Touchless car wash safe?

No obvious issues with the touchless around here. I’ll use it to remove the salt/brine build-up. Salt or chemicals. The touchless seems to be the lesser of the two evils.
 
Bill D said:
I’ve found that with a very well LSPed car that is very lightly dirty I can get away with simply foaming it with a foam gun, letting it dwell, and then rinsing it It renders it completely clean. That’s my version of touchless although the great majority of time I do have to use mitts.
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Are you able to do that indoors in the winter, or are you just a lot tougher than I am? When winter hits I don`t bother even trying to wash on my own unless the temps are in the 50`s and I have enough daylight to get the job done. Neither of which happen very often between December and March.
 
I moved away from winter to Florida. Yes, it’s an advantage to be able to wash alll year long ( although I still wash in the garage) but living here is not without its disadvantages too.
 
Bill D said:
I moved away from winter to Florida. Yes, it’s an advantage to be able to wash alll year long ( although I still wash in the garage) but living here is not without its disadvantages too.
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Get ready for Love Bug season in the next month or two
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Thank God I don`t drive long enough to get the car that bad but yes, love bugs are only one of several disadvantages of living here.
 
bob m said:
Wow, I never saw anything like that before and hope never to see it in real life. I`m assuming the windshields look almost as bad.....
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Oh yeah.. I had to pull over and clean my windshield the best I could at a gas station. It was close to the interstate and the bugs were swarming around everywhere at the gas station too. They were all over me when I got back in the car.
 
jem7sk said:
Oh yeah.. I had to pull over and clean my windshield the best I could at a gas station. It was close to the interstate and the bugs were swarming around everywhere at the gas station too. They were all over me when I got back in the car.
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Sounds like something out of a horror movie.
 
The bugs are starting. Had to clean the windshield of my dad’s new Jeep. He’s going to avoid any more highway driving until the bugs subside.
 
When I know that it’s basically Lovebug season down here, which is more or less May and November, and I’m going long distance, which usually means Orlando and north, I’m a big believer in 3M blue masking tape or track wrap on the front of the car.

Regarding touchless , I have a great Chevron station that has a good touchless here. I only use it on express/rinse setting, then I take the car home and wipe it down with either carPro Ech20 or carPro elixir.
 
In my area in Northeast the roads are pretreated before big storms with liquid calcium and that is bad news for the entire vehicle. So you less is better than that

Here a good fail story the city I live in one winter used crushed glass for traction and every snow store spread the junk everywhere come spring there was a lot of finger pointing and they had to pick it all back up and clean every street and sidewalk.
 
Bill D said:
The bugs are starting. Had to clean the windshield of my dad’s new Jeep. He’s going to avoid any more highway driving until the bugs subside.
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You might oughta switch that one from 476S to FK1000P so you don`t have to fix any etching ;) Yeah, there I go again with the FK1000P hard-sell!
 
Ill eventually get the FK but I’m pretty religious about immediate bug removal. People have given me strange looks in parking lots when they see me with my little bottle of waterless wash and a MF picking away at the bugs. :D
 
My FK1000P lasts a lot longer than 6 months, but my vehicles are pretty pampered these days, so YMMV definitely applies.

BUT...I`ve still never had *anything* etch through it, and I`ve left bugs/bird-bombs on the stuff for months.

For maintenance, I generally use some kind of Drying Aid, either FK425 or QD-strength IUDJ. BUT, no, doing that does not appreciably improve the FK`s durability (I just do it for a little anti-marring insurance in case there`s residual dirt there when I dry). Multiple layers of FK1000P (I`d stop at about four as pseudo-holograms can occur...which Ketch labels "Use-error", and he`s generally right :o ) oughta hold up just fine. When the beading changes I add another coat (with zero real prep, just a wash/dry).

I *should* note that, speaking of YMMV!, some here have had 476S last longer, although that wasn`t my experience.
 
acuRAS82 said:
My opinion (which is only that, and I’m not too bright): I doubt touchless washes hurt or damage your clear coat. They can certainly damage your LSP (last step protection). Most probably have strong chemicals that will wear away waxes and sealants. Coatings and some stronger sealants are hurt less by the strong chemicals (good chemical resistance).

Quite a few members use touchless washes in the winter as it may be more beneficial than letting salt sit on the car for 3 months straight.

and as far as strength of the sprayers hurting the clear coat, I highly doubt it since people use pressure washers all the time to remove loose debris before hand washing. I do t know at what pressure point that water can physically scratch paint, but I’ve never seen a touchless in the northeast come close to worrying me.

Hope this helps and sorry if I’ve made any generalizations that don’t match your experiences. Different places have different ways of doing things.
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I just ran my wifes Rogue this morning then used Extreme solution`s Topper as a drying aid . I have used this system thru the winter also.
I have 2 coats of 303G as a LSP :)
 
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