks like new...one application early on of a nano wax and basically daily washes in the mountains, weekly wash in Florida. Just strong spray of water from a hose and then a blue microfiber cloth to wipe down the car paint and windows followed by a yellow microfiber cloth for paint to prevent spotting and a fine weave microfiber glass cleaning cloth for the windows.

Same process I’ve used on my Miata, Bmws, Mr2, Jaguar, etc in the past with no problems...although back in Minnesota all those cars just collected a protective coating of mud, salt, and ice for most of the winter