as a car Enthusiast keeping your car
clean at all times is a point of Pride
showing up to a car meet with a dirty
car and anything short of a pro runner
truck just feels like you're being
negligent now I'll admit there are times
and there are instances where washing
your car yourself and spending a lot of
time on it are challenging for one if
you live in an apartment complex and you
don't readily have access to a hose in a
driveway like you would if you had a
house it's harder to wash your car two
sometimes you're super super busy and at
the last minute you decide hey I want to
go to a car meet or oh man I'm late to a
meeting but I don't want my car looking
like this what are your options you do
have to be careful however because car
washes can be very very dangerous to
your car especially depending upon what
type it is anecdotally unfortunately I
once took my BMW M5 through an automated
car wash it had a veyor system where it
locks onto the driver's side wheels and
pulls it along well unfortunately there
was a slight malfunction or basically
they didn't do enough upkeep in the
machine uh so some of the plastic had
broken off and I curbed the crap out of
the side of my wheels I guess I didn't
really do it the machine did but I feel
responsible because I took the car to
that car wash thankfully they paid for
it but it took a long time and with
matching finishes on three-stage Shadow
Chrome it's a nightmare you don't want
to do it so without further Ado here are
the five ways car washes can destroy
your car thankfully those automated car
washes that look like a haunted house
for car enthusiasts no longer have those
crazy bristles that are going to destroy
your paint however the replacement often
times is called mitter curtains now
these curtains are soft claws that run
back and forth or side to side across
your car uh to get the dirt off via
friction it's very very hard to get dirt
off just by spraying it with water
spraying it with soap and then water
again usually you do have to make
contact with your car now these machines
are very very expensive a full automated
car wash can run into the millions of
dollars so repairing them all the time
isn't something that the person who owns
the car wash is really going to want to
do thousands and thousands of cars go by
eventually these curtains are going to
develop small tears those tears can hook
onto things namely your windshield
wipers many people have reported with
these types of washes that their
windshield wipers have been ripped
straight off their car also if you have
the shark fin antenna on the roof of
your car like on almost all BMWs those
have been removed as well another thing
is when there's rips and tears and even
not if a muddy car goes through there's
going to be rocks and debris that can
stick to these cloths and scratch your
car now people that own car washes will
say well we're using so much soof and
water that it'll develop a barrier
between the cloths and your car but
there is no barrier great enough to help
you from a giant rock or even tons of
little tiny rocks scratching the hell
out of your paint touchless car washes
seems like a great invention and part of
it is usually there's no conveyor so
you're not going to curb your wheels and
often times the machine goes around your
car on Rails so that it never actually
comes in contact in any way other than
with soap and water the problem is and
it really makes a lot of sense with you
think about it it's really hard to get
dirt off by just spraying soap at the
car so either the car wash is going to
do a terrible job and you wasted five 10
bucks on a car wash that did nothing or
they use really intense chemicals to eat
away at the dirt most companies use
hydrofluoric acid this is good at
eliminating dirt but it's also good at
eliminating your sealant and your wax on
your car's paint now people caught wind
of this and companies started naming the
hydr Floric acid low PH cleaner it's the
same thing and it is not good for your
car as I mentioned in the beginning the
Conveyor Systems are one of the worst
contributors to damage to your car now
in theory they have these plastic guards
that prevent damage to your wheels if
you have high-profile tires it's
possible it'll just come in contact with
rubber but if you drive anything normal
anything smaller than a full-size SUV or
even an SUV with lower profile tires and
wheels that you care about it is not a
good idea a the reason being like I said
before these machines are expensive
maintenance is expensive they're not
going to be replacing the guards at all
times and when the guard and when the
guard whale and when the guard
whales wears and when the guard wears
when the guard wears down it exposes
some nasty things one the metal guard
rail to support the plastic or bolts you
have to remember there's tons of people
that don't care as much about their
wheels so they might drive really close
to the side of the conveyor and crack
the plastic and exposing really sharp
objects that's what happened to my car
it wasn't in the beginning where it
funnels you into the correct position
obviously that could be a contributor it
was actually in the middle of the car
wash in a spot that you can't see unless
you were to turn the system off and walk
through it but there was a very intense
jolt to the side of my car and alas the
paint came off the wheels if you're
going to take a gamble take a look at
your wheels before and after the wash
but chances are even if something does
happen it's going to be a major pain in
the ass to actually get it fixed whether
or not they actually pay for the repair
of course they probably get people all
the time coming in pretending there's
damage to their car uh and if they gave
everyone money who claimed damage they
would go out of business just avoid them
one of the biggest problems with car
washes is actually water spots those
lovely air dryers at the end try their
best but chances are they're not going
to get all the water off usually not
even close now when the water spots dry
one they make your car look absolutely
horrible especially on a black car water
spots can make it look worse than if it
was dirty before the wash but two if
left alone long enough say you're in a
rush you wash your car sometimes water
spots can actually cause etching in your
paint and are almost permanent you'd
have to get an actual detail and get
them buffed out which really defeats the
purpose of spending money on a wash so
what do you do once you're done with the
car wash if you choose to do that which
at this point not sure why you would dry
your car off with microfiber towels to
eliminate the ugly looking and
potentially dangerous water spots
believe it or not one issue at car
washes is people at nicer car washes
often people are employed to do a hand
wash after the car wash sometimes even a
full hand wash the problem is people
often make mistakes one being using the
same towel over and over again on
multiple people's cars or dropping the
towel not thinking about it picking it
up and continuing to dry the car with
rocks now loaded up into the microfiber
towel other times they just don't do a
very good job I've had Wheels hand
washed before and they didn't get any of
the brake dust off whatsoever and it was
just a plain waste of money so what's
the solution to all this well one option
is to do some research get some some car
care products and wash your car yourself
using proper methods with two buckets
and all that we might actually make a
video on that with our friend Matt who
runs a detailing company uh to show you
how to properly wash a car the other
option is and these are pretty common
Booth washes where you can do it
yourself you drive in it's got three
walls and then you've got a hose that
has different settings now you can spray
it with water and then even use your own
soap if you want or you can use the soap
they have and you can use your own
microfiber towels so you can make sure
the wash is just how you like it
actually gets cleaned well and you can
prevent uh the damage of having a
conveyor belt or having those miter
curtains scrape on your car with that I
hope you found this video informative
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