Are all automatic car washes bad for your car?

T

ToyotaDave

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Location
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I have always been under the impression that all automatic car washes are bad for your cars paint. No matter if it is touch less or not as they use chemicals.

One of my coworkers was bragging about how good the car wash is and how he gets the wax add on with it all for $30.

Seems like a joke to me but he swears buy it. I told him it will scratch his car up over time.
 
ToyotaDave said:
I have always been under the impression that all automatic car washes are bad for your cars paint. No matter if it is touch less or not as they use chemicals.

One of my coworkers was bragging about how good the car wash is and how he gets the wax add on with it all for $30.

Seems like a joke to me but he swears buy it. I told him it will scratch his car up over time.
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So are you here questioning your own beliefs? Or are you here to convince others of your belief?
 
dubber09 said:
$30 car wash? Oh my. I used Costco one last Sunday, not touchless but US$7.99, it worked quite well, worth the expense.
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Locally-owned car wash in our town lets you pick touch-less or brushed wash and there's no more than $1 difference in each 'tier'. We have to get the one with underbody so it's $12-13 for touch-less. I think the least expensive is around $8-9.
 
My wife's car is 90% washed by the local car wash that uses felt strips in both the spinning scrubbers and the dragging ones. After 9 years of car wash you can see a little bit of swirl in the paint but nothing like the scratches left from car washes from 20 years ago that used brushes. On the plus side even the most basic wash has some kind of water repelling chemical in the water that significantly reduces the dirt that adheres on rainy and brined road days. Her car is one of the better looking ones for 15 years old and 200K.

Touchless is another ways of saying blasted with a pressure washer. Wouldn't do that under any circumstances.
 
1) As I understand it, most of them are now considered "soft-touch" (drapes, soft brushes, etc).

2) Anything that would be truly "touch-less" would have to be really high pressure water to blast away the dirt and I'm not convinced that's really much better

3) "chemicals" always touch your car. Water is a chemical compound of hydrogen and oxygen. Soaps are chemical compounds, too; some are very aggressive, but others quite mild.


IMO, the greatest enemies of typical vehicle paint are UV rays and unwanted chemicals like bird poo or road salt that's left on there for days at a time.
 
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The non-touchless car washes are fine until they're not. All it takes is one piece of the machine not operating at 100% for it to cause damage. I've had a couple of vehicles scratched through the primer over the years.

A new carwash just opened in my city, and you should see the number of legitimate complaints of damage (with photo evidence to support).. you guessed it, the carwash is not responsible for any damages.. so they claim.
 
Ideally you want to watch how low and high on the pH scale you hit your car with. That is the main concern. With products that are acidic (low pH) or highly alkaline (high pH), you run the risk of impacting plastics and other materials. They should be safe and to some degree probably are, but over time I could see it potentially being a problem. I'm not familiar with what all car washes use so it may vary.
 
I doubt they're great on the paint. My vehicle came pre-scratched with Mazda's notoriously soft paint. However the alternative is salt / brine sitting on my control arms and other suspension components til May... so I'll deal with the auto-wash.
 
Depends on how clean the felt strips are. The brush style is going away and those were much worse but i think the new brushes are supposed to be softer Many hand wash places have filthy grit loaded mitts and reuse the water by pouring in more and more but not dump it out so there's lots of grit at the bottom of the bucket as I've seen just that by walking around the buckets long ago when i had it done and I'm not willing to try again. Although I don't enjoy it I now wash my own trucks and always make sure the mitt is clean before and after washing. After almost 5 years the black paint on my escalade is still swirl free maybe the most miniscule and sparse of them but all in all very good for 5 years on black. I remember the automatic car washes wrecking the black paint in 5 years on a new ford I had which was the reason why I had it resprayed.
 
Patman said:
I pay less than $30 a month for a local car wash and I can go every single day if I wanted. That’s ridiculous if a car wash charges $30 just for one wash! 🙄
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That's how much it is now for the top tier wash. The basic is about $12.
 
jakeuten said:
I doubt they're great on the paint. My vehicle came pre-scratched with Mazda's notoriously soft paint. However the alternative is salt / brine sitting on my control arms and other suspension components til May... so I'll deal with the auto-wash.
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It’s hard in the winter time to clean them, I went out and bought one of those things you hook up to your power washer and roll it back and forth under your car.

I never see anyone wash there car by hand anymore. It used to be a common thing on the weekends.
 
As long as the “touch” car was is a quality national brand (Mister, Tommy’s Express, etc) there is no issue. I am tedious about keeping my truck detailed and scratch-free. After polishing my truck one day I went to a Mister car wash to see what would happen. No scratches, no swirls to be found. It’s even less worrisome if you ceramic coat your vehicle because it’s a sacrificial layer on top. Much more important to keep salt, dirt, bird poop, bugs, etc off your vehicle than worrying about an automatic wash.
 
ToyotaDave said:
I have always been under the impression that all automatic car washes are bad for your cars paint. No matter if it is touch less or not as they use chemicals.

One of my coworkers was bragging about how good the car wash is and how he gets the wax add on with it all for $30.

Seems like a joke to me but he swears buy it. I told him it will scratch his car up over time.
Click to expand...
BLUF: yes, the classic felt strip automatic car washes are indeed "bad" for your car, though better than just leaving it unwashed imo. I'd rather have a scratched up ride than something riddled with rust due to road salt in the undercarriage, etc.

If you have a keen eye, avoid the brush-filled car washes. Touchless are better, but harsh chemicals that are left on could potentially leave spotting, etc. I had a "subscription" for a domestic truck I used to drive and went through that specific newer car wash at least 4 times/week. My paint looked ok, but it was a darker gray so that helped hide a lot of the scratches, etc.

If you want to take the BEST care of your car's appearance and paint, handwashing using good quality stuff and (AT LEAST) two buckets and grit guards on the bottom of the buckets is going to be the best. This may or may not be a reasonable expectation or priority for you. It does take time and dedication for sure.
 
FWIW since I bought my Civic 4 years ago I have had a monthly deal with an automatic cloth wash and I get a wash about 2-3 times per week. It looks pretty good from ten feet away and I love the fact that I rarely have to see it all dirty for too long
IMG_7429.webp
 
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