ICEMAN666

So, I took my Prelude Si to the Car Wash (on Broadway (Route 4) in Fairlawn, NJ) this past Saturday. . . Upon completion, a grapefruit sized dent was left in the front of my hood. . . Called the police & filed a report. . . The manager said his equipment couldn't do that type of damage. . . However, I suspect that with the low temperatures ice probably formed on their sponge like strips.

Lesson Learned: Never take ANY car to a car wash. Even if its your daily driver, even if you're in a rush, even if its freezing outside. . .

BassMan

I had a horrible thing happen to my previous car, the brushes for the wheels didn't detect the position of the front wheels but instead went ahead and brushed the sides of the doors! The brushes were full of dirt and made some nice 2 feet circular scratch patterns on the doors...

From then on i only used brushless (high-pressure spray only) car washes, and now, with the S2000, it's back to manual washing again.

hype

I have let the Simoniz place do my S2000 twice over these cold, cold holidays. They use a very soft sponge/terry type strips where the brushes USED to be on their systems. They do a great job too. Plus, you can see the entire process from inside their heated offices. No problems here. Of course I will go back to manual washing as soon as it is warm enough to.

Stealthy_S2K

It sux to hear that ICEMAN666. I have not taken my car to a automatic car wash anymore since two cars ago. One of my friend works in the bodyshop told me that the car wash place hardly cleans their SOFT CLOTH. THe dirt resides on the cloth can scratch your car in a pattern. Just look at it under the sun after you have washed your car. You will see some very very fine scratches on the surface. I have hand wash my car all the time. If the weather is too cold outside, I take my S2000 to manual car wash place just to spray the salt off the car.

It is a painfully long process. I have managed to wash the car in 5 minutes. (That got to be a world record). In the expense of scratching the paint, I guess I just have to wash it or don't even worry about how dirty the car is.

Good luck.

Weasel

The bottom line is that no one cares for your car the way you do. I never let anyone do anything but admire my car unless absolutely necessary

nvmys2k

You should try touchless car wash which seems to work every well with my SUV. However, my S2K only deserves hand-wash. It's a little pain sometimes but it's worth it.

Zippy

For those of us in winter climes, I suggest finding yourself a good detail shop that will hand wash your car. They tend to be a bit more cautious and prevents frostbite.

ICEMAN666

I usually wash all of my cars by hand in the winter anyway (with plastic gloves of course). . .

But, beyond the fact that I thought about doing it myself, what really ticked me off was that after it I noticed what had happened, the car wash manager didn't want to give me my receipt (e.g., no receipt, no proff that they washed my car). . .

Next move: Small claims court. . .

Reality: Even a quick wash by hand is better than costly repairs. . .

CG

About three weeks ago I took my wifes SUV to a local car wash. With four SUV's inside the wash the front one jumped off the track and as the other three of us caught up with her we pushed her into a pole which left us with 4 SUV's bouncing off each other. The employees failed to turn the thing off for quite some time. By the time they did the carwash was filling with smoke from the "burning" belt and I was missing both outside mirrors. They replaced the mirrors as soon as they were able to get new ones.

The SUV had been through this wash dozens of times with no problems before this. The S2K has never and will never go through it.

Muz

Sounds like an awful experience. I wouldn't dream of using an auto car wash on either of my cars EVER. They get washed by hand and I use cheesecloth only for washing/waxing. 6 months later my S2K's paint is still swirl free. Of course we don't get such low temperatures here.

BTW this may have been a good time to have a camera with you.

[This message has been edited by Muz (edited December 26, 2000).]