I don't know much about washing cars and taking care of the exterior so I was wondering what you guys would recommend me do when I live in an area that rains very frequently(seattle). I mean I wanna wash the car but it's gonna rain the next day or at the most a week later Also my front wheels get dirty really fast, happens on my parent's mercedes too. Is that just a problem all alloy wheels have? My last car didn't really have that problem. Anyway thanks if you respond!

 

What's the point it'll always be wet anyway?

I think there are some car wax that you can use that repel water. I waxed my car a month ago and I still have those damn white stuff between the crevices. I probably need a toothrbush to get it out.

 

I wash my car by hand if its a nice sunny day...I don't care if its gonna rain the next day or not...I just can't stand driving a dirty car on a nice sunny day !

don't be lazy...just do it !

these cars aren't that large...I can wash it 15 mins no problem.

 

heres my deal. I'm going out with a girl tonight. Its supposed to rain tomorrow, I dont feel like really washing the car but its filthy on outside, so I'll either run it through the cheap touchless wash today when I fill up or go to the coin-op do it yourself place and rinse it off. But I take pride in the inside being clean too.

 

Here is my overpriced $0.02:

1. Keep your car and your wheels waxed - it will repel water better and generally keep cleaner longer. It will also help with brake dust on wheels, but not much.

2. Never ever, ever use a car wash. The soaps they use have a LOT of detergent in them (that is how they get the car so clean without scrubbing!). That detergent removes wax. See #1.

3. Buy some wheel cleaner (Maguiars or P12S) and keep your wheels clean. Clean wheels really make your whole car look clean. Try it and see!

 

Yep, clean wheels make the car look clean.

 

I also live in the Seattle area (bothell) and drive a coupe. I wash my car every weekend with Eagle 1 Wet Shine car wash and polish it with Zymol polishing wax. It usually does rain on it right after I wash and wax it but I think the rain has little effect. I park it in the garage every night and if its wet I will dry it off with some towels before I put it up for the night.

In regards to the wheels:
I recently just got new wheels and upgraded to Porterfield (low dust) front brake pads. Makes a big difference, and I also clean my wheels when I wash my car. I use meiguars wheel cleaner.

Just make sure not to let any of those pesky pine needles into your car from your shoes when getting in. The interior is the most important to keep clean

Matt

 

I wax my car with zymol carbon... i get this white filmy crap on my black car right after it rains... do i need to use a high speed buffer?

 

ive had 2 MB's and my parents have had 3 and the front wheel brake dust has always been noticable. my '00 VW new beetle and '01 VW jetta has more brake dust on the rear wheels. i dunno if this a difference in FWD and RWD, but something ive noticed.

 

Regardless of whether it is a pusher or puller, the front brakes do 75% to 80% of the braking. Having more dust on the rears than on the fronts is really strange. Are you sure your not driving the VW's backwards?:p

 

I figured if my car is RWD then the rear would be more dirty, obviously thats not the case. I do agree that clean wheels make the car appear a lot cleaner then it is. However, I must disagree that these "wheel cleaners" are effective. They are not. I've tried various ones and they have the same effect as any car cleaner or dish soap.

 

Wow thanks for all the tips! anyone got good places in the seattle area/online I could buy car wash/wax stuff? Also are there any nice non-cloth carpets i could buy for it? I dunno how it'd look but my dad uses them in his car and they're much easier to clean.

 

You're killen me ;-)

Check this out, not to get into a wax war, but I personally have had extra ordinary, awesome actually, results:

http://www.zainobros.com/

I wish it would rain more down here in LA. Instead of drizzle, that is. Either do it or don't.

Around here it is the damn idiots watering their lawns and the freeways at noon in the hot daylight.

It's actually worse than rain it seems.

Drove to Vegas Saturday, through a rainstorm, then an hour of dust storm, car filthy, lucked out and got some rain on the way back to wash it off ;-)

 

try www.zymol.com

in regards to the "non-cloth carpets" look at http://www.mbusa.com/brand/container...=03_C&menu=3_1 and scroll down to the all season floor mats.

Matt

 

haha that's funny.


anyways, other than washing and waxing the car, is there any other sort of protection i need for the car? not just in the rain, but snow too. I am wondering if the salt the cities dump all over the roads could be hazardous for example.