[woody2223]

Is it just me or does anyone else not wash their car as much during the winter month's? I don't and I hope that doesn't make me a bad owner or anything but unless it gets real dirty I'll hold off on washing it. And if your from socal I'm talking about 32 degrees and below not 65 degrees. Also I would have put this in detailing but I know they would probably destroy me.

[iPodAddict]

I just go through the touchless and rail-less car washes in the winter. Too freaking cold to go hand-wash this beauty when it's -17 degrees celcius outside!!

[dlwhite]

Good old fashioned 100% Hand Car Wash is the key during the cold winter months!!!!!

[BlaZin]

Call me crazy but i wash and wax my car during the winter, it never sits dirty.

[phantom330]

I don't wash as often, but even when it's disgustingly cold out (like now) I still wash my car weekly. As long as the roads are clean my car will be clean as well.

[Nikolas]

I just washed my car for the first time in two months. It was so bad you couldn't read the license plate. My car color was Alpine Dirt!

[xdrive]

I frequently run it through a touchless car wash with undercarriage wash to get ride of the salt. I wonder how effective the undercarriage wash is?

[iPodAddict]

Originally Posted by xdrive

I frequently run it through a touchless car wash with undercarriage wash to get ride of the salt. I wonder how effective the undercarriage wash is?

I figure it's better then NOT doing it at all...

[s4iscool]

touchless washes are ok for getting off the initial layer of salt and what not, but the base layer of scum will always be there, unless its physically rubbed off. with my light colored cars, I dont hesitate to run it through the soft cloth washes.

has anyone converted an empty bay in their garage to a car washing station? i remember reading about a few of these setups in the past, but am seriously considering doing it now. the worst part was the plumping and water recycle system, but if anyone has done it, please share details!

[MCS]

reason - its friggin cold outside and laziness.

One caution, if you wash your car when its freezing, there's a slight chance that the water may freeze up your locks.

Not a big deal with automatic locks, but it happened way back in the day when I actually had to use a key to unlock the car. I used a coin op power wash place and I think the spray got into the keyhole and froze.

Had to spray alcohol in the keyhole to get the locks to work

[trickydisco]

http://www.eshine.ca/172-optimum_no_...hine_32oz.html

[E nine T]

Originally Posted by trickydisco

http://www.eshine.ca/172-optimum_no_...hine_32oz.html

+1 Do it in the garage with ONR

[Socratesbmw]

I get out and hand wash about once every two weeks. Its not fun having to take a dirty car to the golf course in the winter.

[Tommy420]

Do you guys ever take your cars to an actual car wash, where they put it on a rail and let the machine wash the car? I used to do this a lot with my old car (Chevy Tahoe) and never had a problem...but to this date, I've been hesitant to take my BMW there.

[samwoo2go]

Originally Posted by woody2223

Is it just me or does anyone else not wash their car as much during the winter month's? I don't and I hope that doesn't make me a bad owner or anything but unless it gets real dirty I'll hold off on washing it. And if your from socal I'm talking about 32 degrees and below not 65 degrees. Also I would have put this in detailing but I know they would probably destroy me.

lol...

In winter Socal, we wash our cars just like we do in the summer, shorts, sandals but probably with a t-shirt on instead of shirtless because its colder...BuRRRRRRRR... haha and then we lounge and get a sun tan in the back yard sipping on margaritas with blonds running everywhere...

seriously, to be fair tho we're at high 30's and low 40's right now, not 65 ok.
Burrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!! lol

[BMdblU]

Touchless wash once a week..

[adrock]

All you guys who say you wash once every 2 weeks clearly don't live in the same climate as some of us (been a snowy 15-20 deg here). My hose wouldn't even be able to turn on if I wanted it to as it is frozen. So when I can (once every month as it usually snows 3 or 4 times a week here) I fill up warm buckets of water from my kitchen sink (one to presoak, 2 to soap/wring) and wash each section of the car at a time, then fill up one final bucket to rinse. By the end of this I usually have a solid sheet of ice for a driveway, a clean car, and a slushy garage floor. In between I run through a touchless just to get excess salt and dirt off the car.

Winter is fun. :|

[phantom330]

Originally Posted by adrock

All you guys who say you wash once every 2 weeks clearly don't live in the same climate as some of us (been a snowy 15-20 deg here). My hose wouldn't even be able to turn on if I wanted it to as it is frozen. So when I can (once every month as it usually snows 3 or 4 times a week here) I fill up warm buckets of water from my kitchen sink (one to presoak, 2 to soap/wring) and wash each section of the car at a time, then fill up one final bucket to rinse. By the end of this I usually have a solid sheet of ice for a driveway, a clean car, and a slushy garage floor. In between I run through a touchless just to get excess salt and dirt off the car.

Winter is fun. :|

it's about 15 degrees here right now but I washed my car last night I don't try to do it at home with the hose, there is a power wash place right up the street, I go there, spray it off pretty well and then drive home and use some quick detailer to touch it up, works like a charm. I imagine that's not the norm though, most of my neighbors think I'm crazy, if the hose isn't frozen I'll use that regardless of the temp.

[AWD Addict]

The touchless systems are fine if you can find a good one. Some of them don't clean the car well enough.

If it's not TOO cold, I'll use a drive in bay and use the wand to wash. I can clean the brushes off with the sprayer so i know it's clean, and the spot free rinse kicks butt. Usually racks up about $10 in operating time, which isn't too bad.

[Cryokid]

Originally Posted by s4iscool

has anyone converted an empty bay in their garage to a car washing station? i remember reading about a few of these setups in the past, but am seriously considering doing it now. the worst part was the plumping and water recycle system, but if anyone has done it, please share details!

I've built 4 houses with winter car washing capabilities in my garages. Most places won't let you have floor drains in your garage because they are worried about oil going down the drain. To get around this during the house inspection I've used the following procedure:

I’ve had the builder taper the floor to a center drain point. At this spot, I had a 6" corrugated hose buried in the gravel base of the garage floor with the upper open end taped over so the concrete wouldn't run in when they would pour the floor. The hose was located so that there was about 4 to 5 inches of concrete above it. Just make sure that you measure its location accurately so that when you drill the hole in the concrete it lines up with the hose. Most of the time, the concrete contractor would put an "X" in the floor with the center of the "X" at the hose location. This works really well in getting the water to drain out fully.

After the house inspection, I then would drill a 4-6" hole in the spot where the hose was buried, remove the tape and add a pvc drain with cover. Ends-up looking totally built-in. The water drains into the gravel base and if necessary, into the drainage system around the perimeter of the house. Eventually, it ends up in my sump pump if it makes it that far. I'm careful not to let anything other than wash water go down the drain.

As far as water goes, I installed two outside (frost free hose type) valve connections, one for hot water and one for cold water. I use a "Y" hose to connect them to my water hose reel. Works like a charm, and if it really gets cold out, I just have to make sure that I disconnect the "Y" adapter to let the water out of the hose connection valves so they don't freeze. My garage is fully insulated and it rarely gets below freezing, so I can pretty much wash my cars anytime I like without worrying about ice formation.

[J BONE]

What are the options if the house is already built? I have dreamed of doing this to one of my houses. Is there any good option after the house is finished? The house I am buying has a three car garage. Any help would be great. Thanks!!

[Raz335]

I said it before and I'll say it again..ONR FTMFW!

If you guys don't wanna listen and try it...your loss!