echo7 said:
is it true that touchless car wash doesnt clean thoroughly , especially in the winter time when the car is most likely covered with salt and mud...
I would assume that there are more than one model of touchless wash, so any comments that anyone - short of someone in the touchless car wash business - makes are going to be specific to the carwash that they are visiting.
As I said above, the wash that I am using is brand new. It just opened at Christmas time. So, it appears to be very modern and automated. The way this one works is that, after you pay (looks like an ATM machine) and hit "start", the back door of the bay opens and, as you drive in, the undercarriage gets blasted with high pressure wash. I think this is just water.
Then you drive forward and stop. There are two towers (one on either side of the car) that have several sets of nozzles. One the left tower there is a big numeric indicator that tells you how many cycles remain until the entire wash is finished. When you get the "Works" it starts at "7" and counts down. For each cycle, the towers move from the front of the car to the rear, spraying water, wax, ???, and finally high pressure air.
I would say that this is doing an excellent job of cleaning off the salt and road grime. I'm sure that if your car has a pretty good wax job to start with, it will get better results. I checked the wheel wells, brakes, and the undercarriage a couple of days ago when I swapped out my wheels for the winter set and everything looked pretty clean. I am happy with the job done on the body. When I wipe off the excess water my Absorber has been coming away pretty clean.
The real battle is to make sure that if you have been driving on salted roads that you get that washed off as soon as you can. If the temp stays well below freezing, it's not such a big deal. But, as soon as the temp comes back above freezing then the oxidation reactions will start in earnest.
Sometimes, when the temps hover back and forth around freezing and the roads are slushy with that salt/sand/ice mix, I just go to the local pressure wash and spend $1.50 to wash all that crap off. You really can't win. It's almost inevitable that as soon as you go for the nice touchless wash and wax, the roads will be shitty again. I just try to do the best I can and go for the big Spring cleaning when I can.
If there IS someone in the automated car wash business on this forum, it would be great to hear from them ;-)