Hand washing is best. Touchless is OK, but I'd try to avoid doing it with the engine really hot. Take it there first thing in the morning or let it cool down for half an hour first.

 

Well I work there so its nice, I can leave it there all day when I am working and run ti through at night. At the carwash I work at it is just brushes and foam touching the car and I have NEVER had a problem with scratching the car. The only thing I have seen is at otehr car washes they have these dryers that come down on your car and those scratch it. We have air dryers then outside we also and dry the car. If a carwash is just all cloth and brushes touching your car how can the car get scratched??

 

One of the touchless in my area has a powerful dryer, and when it went across the aluminum roof, I heard a big pop, as if the roof had dented in from the powerful air being pushed to it. Luckily, I think the roof pushed back out since I didn't see any dents, but I will never go through those ever again.

 

In an issue of Car and Driver magazine from about 10 years ago there's an article about touge battles in Japan. The article featured a C4 Corvette, a MkIV Supra TT, and an R32 Skyline GTR. Before doing a photo shoot with the cars they took them to a drive through car wash outside of Tokyo. The top brush got wrapped around the Supra's wing and tore it right off of the car. There's a pic in the mag of the car wash attendant on her knees sobbing in front of the broken wing, she thought she was going to lose her job and have to pay for it. They told her don't worry about it and went on their way to the mountains.

I remember that story to this day and because of it there is no way in hell I'll run my evo through an automated car wash unless I de-wing it.

 

I usualy pay the chewies to do it hand wax for 40 bucks. But last time I took it through the touch free spray wash it steamed like crazy from the manifold. And the fan almost blew my rear wiper off haha. So maybe I might dry it off myself next time.

 

do the work yourself and wash it by hand- think of it as a character builder

 

The car wash I take mine to has the curtain rags for the top of the car instead of the spinning thing.

Anything under 40-50 degrees is horrible for hand-washing, especially if there's wind.

Your hands get so cold from being wet they start to hurt

 

yeah,. c'mon, when it rains u get water everywhere or anywhere for that matter regardless, so its not going to kill the car. I don't own an evo, but i do have an evo wing, and i've run my car through the machine wash so many times and it hasn't scratched or scuffed or did anything harmful to my wing! Only probablem i have with carwashes is that my headlights fog up (but thats my fault...improper sealing)heh

 

Take a look at the paint under direct sunlight or under a closely placed, high-wattage halogen. You may be very surprised by what you see.

 

Yea Black car = No Touch car washes in the winter. Hand wash only in the summer. Thoses brushes or even the neoprene ones do a number to swirl and fine scratch your paint Mitsus don't need any help in craping up the paint

 

***** shouldn't be in your vocab, bret.


I would do it by hand, thats how I wash it...


btw nice name lol

 

what about if u remove the vent from the hood and just leave the mesh. does it make that much of a difference if you are driving in the rain? i understand it may not extract heat as well but im just talking about water getting in. anyones thoughts?



also i have gone through a touchless system at a gas station and they dont come close to the wing. so if u prefer not to hand wash go to a car was with a laser - touchless. take a couple of towels and hand dry w/e water is left if ur ****.

 

I hand wash it. Went through the automatic a couple of times and the car idled funny.

 

I have my vent removed from my car and go through the touchless wash by my house a lot now that its colder out. I have never had an issue as of yet.

Just a lot of steam and the EGT gauge going nuts.

 

Find one of those touch-free washes, or use the pressure washers.

I would highly advise against the traditional paddle-style carwash. They like to trap dirt from other vehicles, and scratch the **** out of your vehicle.