My wife and I typically take our cars to the No Touch Auto washes in the winter periodically to keep the salt off of them. (Ohio)

The pressure on the rinse heads is pretty high, I'm wondering if it may damage the aluminum hood. I've seen no damage on the truck I drive (all steel). This will be the first winter with the G.

Anyone experience this or know it is okay?

Thanks,

Mark

 

My recommendation (although in GA, I've dealt with the snow in RI) is to get as much salt off as you can with a hose at the house (if hose not frozen) then to go through a touchless car wash. In my opinion, it's better than hand washing all that salt over your paint. A good coat of sealant/wax is a must before the snow comes though.

Good Luck!

 

Don't use those places... For a couple reasons:

1.) Rock chips. I've seen people hit a rock chip at just the right angle, and remove a big section of paint with the water stream.

2.) Using these places will NOT remove any salt from your car. These places use recycled water. That means the water will have tons and tons of minerals and salt dissolved in it. I doubt they put the water through a reverse osmosis process to remove the salt. As such, you'd just be giving your car a salt bath...

3.) Touchless washes are even worse, because in addition to dissolved salt/minerals in the water, they add very strong detergents to remove the dirt from your car (since it can't touch your car). Those detergents aren't very good for you paint, and can actually dull your finish.

Just hose the car off at your house. I've given my car a full-on car wash by hand before at 1 in the morning, while it was 18 degrees outside, so don't say it's out of the question I had to keep hosing down the driveway to melt the ice so I wouldn't fall. Though when I was done, the driveway was an ice-rink....

Your hose shouldn't be frozen, becuase you shouldn't leave the hose attached to the faucet, because that's how you get exploding pipes. (At least that's what my plumber said). So I never leave the hose attached to the faucet.

 

DITTO!
do not use those auto car washes like the ones in the gas stations. i used one when i first got my car and the fu**ing thing left scratch marks all over the plastic part next to the left and right rearview mirrors.