MOTORING with Ralph Magunje: Dos and don’ts of car wash

Now you might be thinking, cleaning a car is dead easy, and you are right, it is easy, but there are some rules that you should follow, to preserve your car’s look and other mechanical components, and that is what this hub is all about, letting you know of certain things that you shouldn’t do while washing your car (some are expandable to motorcycles also)

Clean the wheel arches
When washing a car, often we tend to forget about places we don’t see that much including the wheel arches, but if we stop to think about it, these are surely one of the dirtiest places in the car, because they all get all the splatter than comes from the tyres from the ground.

We need to clean this because if we don’t, dirt will start to collect on the exposed components, including the springs and dampers, and that promotes the appearance of rust, some bolts will start to seize and so on. This is even more crucial if you live in a place where salt is used to clear snow from the roads, salt is corrosive, and a general rule of thumb is salt=rust if you don’t clean it fast enough.

So if you want your car to look good and be rust free everywhere, don’t forget to clean the wheel arches.
Don’t scrub your paint
Sometimes we have a persistent speck of dirt here and there, some bird poo also, but resist the temptation of scrubbing the paint (don’t even think of scraping with the nail). If it comes out with the pressure hose, perfect, if not, there are products out there specifically created to soften the dirt, so you don’t have to scrub very hard.

Never ever use a regular sponge to work on your paint, only go for soft microfibre gloves, and do gentle passes each time, until the dirt comes off. Regular sponges just carry around the dirt, you will cause swirls on the paint, because you will be basically dragging the dirt and scratching the paint while you do it.
Swirls cannot be removed easily, you have to polish the lacquer of the paint to get it to look good again, or go with the services of a renowned car detailer to do it for you, either way it will be a lot more costly than using patience and proper gloves to clean the car.

The primary environmental considerations for the car washing are:

Use of water and energy resources

Contamination of surface waters

Contamination of soil and groundwater

Use of water supplies and energy

Use of water supplies and energy are evident, since car washes are uses of such resources.

The professional car wash industry has made great strides in reducing its environmental footprint, a trend that will continue to accelerate due to regulation and consumer demand. Many car washes already use water reclamation systems to significantly reduce water usage and a variety of energy usage reduction technologies. These systems may be mandatory where water restrictions are in place.

Contamination of surface waters may arise from the rinse discharging to storm drains, which eventually drain to rivers and lakes. Chief pollutants in such wash-water include phosphates; oil and grease and lead.
Professional car washing is a non point source of discharge that has the ability to capture these contaminants and have them undergo treatment before being released into sanitary systems. (Water and contaminants that enter the storm water drains does not undergo treatment, and is released directly into rivers, lakes and streams)

Water contamination is sometimes related to such surface runoff, but more importantly is associated with soil contamination from underground fuel tanks or auto servicing operations which commonly are ancillary uses of car wash sites — but not an issue for car washing itself.