Washing your car

[Laidback]

How often do you wash your car? what products do you use?

[Phiberglass]

Once a week, sometimes more. Just water and wash in sections. I'll
Occasionally go over it in QD but I'm usually to lazy.

[Bimmerlifestyle]

once a week, but would like to due it all wax, polish, ect... some time soon...but i would like to hang out with a bimmer enthusiast and have like a car detailing day.. would be cool. had a buddy that i used to hang out and detail but he is too busy now with school.:(
i guess ill get to it ..

[greenxeyezz]

Every week, go over most of the car with QD and MF cloths, Bought about 10 bottles of QD, then every 2 weeks or so, will wash the whole car with soapy goodness, while it is wet in sections, will spray QD to help elminate water spots.

other than that will just use QD on spots (bird poo, gunk, tar, etc etc)

[nismo skyline]

i try to do it every week as bmw recommends but its tough sometimes.
when it isn't too dirty i hit it with some poorboys waterless wash.

[pro detail]

In this thread I hope to explain some good practices for washing a car that help in the prevention of inflicting swirl marks to paint.

What’s wrong With a Sponge?
Millions of people wash their car using a sponge. But hardly any body is washing their cars using a traditional sponge... Why is that? It all comes down to the flat face of the sponge:

Imagine automotive paintwork with your typical dirt and grit particles stuck on the top of the paint, which you want to wash off to revel your car's shine. Some of these dirt particles are sharp:

Now, if you place a sponge down on top of these grit particles as you would do if you were washing your car with a sponge, the grit particles become trapped between the face of the sponge and the paint - they have no where to go owing to the flat face of the sponge:

When you wipe the sponge across the paintwork, you wipe the sharp grit particles straight across the paint. As they move over the paint, the dirt particles leave a thin hairline scratch:

These little scratches are highly visible in bright light because they catch the light, and this is what gives you the dreaded swirl marks that rob you paint of gloss and color and ruin the car's look. A pick of bad swirl marks, the result of sponge washing of a car:
Wash Mitts
Lambs wool and Sheep wool wash mitts have been developed to get around the problems of sponges trapping grit particles by the flat face. If you run your fingers through a lamb wool mitt, you can see that it is deep pile and not flat faced:

Returning to the grit particles on paintwork, when the wash mitt is placed onto them, the grit particles are absorbed into the mitt - safely away from paintwork so that they cannot scratch the paint:

Therefore, sweeping the mitt across the paint doesn't sweep the grit over the paint also and so you don't inflict lots of tiny hairline scratches.

Note: While wash mitts are considerably better than sponges, it is impossible to completely avoid inflicting the odd swirl marks here and there using a wash mitt. What follows in this thread are tips on how to keep these inflicted swirls to an absolute minimum.

Which wash Mitt?
There are a great number of wash mitts on the marked nowadays, ranging from lambs wool and sheep wool to cotton chenille to microfibre. In my experience the best mitts are the lambs wool and sheep wool. When choosing a mitt, choose one with a soft deep pile that will be kind to paintwork. Two excellent mitts are:

Meguiar's Lambs wool wash Mitt
Euro Sheepskin wash Mitt
and there are others too.

So Many Shampoos! Which to Choose?
At the end of the day, shampoo choice for your car is going to come down to personal preference. But there are so many shampoos on the market it’s hard to know which ones to go for! A couple of things to look for when choosing a car shampoo:

1. Lubricity in the washing solution - you want a shampoo that makes the washing solution feel nice and lubricated so that dirt particles can be encapsulated by this lubricant and any that aren't absorbed into the wash mitt will slide off the paint without scratching in the rinsing water. Soapy suds are pleasing and can make car washing fun, but lubricated wash solution is more important.

2. A shampoo should contain no harsh detergents if you are washing a car that you have spent many hours polishing, sealing and waxing. Harsh detergents strip wax straight off the paintwork leaving your paint surface dried out and unprotected. Fairy Liquid is therefore a big no no for washing cars. You feel what happens to the skin on your hand if in prolonged contact with harsh detergents, it dries the skin out - it will do similar damage to paint.

With this in mind, there are still a huge number of car shampoos that fit the bill - ones that I have used and rate are the following, so if you're struggling on which to choose, try one of the following:

Meguiar's #62 Bodywork Shampoo & Conditioner (my favorite)
Meguiar's Gold Class Bodywork Shampoo & Conditioner
Meguiar's Hyper car(awesome dilution ratio of 400:1 - lasts ages!):lolhit:

[ZeroG]

Not as much as I would like. I try for once a week and once a month wax, but it does not always happen.

[BMW-PRINCE]

I try once a wk. I admit, after mfest I did not touch it for almost 3 wks :(