Car Wash

Which is your preference?

At home bucket/ hosepipe/ other
Jet wash
Drive thu rotary brushes type (these seem to be rapidly disappearing)
commercial hand car wash
Are there other options?

I used to prefer washing the car myself at home, but the other options were useful, especially when you got the caked-on, baked on motorway salt in Winter.

The jet wash type were good when you could stick in quid for around a minute or so of hot soapy water and brush, then another for power rinse. They all seemed to replace their coin slots with card readers during the Covid restrictions. Now, too frequently they deduct £2-60 from your card account, and then fail to function!

On more thing that did not really need fixing!

Ena I use the waterless car wash option,

you apply work it in, then shine it up and your car is like just come out of the showroom
the last one I bought lasted 3 years and still going mind you, I don't drive a lot,

Over in Spain, where they get little rain and water is scarce, the jet-wash is €1 for 4 minutes (240 seconds counter). It starts with hot and soapy and you can switch through after a minute or so, to rinse off.
Are we being frauded in England? YES!

Interesting.

My car gets very grimy. At home, I am surrounded by trees. They always seem to be contributing something that gets deposited on the car.

I'm the same. Every orifice is full of pine needles, On the cars, I mean! ooooh, fnaaarrr, Mrs!

It,s pigeon crap that we get mostly, you can clean it one day and the next day it,s as bad as before, trouble is next door throw bread out for them, are you allowed to kill them not the folk next door



,

Bentlegs you need a licence to kill any pigeon/seagull on your property. At the front of our bungalow these is a telegraph pole and the starlings perch on it and the telephone lines some people never learn and park under the lines then wonder why their car gets covered in bird crap

Normally I wash my car using a hose then a bucket/sponge with shampoo in it .Then rinse off and dry. Every so often I use the pressure wash to clean the alloys. Often wondered if a car foam Via a pressure wash is any good

I use the hose and bucket with shampoo, and in the warmer months I sometimes use the pressure washer and shampoo, that gives the best clean.

I did not get good results at home using the rotary foam brush with my pressure washer. Perhaps the particular soap pellets that I used were crap: they were too soft and caused partial blockage.

Maybe I should persevere and try again with some better quality soap. I think the pressure washer will syphon a feed from a detergent bottle to mix with the water stream, if I can find the relevant tubes, that is. I have never made use of that feature.

I wonder how car cleaner got to be called shampoo, after all, the word comes from Sanskrit, and we imported the term from India, meaning to massage/knead/press. Fine slivers of soft soap was the preferred material prior to availability of the product with which we are now familiar.

You can see how that applies to washing hair, but car washing? We don't talk about shampooing windows do we, I reckon the wiping action is fairly similar to hand washing the car.

Is it just all part of inducing people to be willing to part with their cash?

My washer as a tube built in, I get a small container and put a good mix of wash & wax in it, then put the tube in the container, the washer switches on to low and it works a treat.

I only use real poo!

Tonks you are supposed to use water/foam to clean the car not pooI used to on occasions take the car to the car wash but now I have a compact SUV which they charge more to clean so being tighter than cramp I wash it myself

I've always washed my cars myself, only occasionally using a jet-wash when I've got them full of muck, of varying sorts, like mud, clay and paper-mache.
All this "shampoo" and "foam" etc. is all my arse!

Proprietory brand brainwashing!

Get this one. A neighbour came to ours a few months ago, "will you put some coolant in my car's radiator for me, as I can't get the cap off the filler bottle, only the coolant light has been on my dashboard for weeks"?

So, I went across to her drive and she takes out of the boot a 1 litre bottle of "coolant" with VW on it.
"What's that"? I asked, knowingly.
"Oh., I went to the VW main dealer and told them my coolant light was on all the time, anyway, they sold me this bottle of 'coolant' and told me to put it in the radiator fill bottle, but I can't get it undone, it's too tight".
I asked how much they'd charged her for this litre bottle of "coolant". She said, "fourteen pounds"!

How many of these daft people are there amongst us?

Car Shampoo? Indeed!

So you're saying you can mix coolants. or put any coolant in as they're all the same?

I'm saying, water goes in a car's radiator, plus anti-freeze in winter. Anybody daft enough to pay £14 for a litre of water, with anti-freeze in it, deserves to be frauded!

I'm glad you don't look after my cars if you think that.

Is it any good for a fiat 500, asking for a friend

Tonks, the hard of thinking are easily conned, Water comes out the tap, I'm an ex plumber, I know this but,, folks go into Asda and Pay £sss for Peckham spring water because someone told them its better for your health, How long have kids in Africa been drinking water from a well with buffalo shite in and crocodile piss ? , Those kids are now walking 10000's of miles to England to live in Killey Court,
work it out yourself

Tom, they are all victims of marketing ploys targeting the scientifically illiterate !

i pay 11 pounds a month to get the car cleaned as many time a month i want also comes with the self service vac as well
bentlegs you put a smile on my face with the pigeon crap i had the same problem every time i washed the car i would park out side the house and when i came out i had pigeon crap on the car it took me weeks before i understood why!!! It was because i was parking under a street light

“I am glad you don't look after my cars if you think that”

Me too! This is 2023 not 1973. The days of cast iron blocks and high capacity cooling systems are long gone!

I say…..Anyone daft enough to pay attention to their know it all neighbour and ignore the specify instructions of the vehicle manufacturer deserves to be frauded.

It looks like there's a lot more idiots than I first thought !

Really

Yeah., Really!
A new market sector can be created by guiding the idiots the right way. And the right way to do it is make THEM believe that YOU know better than them.
If you look what "coolant" is, it'll tell you. It's water with anti-freeze in it!

Here's laughing at you, kid!

I'll leave you to your ignorance, Tonks.

When it comes down to cars, or more particular, engines, I'm certainly not the ignorant one!
I have decades of experience of rebuilding engines, cars and bikes, two-stroke and four-stroke, even machining the parts for them.
I've even worked on aeroplanes too, along with a director of Keenair, Liverpool, on his own plane.
I've driven cars, bikes, vans and lorries for hundreds of thousands of miles, done all my own repairs and servicing, all without problems. Rebuilt cars from write-off to being taken off the insurance data-base register through Autoline. Cars like -THIS and
THIS.

And you're suggesting I'm ignorant? That's hilarious!

Very impressive tonks
All bo***ks.
But very impressive all the same.

People here routinely pay a monthly fee - usually on automatic payment through a bank - at any one of tens of thousands of high tech car washes - you drive in, stay seated, your car is washed, you drive out. I use mine maybe a dozen times in the winter, 2 or 3 and sometimes not at all, during the summer. Its so cheap I don't bother to cancel my payment for the barren months. Cost, $19.00 a month.

For some years now many car washes have expanded their services and set up a separate drive-thru to clean the inside of one's car. You leave your car on a conveyor belt and three or four people clean the inside, some fresh employees taking over as the belt progresses for, say, those doing windows or back seats. They clean out the car, wipe down all surfaces, clean all the windows, inside and out. A supervisor stands by as you examine your car - and if it is not to your satisfaction, they will run it though again. A final finish is a spray that smells the way a new. car does. Because of all the manual work, the cost is a bit higher that an exterior wash - about $35 a cleaning. But they do have sales. I get my cars cleaned a couple of times a year. It takes less than thirty minutes and they do have drinks, snacks and a TV in the comfortable waiting room..

Tonker,,, than con walk with a man with wooden legs or, even lectric legs but, tha corn't reason with blokes with Wooden yeds, Water is H20 , its the basis of all specific gravity , additives will fluctuate its PH measurement, Flavouring will change its taste but, It is bigger than life itself and covers 2 thirds of the Wigan Flashes,,

Tom, your Boffy would be laughing his socks off (if he wore socks, laaaaike) at this lot!

I used to enjoy washing my car myself. At the time, I had a Cortina MK V Estate, which was a long car, so it took some doing. I'd wash it, wax it, polish it, vacuum inside etc. Unfortunately, nowadays, I no longer have the energy nor the strength, so I've been using Shine On. Mind you, it's expensive, but well worth it.

A couple of months ago I was outside of the office and saw two chaps washing a car across the road. They doing a good job so I asked them for their list of prices, which were considerably less than Shine On. Not tried them yet, but I will.

Bucket, hose and shammy to clean my car, takes 20 minutes.

When it comes down to cars, or more particular, engines, I'm certainly not the ignorant one!

It doesn’t take much to handle a few spanners!

Have you an high level knowledge of thermodynamics, metallurgy chemistry and have you actually fully and successfully designed any modern mass produced vehicle engines that comply with very tight legislative restrictions in the way VW has?

A simple Y/N will suffice

Q: "Have you an high level knowledge of thermodynamics, metallurgy chemistry and have you actually fully and successfully designed any modern mass produced vehicle engines that comply with very tight legislative restrictions in the way VW has?"

A: No. ..............

......... but anyone who has probably wouldn't be able to strip and rebuild an engine as good as I can!
Beause that's the way it is.
I couldn't replace a person's hip joint. But I know someone who can, although she had to get me to find the fault in her washing machine which kept tripping her electric off because neither she, or her surgeon husband, had a clue.

Because, as I said earlier, "that's the way it is."

And, for good measure, here's a Range Rover we took apart, to replace both turbos, before we took it to Spain a couple of years ago!

Posted by: tonker (27675) View tonker's page

When it comes down to cars, or more particular, engines, I'm certainly not the ignorant one!
I have decades of experience of rebuilding engines, cars and bikes, two-stroke and four-stroke, even machining the parts for them.
I've even worked on aeroplanes too, along with a director of Keenair, Liverpool, on his own plane

Nobody else will blow it for me!

“Q: "Have you an high level knowledge of thermodynamics, metallurgy chemistry and have you actually fully and successfully designed any modern mass produced vehicle engines that comply with very tight legislative restrictions in the way VW has?"

No”


But but but but but!

So you are not really qualified or knowledgeable enough to dispute VWs advice then?

Again a simple Y/N will do

But but but but but ....... there are no very tight legislative restrictions on using water to cool an engine and all the parts concerned with cooling are made in China, out of low quality metals, anyway!

Was that a Y or a N?

Personally I would be more concerned as to why the engine had lost enough coolant to trigger the warning light but hey……….

We are not all engineering geniuses.

But tonker knows everything

Can you use an engine coolant to wash your car

ask Mr know it all.

Rose Royce LINK

Not as good as Skyler White's Car Wash is it.

Dunno

Car cleaned and money laundered in one go!

Oh reet, penny's dropped, you are on about Breaking Bad

I first thought you were on about a song.

"Personally I would be more concerned as to why the engine had lost enough coolant to trigger the warning light but hey………."

Bent head! (YOUR head!!)

Actually, I bought a Mitsubishi Pajero with a bent head a few years ago. £390 off e-bay.
I took the head off, stripped it, took it to a workshop to have it skimmed. £80. Rebuilt head and replaced with a new gasket. Good as new. It now lives in Spain on my farm!

That’s really interesting but you still haven’t answered the question.

Here is a reminder…..

So you are not really qualified or knowledgeable enough to dispute VWs advice then?

Again a simple Y/N will do.

No! I consider myself knowledgeable enough to realise why VW would advise people to use their "coolant" at £14 a litre. Not surprising, really, as they also scammed themselves £millions by frauding diesel emmissions tests.

Finally and at last an answer, and surprise surprise it’s a no. An admission that you don’t know better than VW.


Ok I am happy to leave it at that

But in saying that I am curious as to why you are telling your neighbour it’s ok to ignore VWs specific instructions when you know yourself and have openly admitted you don’t know better than they do.

But hey ……..you never have to look hard to find a bu******er these days

You're wrong on several counts.

Firstly, I have never "openly admitted I don’t know better than they do". (although I admit to knowing no more than they do, I know no less)

Secondly, I have suggested that they are ripping people off by selling water, containing 30% to 50% antifreeze, for £14 a litre.

I vave also pointed out another fraud carried out by VW. They are, as are all big companies, very good at pulling the wool over people's eyes. They cause people to spend more money with themselves than they need to. They employ people to specifically create this. I'm not taken in by these concepts.

What goes in a car's radiator? = Water.
Water comes from a tap and costs approx. .35 of a pence per litre, not £14 from VW main agents.


PS: Then, last year, it's alternator packed in and I had to replace that and vacuum pump, in 40 degree heat. I weren't too pleased.

Q: "Have you an high level knowledge of thermodynamics, metallurgy chemistry and have you actually fully and successfully designed any modern mass produced vehicle engines that comply with very tight legislative restrictions in the way VW has?"

A: No. ..............

Can you explain why you are telling others its perfectly acceptable to ignore their recommendations then?

Can we also ignore their recommendations when it comes to engine oil, gearbox oil and brake fluid too?

Maybe we could all save a bit of cash and use `Spry Crisp N Dry` instead of oil and .....perhaps Vosene instead of brake fluid?

What do you say?

Engine oil, gearbox oil and brake fluid are totally different to cooling water. That said, not everybody needs advising on what engine oil, gearbox oil and brake fluid to use either.

As for `Spry Crisp N Dry`, you might mix it 50/50 with diesel and it would work quite well. And Vosene would clean your car just as well as a proprietory car shampoo, but would prove useless as power steering fluid.

Engine oil, gearbox oil and brake fluid are totally different to cooling water

Gosh really???

Besides.......dont you mean engine coolant?

I think the difference is you understand exactly what purpose oil and brake fluid do, however you fail to understand exactly what engine coolant does in addition to cooling and furthermore refuse to accept just how critical its makeup is and why it has to be used in modern engines.

Am I right?

Water comes from a tap and costs approx. .35 of a pence per litre, not £14 from VW main agents.

from that statement can we assume you believe a litre of VW coolant contains nothing but tap water?

Surely not

Secondly, I have suggested that they are ripping people off by selling water, containing 30% to 50% antifreeze, for £14 a litre.

Its that all that's in it?
Antifreeze?
No corrosion inhibitors or protectors or compounds that improve and stabilise its thermal characteristics?

You are right, in one sense, but collectively wrong!
A modern engine is the same, fundamentally, as an old engine. However, some older engines are stronger and more reliable than a more modern engine.
But, to cover all aspects of the many different engines used would take far too much time. I'm sure you can realise the difference between a 6 litre Bentley W12 engine and a Ford Fiesta 1300? Every one is different although just the same.

Does tap water alone prevent corrosion and have stable thermal characteristics?

"Does tap water alone prevent corrosion and have stable thermal characteristics"?

Tap water 'alone' does not, but tap water with anti-freeze added does. Water is just water whereas the added anti-freeze can be good, not so good, or downright crap.

Again, interesting comment but no answers?

Fundamentally the same?
Of course they are, pistons, valves con rods, cranks cam shafts etc?

But new engines made with the same materials as old engines and are there operating temperatures etc as critical with regards to emissions?

Tap water 'alone' does not, but tap water with anti-freeze added does

Really...tell me more

Most anti-freeze you can buy contains corrosion inhibitor. It says so on the lable.
Water is capable of dissipating heat quickly when passed through a radiator.
Water goes in a cars radiator to cool the engine down. Anti-freeze is added to stop it freezing in cold weather plus stop corrosion.
The pressure valve on the radiator controls the temperature.

Can I ask a question ?

One of my first jobs was working in a car parts and accessories shop, Motorworld actually, well not actually, it became Motorworld, but I was 19 at the time, and it was still the 1970s

Antifreeze wise, in those days there were two, cheap stuff with methanol in it, but they said that the methanol boiled off over time, and so the antifreeze didn't work, the dearer stuff had ethylene glycol in it, which was supposed to be better, and the antifreeze also stopped your engine rusting into your cooling water (cast iron engines) and that were it, Ford recommended a 50/50 mixture of ethylene glycol based antifreeze, used year round to protect engine down to minus a lot, and to stop the engine rusting.

Even in those days car manufacturers sold coolant, and if you looked on the bottle, it said "contains water and ethylene glycol"

My question is why 'now' is there all this fuss over using the correct type of coolant, I know that engine cooling systems only operate on a fraction of the amount of coolant they had in the 1970s, the idea being that modern alloy engines conduct heat quickly, and so the engine will heat up quicker, it runs hotter, and as a result is more efficient, and the metals used make the engine a lot lighter, but this approach requires for a very efficient engine cooling system, to get the heat out of the engine and into the air via the radiator, so do modern coolants, conduct heat more efficiently, than the old water plus ethylene glycol cooling systems ?

"My question is why 'now' is there all this fuss over using the correct type of coolant"?

Because a fool and their money are easily parted!

As much as I appreciate the schoolboy lessons in how an engine works you are still not really answering my questions

A quick google tells me this......

The boiling point of a 50/50 mix of distilled water and ethylene glycol, (the main constitute of common or garden antifreeze) has a boiling point of 106 degC

The same google tells me the boiling point of VWs G13 coolant is actually 175 degC

So my question to you now is......are certain VW engines designed for use with G13 coolant likely to see coolant temperatures above 106 degC in use and if they do see such temperatures what would happen if you don't use their recommend coolant and instead use one one with a boiling point about 70 degC lower?

The pressure valve on the radiator controls the temperature.

No `pressure valve` on my radiators but in saying that my cars are modern

I thought they were there to relieve excess pressure in they system, hence The name and it was the fan and thermostat that regulated the temperature..............but you live and learn