Winter Grime

[Col Falls]

1st year in snow country with my M3. The car gets totally filthy from slush, sand, etc. When run through the brushless car wash, loose stuff is removed but left with a gritty grime--feels like sandpaper. Any ideas on how to remove it without damaging the paint which doesn't have the best reputation for durability?

 

[MoHazee4]

Eventually I just started going to the regular car wash ... maybe go through the touchless first, then visit the normal one.

 

[awww]

How gritty does it feel like? Sandpaper have various grits.
I noticed when I go through the touches wash it's not completely clean. I have been spraying spray detailer or a waterless wash and wipe with a microfiber towel depending how much grime is left. It's the rocker panels and the rear bumper that is usually the problem for me.

 

[awww]

I mean touchless wash.^

 

[Col Falls]

Eventually I just started going to the regular car wash ... maybe go through the touchless first, then visit the normal one.

I've been under the impression that the conventional car washes can damage the paint. We took delivery June, 2019 so maybe better paint?

 

[WilliamG]

Eventually I just started going to the regular car wash ... maybe go through the touchless first, then visit the normal one.

Never! Never go through the touch car wash.

 

[Col Falls]

How gritty does it feel like? Sandpaper have various grits.
I noticed when I go through the touches wash it's not completely clean. I have been spraying spray detailer or a waterless wash and wipe with a microfiber towel depending how much grime is left. It's the rocker panels and the rear bumper that is usually the problem for me.

It is a fine sandpaper feel. After the touches car wash I followed up with Optimum No Rinse cleaner and Meguiar's Exterior Detailer but have to rub very hard with microfiber towel to remove the grime. Worried that I am damaging the paint. Know of anything that would dissolve the grime?

 

[Col Falls]

Never! Never go through the touch car wash.

OK, thanks. Reinforces what I have thought.

 

[VT_EE]

You will drive yourself crazy worrying about tiny scratches. It’s your daily driver, not a museum piece. Leaving the chemicals on the paint is probably worse than the micro scratches from a car wash.

 

[linuxguyInMD]

scratches can diminish value over time. High resource method, options including touchless, apartment dweller wash .

 

[WilliamG]

You will drive yourself crazy worrying about tiny scratches. It’s your daily driver, not a museum piece. Leaving the chemicals on the paint is probably worse than the micro scratches from a car wash.

It’s not about tiny scratches. Every time you touch your car you’ll put hairline scratches in the paint. I’m over that. The touch car washes literally THRASH your paint.

 

[Col Falls]

scratches can diminish value over time. High resource method, options including touchless, apartment dweller wash .

Thanks for the links. Very informative.

 

[camalaio]

This is all my opinion and experience, there may be factually better approaches.

Depends on how much effort you want to put in. You could fully strip it with a hand wash (look up the usual, e.g. two-bucket method) using dish soap and then wax it after. This would absolutely get rid of the grime but is a lot of work.

The waterless washes (my experience is with Optimum No Rinse, "ONR") do an okay job but seem to require some elbow grease to actually clean it in such conditions. When it's really dirty and I'm going for maximum clean without a full strip, I:

• Take it to a self-wash
• High-pressure wash the bulk of the dirt away
• Take it home
• Do a light hand-wash with ONR and realise it's super filthy
• Wait another day since I only have enough rags for one wash, and they're now in the washing machine/dryer
• Do a more aggressive hand-wash with ONR

Inevitably, I just don't wash it as often as I should in Winter. It's on the highway daily and just way too hard to keep clean. It's a daily driver and I'm OK with it being a bit dirty all the time in Winter.