Carwash

Magic Eraser is very abrasive...big nono...

As for wax, if you want something you can buy in any carparts store, Meguiars NXT is a pretty good one step.

 

I agree. While I really do believe that Zaino is the best, I can't plan that far ahead and NXT is almost as good and a lot more available, not to mention cheaper. I am a sucker for new "waxes" and I have a whole lot of almost full bottles of all the new Mothers, Ice, etc etc. I am usually disappointed, but you should try out new stuff. Not that expensive.

Just this afternoon I washed and "waxed" my Prius because I am driving about 500 miles on Tuesday and if I run into lovebugs, I want a coat of some protectant on the front, hood and leading edge of the roofline. Probably took me 20 minutes or so.

 

Guys and Girls at 6 pm this evening I brought my car into a topaz gas station here in Tallaght Dublin for a car wash and on the brush cycle the brush ripped off the back tail light attached to the mid window. Any one know of this happening before to a prius. mine is a 2006 .Now to go through the re insurance and all that, to get it fixed what a pain. Now i have it tape up until I can take it to Toyota tomorrow

 

I sure would like to see some pics of your finish. I do not believe there are not scratches or swirls marks. Check it is direct sun light!

 

Same here. Nice hand washes in the driveway when the weather is reasonable, but I'm not turning my driveway into an ice rink every week to hand wash my car all winter. We don't have the real-people-hand-washing type places up here, just lots of "touchles"s and honestly, at this point in my life, it's perfectly fine with me. It's more important to me to get the salt off (including the underside) periodically then to worry about swirl marks.

There was a time in my life that a perfect looking car meant everything... my priorities have shifted.

When/if the time comes to sell it, I'll pay a pro like SW03ES to give it the real buff and swirl removal job.

Besides, swirls are nothing compared to the nicks, scratches, dings and more that the car has uncounted in parking lots, etc. 4 years of Dartmouth employee (this is my wife's commuter car) satellite parking lot have done WAY more visible damage then some swirls.

 

I only occasionally wash by hand here. Driveway runs downhill, and the inside the garage hose spicket can leak. Typically I'll go to the touch less car wash, where I can sit and park and let it do wonders. In better weather, I use the hand-held wand. In worse weather with the salt, I go to the brushless drive through, which does under carriage as well.

By hand, the least amount of effort with the best results has been with Weathertech's TechCare® Wax-Prep Clay Gel Cleaner. Far, far less work than the tedious clay bar, and fantastic results. The best and easiest wax/polish I've ever used is Rain X Liquid Wax. Very quick, easy to apply and polish up. I've gone through the Meguiars NXT. their Step 1-2-3 system, and this works just as well and is Far easier, which means you're more likely to use it more often.

 

Unrelated, other than that it happened in a car wash. I was in neutral being pulled through the 'tunnel' at Delta Sonic this afternoon when I got a loud beep and warning that said "shift to drive to recharge traction battery". It kept beeping until I got to the end and shifted it back in gear, the battery icon was all the way down to one bar. I assume if I had sat there longer it wouldn't have damaged anything....would it??

 

....Wow, who has time for that?? For the five years or so I'm going to own my car I will use automatic washers most of the time or soap and water and 20 minutes at home on nice days to save myself the 100 hours of labor and maybe eat couple hundred bucks on trade in value...

4 hours, that's nuts. I'm sure the car looks great though.

 

If it has to be driven, you do it. Do not let the car wash attendant do it. If you are not permitted to do that then I would find another car wash. I put mine through an automatic car wash. I stay in mine and I drive it on to the conveyer and I leave it running and put it in neutral, shutting off the A/C and all battery draining accessories beforehand. No problems that way.

 

When your car is in neutral it cant spin the engine to recharge the battery (hence it telling you to put it in drive) so, yes the battery could have gotten critically low and damaged, (possibly a tow to the dealer to recharge traction battery?) I suggest you don't drive in to the car wash with a low battery level. Also, turn off the climate control and radio when you go through so the battery doesn't get too low.

 

So just the relatively simple task of a car wash while in neutral can cause serious damage? Is there a reason that the traction battery can't just recharge when you're running again, or have it shutdown at a certain level and simply run on the engine?

 

The car's computers are designed to recharge the battery once it reaches a certain low level. If you are already at/near that low when you get to the car wash, and if your car wash takes a very long time, then you might get that warning. Neutral "decouples" the engine and the inverter so the gas engine cannot recharge the battery while you are in Neutral.

fwiw, this is the first time I've ever heard of that happening, so it might not be anything to freak out about unless you intend to use this car wash frequently and always when your battery is at it's lowest.

 

I don't what type of automatic car wash other people are using but I am only in mine a couple of minutes or so. Not enough time in neutral for any kind of an issue.

 

Yeah, usually 2-3 minutes max

 

I haven't had any issues using the pull-through car washes, but like others have mentioned, it's one of those quick 2-3 minute washes. Not the greatest wash (and I have to remember to pull the mirrors in, or the brushes hit it and bend them in for me), but for getting rid of salt in the winter it's nice.

 

I live in the Chicago area. I go to Delta Sonic. It is a brushless car wash. The best around. I don't know how many states they are in. Probably mainly in this area.

 

If you enter the wash with 6 bars on the battery meter, and AC off, there should be no problem. But some folks will occasionally arrive with just 2 or 3 bars showing, and AC cranked up in 100F weather, and that will end up triggering warnings.

 

You should be able to wash and dry a Prius within an hour. Who can't find one hour on the weekend? As to washing in post #1 its states they use water only and no soap. Bad idea, soap's real purpose is to be a lubricant between the dirt and towel/sponge. Very easy to damage the paint with dirt on a towel or sponge. Always use car wash soap, never use dish soap or other soap product.

 

No scratches?! Do you wash your car daily? I used to detail cars and what you are doing is the worst way to wash a car! Maybe you are not looking close enough to the finish of your car. You have scratches!

 

Interesting that it cannot charge the battery while in neutral. Seems like a major error in engineering. Is there a reason that the engine cannot spin the electric motor/charge the battery while in park? I am not too mechanical but that doesn't make sense to me...

I had been driving through parking lots and at slow speeds before entering the short line for the Delta Sonic car wash. I am trying to remember exactly but I know the battery meter was less than half way full, 2 or 3 bars probably, when I pulled in and shifted to neutral. Never even thought this was something I would ever need to worry about.