I remove the louvers in the summer and drive through touchless car washes all the time with no problems.

 

I've used a touchless as least 4 times now with not 1 issue, but I always shut my engine off while it's going, so maybe that's the difference. It's a waste of gas to just sit there idling anyways. I do a hand wash as much as I can but sometimes when you don't have time to do the whole bit and just wanna spray the dirt off it helps out.

 

I do touch-free and do the self-wash with the pressure sprayer, and never had a problem. Like the other guy said, in the touch-free lots of mist rises from the vent and fogs your windshield lol.

 

News flash people. That touch free crap is like sand blasting your car. I'd bet after that wash under the sun your'll see all the swirls? The reason being is because most placed uses recirculated/filtered water. Your getting small dirt particles sprayed on your car.

Just go to the power washer. Buy yourself a mit and gel soap so no bucket of water is required and do a 100% job. Go home and then wax it

TO dry off you can use a drying blade but be carefull. Make sure your car is super waxed previously and only use that blade only on wet area and dont' go over twice. If you do have swirls and inperfection you can alway polish off.

 

agghhh, I love my Evo, but my time is to valuable to hand wash every week! The only prob with carwash is scratching my wheels.

 

My car had mad swirl marks from the dealership, so I can't really tell what makes it worse or better, they're just always gonna be there, and with red it shows really bad in direct sunlight. But I've used the touch free on my silver car and it doesn't have any swirl marks on it.

 

I got my red evo basically right off the truck with the plastic on and not even one swirl. I'd bet they took the really soft wet paint right off with a buffer? You should not wax a car until 2 or 3 month after the build date or something.

 

ditto... got it right off the truck... i do recommend hand washing it in the worst way... this paint seems a lil' thin from the get go and might not take any abuse well... the only time i use a car wash is in the winter time to hose off the salt and such... if you don't have a hose available at a house, just grab some stuff from wal-mart, a bucket, mitt/sponge, wheel cleaner, and some good soap like the Meguiar's Nxt Gen stuff, and an Absorber...... take it to your normal carwash and hand wash it in a stall when it's not packed... it'll go a long way to helping the car look great for a long time...

 

you know the other day i was watching the rain hit my evo hard and i figured maybe i should build a simple thing to 'clip' onto the hood vent cover so most of the rain would just pour onto the front instead of collecting there or pouring into the engine bay..... hmmm maybe i'll make it and sell it on evom haha

 

I think the car wash depends on a lot of things......water presure, size & angle of the jets, etc. I tried one time and all kinds of steam came out of the hood vent. As previously said, rain wont hurt anything though.

 

another Heads Up. dont use the brushes at the self car wash stations, most people drop them on the floor and they pick up small rocks, and do a number on your paint!

 

I washed my car twice a week, an automatic car wash during the weekday and i hand wash it during the weekend. Have had ZERO problems with water getting into the engine.

 

Why are you taking the evo through a car wash...... wash the car yourself........

 

You shouldn't have any problems with water going into the vent, I do it all the time, and my car still goes forward But wash the car urself. Just do it every month or so and smear a chunk load of wax on it.

 

I have had no problems with the touchless car washes. But if you are a guru then you may want to wash it ny had instead. =)