Car Wash Options

Glenn Marcucio

Glenn Marcucio

Member
Has anyone had any problems going through a car wash with their Mini SE? The owner's manual warns of going through a high-pressure wash. The car wash in my area I would use is a laser touch-less car wash. There are no rails to drive through that would scrape the rims and nothing touches the car. I honestly don't think the pressure of the water spray is that great to harm anything. There is a one strip undercarriage spray nozzle you drive through as you enter. In the summer I hand wash my vehicles in the driveway, but the winter is different, and I need to get the salt off of it occasionally.
 
Glenn Marcucio said:
Has anyone had any problems going through a car wash with their Mini SE? The owner's manual warns of going through a high-pressure wash. The car wash in my area I would use is a laser touch-less car wash. There are no rails to drive through that would scrape the rims and nothing touches the car. I honestly don't think the pressure of the water spray is that great to harm anything. There is a one strip undercarriage spray nozzle you drive through as you enter. In the summer I hand wash my vehicles in the driveway, but the winter is different, and I need to get the salt off of it occasionally.
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If you have a garage to work in, a No Rinse Wash is a good option or a cordless pressure washer to just get the grime/salt off.
 
I do touchless washes all the time in the winter, there aren't any issues with water infiltration. The only issue I ever had was with a 2008 Clubman S and a particularly powerful washer that shot the jets directly at the back, causing very minor leaking between the side-by-side rear doors. I solved that problem by finding a different touchless wash.

I always pick the minimal wash, since there's no need for an undercarriage spray and I don't want the spray-on wax. Or the wheel scrub on my precious Power Spoke wheels!
 
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A lot of Tesla owners are seeing their black trim turn blue due to the chemical imbalance and strength of some touch less car washes.

Personally I would find a place that provides those coin operated power washers and wash the grime off with that.
Then if it’s cold just drive it to let the water blow off via the air flow.
If there was no such place I’d buy a cheap pressure washer and do it myself, even if it meant doing it in the garage because it was below freezing, I’d just hang some plastic up to protect whatever else is in the garage or the walls etc. then sweep the water out. L
But I’m super picky about not using car washes so…

As an alternative that is less effort but more money find a hand car washing or detailing place and pay someone else to do it.
 
Just protect your paint and trim with your preferred coating. You will be fine with the laser wash to deal with the salt.

Now you have to protect your garage floor from salt pits and spalling...and that gets a little expensive!
 
chrunck said:
Because hand washing blows.
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Take for example this photo from NAM forums. Hand washing salt stains in a 5F garage (and lower) is not fun. You have to haul water buckets into the frozen garage because if you use the garden hose it will freeze/thaw and flood your basement.
 
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JonR said:
I'll give. Why don't you just hand wash it like I've been doing for the last 30+ years?
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I also have been hand washing my vehicles for the last 40+ years and prefer to do that. During the summer that is what I do. however, when you are in 0-30 degree normal temperatures throughout the winter months in upstate New York It's not easy to do when as soon as you turn on the outside water faucet that has been shut off for the winter and spray the car to have the water immediately freeze as soon as it hits the car. To pay someone else to handwash it isn't an option. I would rather take a chance with the car wash. I have seen employees at some high-class detail shops washing a car and drop the wash mitt onto the pavement and pick it up and continue to wash the car with it. Also, this younger generation so called detailers think they can wash the entire car with a hard plastic wash brush on a long broom pole. As they push the brush into the contoured areas on the body the hard plastic edges of the bristle brush is scraping and banging up against the paint finish. No thanks!
 
drdunkyn said:
Don’t know what you’re talking about… it’s at least giving you bland face [emoji51] I get your rants against the superfluous scoop, but it looks good on the car. Better than faux engine noise! [emoji16]


Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
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Wait a minute! Don't blame poor @Puppethead for a single comment regarding the hood scoop. I claim majority rant status on the skeuomorphic fake hood scoop. Don't forget, as shown on my website, MINI's designers never intended the electric MINI to have a hood scoop (the head designer indicated in a letter to me that marketing made the decision).

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And did you know the Ora Good Cat that will become the Chinese MINI Electric has fake engine noise?
 
drdunkyn said:
I get your rants against the superfluous scoop, but it looks good on the car. Better than faux engine noise!
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What @insightman said, but he's convinced me the scoop is not desirable. Maybe not enough to buy a new hood, though. :D:D

Another strike against the scoop is with the SE, there's no engine heat to melt off snow, which is why my car looks like it does.

You're absolutely right, the faux scoop is much better than any fake engine noises.
 
My garage is not a place to be rinsing down my car either. As I mentioned earlier, I have no water in my garage and no floor drains. If I rigged up water somehow, I could squeegee the water out the doors I suppose. I finally ran it through the touchless car wash yesterday and it worked out great. I then bring it home and dry it off in my garage where it's nice and warm using Wax as You Dry spray. Works out great!

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