How to wash a car during winter season? I do not have a garage, live in a condo building

[alex77]

New to Tesla, just picked up two weeks ago
I live in Chicago, in a condo building don't have access to water hose.
How can I wash it ? I see a lot of duct on it?
Any expert opinions?

Thanks

 

[jjrandorin]

Forgive me for asking a somewhat obvious question, but what did you do for the car you just replaced this model 3 with? Whatever you did there, do that, including "I didnt wash it cause XXXXX".

These are regular cars, you can do whatever you did before to do stuff like washing it.

 

[brancky3]

New to Tesla, just picked up two weeks ago
I live in Chicago, in a condo building don't have access to water hose.
How can I wash it ? I see a lot of duct on it?
Any expert opinions?

Thanks

Optimum no rinse (ONR). It’s amazing. Also, it’s just a car as the guy above said.

 

[cgell]

In winter (because the hose freezes at home) I take my car to a self-serve wash bay at the local car wash. If you’ve never used one, it’s basically a pressure washer that lets you select different modes (wash soap, wheel cleaner, water rinse, etc).

I avoid automatic washes to prevent paint damage. I also don’t use rinseless wash because it also damages paint if your car is actually dirty. It may be minor, but it is scratching. People say it won’t, but no amount of surfactant, lubricant, or any other chemical makes it ok to simply rub dirt off of the paint. I’m not saying it’s a bad product, but it’s a shortcut, not a miracle product.

 

[Mutant]

As branky3 stated, a rinseless wash is your best option. I also prefer ONR but there are many rinseless wash options these days. Ideally you should not attempt in temperatures well below freezing (- 10 deg C) as the wash solution will potentially freeze to the vehicle surface before you have a chance to dry away. To make it more comfortable, use warm water to make the wash solution.

In addition to deal with extreme grit and grime consider getting the Hydroshot from Worx which is a battery powered pressure washer that is able to draw water directly from a bucket. Again use warm water (not hot water as it can destroy the pump/seals) in the bucket as pre rinse to remove most of the grit from lower panels before doing the rinseless wash. I personally use this method year round as it is very effective even though I have access to water from a hose as the total ammount of water used is very little (4-5 gal for pre rinse and 1-2 gal rinseless wash solution).

 

[alex77]

As branky3 stated, a rinseless wash is your best option. I also prefer ONR but there are many rinseless wash options these days. Ideally you should not attempt in temperatures well below freezing (- 10 deg C) as the wash solution will potentially freeze to the vehicle surface before you have a chance to dry away. To make it more comfortable, use warm water to make the wash solution.

In addition to deal with extreme grit and grime consider getting the Hydroshot from Worx which is a battery powered pressure washer that is able to draw water directly from a bucket. Again use warm water (not hot water as it can destroy the pump/seals) in the bucket as pre rinse to remove most of the grit from lower panels before doing the rinseless wash. I personally use this method year round as it is very effective even though I have access to water from a hose as the total ammount of water used is very little (4-5 gal for pre rinse and 1-2 gal rinseless wash solution).

thanks
I should have mentioned I have PPF installed on the front of the car.
Is that still OK ?

 

[alex77]

Forgive me for asking a somewhat obvious question, but what did you do for the car you just replaced this model 3 with? Whatever you did there, do that, including "I didnt wash it cause XXXXX".

These are regular cars, you can do whatever you did before to do stuff like washing it.

I did not replace that car. I still have it. Tesla it is just an additional car

 

[jjrandorin]

I did not replace that car. I still have it. Tesla it is just an additional car

Ok

So... what do you do for that car?

 

[D.E.]

I also don’t use rinseless wash because it also damages paint if your car is actually dirty. It may be minor, but it is scratching. People say it won’t, but no amount of surfactant, lubricant, or any other chemical makes it ok to simply rub dirt off of the paint. I’m not saying it’s a bad product, but it’s a shortcut, not a miracle product.

Actually you can clean the car without scratching it. It takes a heap of clean microfiber cloths, you fold a cloth into quarters then you roll the clean square to lift the dirt from the paint. Once you’ve used that quarter of the cloth, you move to a clean quarter. Using both sides, you get 8 clean squares per cloth. It takes practice but the cloth is never dragged against the paint so no scratches. The only thing that touches the paint is a clean microfiber surface. So you spray with the waterless wash then wipe if off with the microfiber. i use an aircraft product. It leaves the car clean, glossy, and without scratches.

If he’s got a self healing film, he can learn the microfiber technique on those film covered surfaces. It takes more to time write about it than it does to learn to do it. There should be videos on line on exactly how to do it.

The wash I use is this: Amazon.com

When buying microfiber, I’d look for the cloths that don’t have the edge binding. That edge binding is not microfiber and can possibly scratch.

 

[D.E.]

The other way to clean it is to use a bay at a car wash that has the self service coin operated pressure washer wand. Try not to spray hard the edges of your film or you risk lifting the film. Don’t take it through a car wash with the rotating brushes.

There are ways to wash it with wet microfiber, using grit screens in the bottom of your wash bucket and your clean water bucket. Essentially you do something similar with the wet microfiber, using the roll, lift technique and aggressively rinsing the cloth in the bucket to remove the grit from the cloth. I buy my buckets from horse supply shops, they have the best buckets (they’re made to feed horses so very well made). For the grit screen, I buy the 2X4 foot light diffusers from a home store, they look like a grid of 1/2” squares. I cut two for each bucket so I have two stacked grit screens in each bucket. That lets the grit settle to the bottom so the water above the grit screens is free of grit.

So…
Wait for a warmish day then use the car wash pressure wash wand to clean and rinse the car. You can dry with micorfiber, blot drops, don’t wipe.
If you don’t want to do that, then you can wash it with the two buckets, microfiber, and grit screens. Be careful doing this.
if you are truly waterless, you can use the aircraft product and a bunch of clean microfiber cloths. I keep this setup in the back of my car so I can clean it anywhere. It takes a lot of cloths.

Good luck. Upload a picture when you get it clean. This is mine, it’s over 5 years old, no scratches at all. Leading surfaces and hood have XPel film.

 

[cgell]

Actually you can clean the car without scratching it. It takes a heap of clean microfiber cloths, you fold a cloth into quarters then you roll the clean square to lift the dirt from the paint. Once you’ve used that quarter of the cloth, you move to a clean quarter. Using both sides, you get 8 clean squares per cloth. It takes practice but the cloth is never dragged against the paint so no scratches. The only thing that touches the paint is a clean microfiber surface. So you spray with the waterless wash then wipe if off with the microfiber. i use an aircraft product. It leaves the car clean, glossy, and without scratches.

If he’s got a self healing film, he can learn the microfiber technique on those film covered surfaces. It takes more to time write about it than it does to learn to do it. There should be videos on line on exactly how to do it.

The wash I use is this: Amazon.com

When buying microfiber, I’d look for the cloths that don’t have the edge binding. That edge binding is not microfiber and can possibly scratch.

I have sold many thousands of detailing products. I have designed custom paste waxes, designed custom microfiber towels, etc. So I’m not just stating this based off of third hand info. If there is dirt or debris on your car and you rub it, there is no avoiding micro-scratches. Rinseless wash greatly reduces, but does not eliminate scratching. You may not notice, but clean like that for a while and then take a good light to it. It won’t leave big noticeable scratches, but it is not as good as a proper wash. That’s fine for most people, but I choose to avoid it.

 

[D.E.]

I have sold many thousands of detailing products. I have designed custom paste waxes, designed custom microfiber towels, etc. So I’m not just stating this based off of third hand info. If there is dirt or debris on your car and you rub it, there is no avoiding micro-scratches. Rinseless wash greatly reduces, but does not eliminate scratching. You may not notice, but clean like that for a while and then take a good light to it. It won’t leave big noticeable scratches, but it is not as good as a proper wash. That’s fine for most people, but I choose to avoid it.

This wasn’t meant as a personal evaluation of your expertise, merely describing methods. I believe waterless can be done without scratches but it takes care. My white car will not show anything like the scratches that your black car will. Still I cannot see any scratches on mine even with strong light looking closely.

Alex77 doesn’t have the freedom to choose from all the options we have. I like a foam cannon and then a leaf blower to dry, but he can’t do that. I’d like to try the distilled water to rinse, but that seems exotic to me. Anyway Alex77 will need to choose.

 

[cgell]

This wasn’t meant as a personal evaluation of your expertise, merely describing methods. I believe waterless can be done without scratches but it takes care. My white car will not show anything like the scratches that your black car will. Still I cannot see any scratches on mine even with strong light looking closely.

Alex77 doesn’t have the freedom to choose from all the options we have. I like a foam cannon and then a leaf blower to dry, but he can’t do that. I’d like to try the distilled water to rinse, but that seems exotic to me. Anyway Alex77 will need to choose.

I only mentioned my experience to point out that I’m not just repeating general internet info. Like I said, fine for most people. I prefer to avoid scratches as much as possible - just my preference. White is definitely more forgiving, that’s true. But no scratches at all? Not if the car had any significant level of dirt/debris on the paint. Some of that will be rubbed into the paint. Maybe you can’t see it easily on a white car, but it’s there. Again though, fine for most people. I’m just a bit obsessed when it comes to car care.

 

[alex77]

I did not replace that car. I still have it. Tesla it is just an additional car

Actually you can clean the car without scratching it. It takes a heap of clean microfiber cloths, you fold a cloth into quarters then you roll the clean square to lift the dirt from the paint. Once you’ve used that quarter of the cloth, you move to a clean quarter. Using both sides, you get 8 clean squares per cloth. It takes practice but the cloth is never dragged against the paint so no scratches. The only thing that touches the paint is a clean microfiber surface. So you spray with the waterless wash then wipe if off with the microfiber. i use an aircraft product. It leaves the car clean, glossy, and without scratches.

If he’s got a self healing film, he can learn the microfiber technique on those film covered surfaces. It takes more to time write about it than it does to learn to do it. There should be videos on line on exactly how to do it.

The wash I use is this: Amazon.com

When buying microfiber, I’d look for the cloths that don’t have the edge binding. That edge binding is not microfiber and can possibly scratch.

@D.E. Thanks. So, for this method, I just need to have :
1. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...search_asin_image?ie=UTF8&psc=1&tag=tmc064-20
2. Microfiber cloth
and that's all, no water required. Am I correct?

 

[alex77]

Ok

So... what do you do for that car?

@jjrandorin for my other car which is 2013 Acura TL, I go to a car wash
But for tesla, I don't want to go through car wash. Because, I am reading the paint on teslas are far from perfect.

 

[jjrandorin]

@jjrandorin for my other car which is 2013 Acura TL, I go to a car wash
But for tesla, I don't want to go through car wash. Because, I am reading the paint on teslas are far from perfect.

Ahh ok, yeah that makes sense. I mean, a car wash can put micro scratches in basically any cars paint, but with that being said, I will agree wholeheartedly that the paint on a tesla is not really the same as on an Acura, or a BMW (or quite a few other brands actually).

 

[Randy-12]

@jjrandorin for my other car which is 2013 Acura TL, I go to a car wash
But for tesla, I don't want to go through car wash. Because, I am reading the paint on teslas are far from perfect.

I read the same thing but to me it is a car, not a work of art to sit in a frame and be admired over the next 2 centuries.
Drive it, Car wash it, do what you need to do for you.

For me in the winter, I use the corner automatic car wash then go home and park the car in the garage, the end.

 

[alex77]

I read the same thing but to me it is a car, not a work of art to sit in a frame and be admired over the next 2 centuries.
Drive it, Car wash it, do what you need to do for you.

For me in the winter, I use the corner automatic car wash then go home and park the car in the garage, the end.

@Randy-12 Like how you put it "not a work of art to sit in a frame and be admired over the next 2 centuries.", but when you pay almost $70K with all the adds, which dont work yet, it becomes like a piece of art

 

[Randy-12]

@Randy-12 Like how you put it "not a work of art to sit in a frame and be admired over the next 2 centuries.", but when you pay almost $70K with all the adds, which dont work yet, it becomes like a piece of art

Well I got what I paid for and everything works as expected.
To each their own.

 

[D.E.]

@D.E. Thanks. So, for this method, I just need to have :
1. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...search_asin_image?ie=UTF8&psc=1&tag=tmc064-20
2. Microfiber cloth
and that's all, no water required. Am I correct?

I did not find you a tutorial on the “rolling towel” method. In general the waterless car washes are meant for a lightly soiled or dusty car. A dirty or gritty car does increase the possibility of scratches.

I think the best option for you is a car wash that offers the use of self service pressure wash wands. Then there’s no touching of the paint at all. You can combine with a bucket/grit trap setup for especially soiled parts.

I’m happy with waterless but wouldn’t do it without knowing the non-scratch folded microfiber techniques.