Overhyped automotive products that fade away

VaderSS · May 10, 2006

I use the AutoDry for it's rinse, which works great.

I made the mistake of trying to use zaino soap in it. Wound up with little sticky beads all over the car. Had to wash it with hot water and Dawn to get it off. Now I wash with a bucket of water and Zaino and rinse with AutoDry.

I remember trying some kind of "Paint Sealant" back in the early-mid '90s. You put it on with a sponge applicator, and left it. It actually made my dull lifeless paint look like new, for a few months. Getting the coating off after it turned milky took paint thinner. Grrr...

addyguy · May 10, 2006

I also had really good results with NuFinish car polish...have thought about using it again. Made the car really shiny, and was still beading water a year later!

Matt_S · May 10, 2006

quote:

Originally posted by 55:
What's wrong with the Mr Clean autodry carwash thing? My brother bought one on clearence sale at Canadian Tire.

It works as advertised, but it's not as great as they'd lead you to believe. I have one. It sits on the shelf now, but I never had a real problem with it, per se. The reasons I don't use it are that it doesn't really save any time and I don't like the way it makes the dirt tenaciously cling to the wash rag/sponge, whatever. Even washing in laundry soap and bleach didn't get the dirt out of my wash rag. That kinda scared me. I've also heard that it exposed all the swirl marks on dark finishes, making the car look bad.

Matt89 · May 10, 2006

quote:

Originally posted by Jeepster_nut:
Saf-T Man from Service Merchandise stores.

It was a full size fully clothed dummy that you(women) would put in your front seat so women would feel secure driving around alone. I guess it was supposed to ward off carjackers in the 1990's when it became a problem.

Holy crap, I just had a random conversation featuring Saf-T man today! I was joking about using the dummy to bogart your way into an HOV lane!

kkreit01 · May 11, 2006

K&N Air Filters -- (just kidding) thought I'd ruffle some feathers...

Sad -- that I've used many products on this list: Mr Clean, Sluck 50, Splitfire, Nu Finish (not bad IMO), Fram Oil Filters.

GROUCHO MARX · May 11, 2006

Labman, the demise of Fram filters starts

here

labman · May 11, 2006

We can hope!

Jeepster_nut · May 11, 2006

Saf-T Man from Service Merchandise stores.

It was a full size fully clothed dummy that you(women) would put in your front seat so women would feel secure driving around alone. I guess it was supposed to ward off carjackers in the 1990's when it became a problem.

Russell · May 11, 2006

Mr. Clean soap will remove your car wax. Also, I hear it does not really leave the car spotless.

Give me buckets and chinelle cotton mitts.

labman · May 11, 2006

Unfortunately Fram filters, electric windows, remotes, etc. aren't fading away.

eljefino · May 23, 2006

Brought this thread back from the dead having remembered this lousy gadget I just saw again:

15 feet of 18 gauge lamp wire with two male cigarette lighters on the ends.

The premise is you can aid a dead battery by "charging" it backwards through the cigar lighter if plugged into a running car.

Neat in theory, but it would take hours to charge. The advertisement said you wouldn't have to search for your hood latch. Pardon my soapbox, but you should know where the hood release is in case of some emergency.

Most nitwits would assume the thing was plug 'n play and hit the key.

This would immediately blow the cigar fuse on whichever car was unlucky to have a lower-rated one. Or the cigar lighter would cut out when the key was in "start".

At $15, a poor subsitute. Big lots has ~10 gauge jumper cables with real battery clips for under $5 that actually work. At 10 gauge they don't take much space in my trunk and I actually consistently carry mine. Might not start a diesel at 20 below but they've been helpful...

CharBaby · May 23, 2006

How about those waxes that comes in colors. I don't see them much anymore. I used them once but found them to be too abrasive on good paint. And the color would fill in scratches but the die would wash away in the rain or the next washing and still leave a white residue.

Dark Jedi · May 24, 2006

how about hair in a can

brianl703 · May 24, 2006

quote:

Originally posted by eljefino:
15 feet of 18 gauge lamp wire with two male cigarette lighters on the ends.

The premise is you can aid a dead battery by "charging" it backwards through the cigar lighter if plugged into a running car.

Neat in theory, but it would take hours to charge.

I don't think it would take long to charge. Maybe if the battery were totally dead.

But I had a partially dead battery in my 1988 Mustang. Dead enough that the engine wouldn't turn over. And it was parked in the one-car garage front-end in. Obviously jumper cables were NOT going to be an option, so I was going to have to charge the battery. (I could have taken the battery out of the other car, I suppose, but that would have been more than I felt like dealing with).

I have this 1.5 amp battery maintainer (which I probably should have had hooked up since the car was sitting for almost 2 months without being driven). I wanted that Mustang running as soon as possible so I found my 5-amp 13.8V benchtop power supply and wired that to a cigarette lighter plug, figuring that it would charge the battery faster than the 1.5 amp charger.

Current measurments showed, as I recall, that it was putting about 4 amps into the battery.

I left it plugged in for about 15 minutes.

15 minutes later, I tried starting the engine (after unplugging the benchtop power supply, of course) and what do you know, it cranked right over.

During that 15 minutes, 7.5 times more power went into that battery than the car would need to crank over (assuming it needed 300 amps for 2 seconds).

ALS · May 24, 2006

Who can remember D-Dusters. They were those nice little brake rotor covers that you put on hubs that prevented brake dust from getting on your wheels.
They worked great with one small problem. They totally negated the air flow meant to cool the brakes rotors. Can you say warped rotors and cooked pads in 3K miles?

keval85 · May 24, 2006

How about nail guard(run flat)tires never seem to hear about those anymore,or my all time favorite DEER WHISTLES you use to stick on your bumper,use to hear those stupid things howling down the highway all the time

LeeRoy · May 24, 2006

NuFinish is the greatest! I read it in Consumer Reports. I use it on my '72 Plymouth.

Don't care for ConsumerReports yuppy socialist politics; but car wax, dish soap, toothpaste, motor oil, tires etc evaluations I believe 'em.

Anybody who pays big $$$ for commodity items like oil, soap, toothpaste, car wax, etc. is the fool who is soon parted from his money...

eljefino · May 24, 2006

Wow I never actually heard those whistles make any noise.

Around here people put them on top of their bumpers, in front of the headlights, or in some other way which completely blocks the aerodynamics.

Like Steven Wright said, he put a set on backwards, and a herd of deer chased him wherever he drove.

road_rascal · May 24, 2006

quote:

Originally posted by ALS:
Who can remember D-Dusters. They were those nice little brake rotor covers that you put on hubs that prevented brake dust from getting on your wheels.
They worked great with one small problem. They totally negated the air flow meant to cool the brakes rotors. Can you say warped rotors and cooked pads in 3K miles?

I actually used a set of those on my old '90 Dodge Spirit ES with the white powder coated snowflake style alloy wheels. These had vents on them and I never had any brake issues. The guy I sold the car to still has the wheels and they look pretty good. I think I bought those covers from Beverly Hills Motoring Accessories.

Racerjk · May 24, 2006

Nu-Finish always seemed to work well for me,but I don't use it anymore.

Overhyped automotive products that fade away

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