I dont trust other people with my car.

I do it myself.

...labor of love

 

no one EVER thinks of this, I learned the hard way the DAY I got my brand new 07. When you go through an auto car wash, they normally arent designed for our wide rear wheels. The front ones go in fine but if you think about it even if you pull in straight your rear wheel is staggered(maybe not ap1) and will curb on the guiding system.

i however, have found a touchless laser carwash near my house that has no track and does not shoot high enough pressure to make our tops leak. i still dont like to take it through there though, only in a jam. good luck!





P.S You should let me detail it!

 

Actually, I believe it has less to do with the amount of water.

Touchless washers in fact doesn't use THAT much water. However, the high pressure at concentrated spots would ruin / damage the vinyl top. Those washers are kind of like power washers. Imagine trying to was an umbrella using a powerwasher. The fabric / vinyl may not be able to sustain that kind of pressure. That's where the problem is.

As for the amount of water ... it's fine. I've been through rain storms in where I live, and the top was fine. Have also tried dumpping buckets of water on to my top, and nothing seemed flooding before.

Personally, I've driven the car twice through washers with brushes (yes ... it's not the best thing to do), but I was really desperate. It actually doesn't look like it would damge the top much. Perhaps the weight of the brushes could damage the top, but that would be it. (lets put the paint + dirt = swirl marks issue away here).

If you ask me, I think normal automatical car washers will damage the top less, but your paint job might get a bit screwed ...

Of course, the best is to not drive through those stupid things ...

 

Brushless carwashes are not safe for s2000s. It's not the brushes that are the problem. It's the high pressure water hitting the top seals. If you have a hardtop, you can use brushless wash places, but say goodbye to your paint. The towels they use are full of grit.

 

Yes you shouldn't do it bla bla bla....

Mine goes all the time, it's an '03 and one of the "cleanest" ones you'll find, no swirls, under carrige looks like it just came from the factory. no probs at all.

 

Have you guys ever had a time where the dealer washed your car? I currently own a rsx and sometimes they give me a complementary car wash, but I'm not sure how they washed it. Do you guys just tell them to not wash it or whatever?

 

when i got my S, i first saw it in the back when they had just received it earlier in the morning and it was being washed off for the showroom. They pulled it into a garage and a guy was handwashing it, etc., altho in the context of putting into showroom, they might have been inclined to do a more detailed job and not want to damage anything.

 

A lot of them just drive them through automatic washers, even though they don't tell you that ... (I know because I personally know dealers that did that before)

That's why whenever I go to the dealer, I specifically ask them not to wash my car, no matter how much of a mess the car looks after the service ...

 

If you let the soft top get sprayed you risk damaging the weather seals, especialy the ones around the tops of the windows.

 

I'm not saying it's ok to take your car through an automatic car wash, but I do it all the time. My car is my daily driver and it gets dirty fast. I can't stand driving a dirty car and I don't have time to hand wash the bitch every few days.

I started off taking it through a brushless wash, which worked ok, but doesn't get the car really clean and some water does leak through the window seals. I've done it probably 50 times and haven't had any problems with seals wearing out.... yet.

Lately, I've been taking my car through an automatic, brushed wash. I always leave the antenna on since it's small and doesn't seem to be affected by the brushes much. The car comes out super clean and shiny, but I have swirl marks out the yin yang. It bugs the hell out of me to see all the swirls, but I'd rather have swirl marks than a dirty car. I guess that's the price I have to pay for being lazy. It's this reason why I wish I had a garage and a beater car