How Often Should I Wash My Car in the Winter?

When you live in New England, you know how harsh winters can be on your vehicle. When the roads get icy, cities will cover them with salt and sand. Then, when you drive, the salt and sand are stuck to your car. Without proper care during the winter, the salt can stick around until May or June. Do you want to risk oxidizing your undercarriage and letting your car get damaged? At Q Car Care, we have the answers for you. Wash your car every two weeks.

The best way to keep your car clean is to make sure it’s washed every two weeks, or more often. This prevents multiple layers of the salt from building up. After all, a single round through a touch-free carwash won’t get rid of a thick crust of salt, so why would you let it build up in the first place?

Some people avoid washing their car during cold weather because of the cold itself. After all, most car washes don’t completely dry the car, so doesn’t the leftover moisture freeze? The answer is no—your car is warm enough that freezing won’t occur, or won’t have any impact on how the vehicle runs.

Make sure you wash the undercarriage.

A car wash isn’t just to make your vehicle shine like new. You want to make sure the dirt and salt are actually washed away—so be sure the undercarriage is cleaned. This can be tricky at touch-free carwashes. The top option will offer so many buzzwords like “triple foam action” that don’t mean anything, while the cheapest option won’t have that important undercarriage wash. Choose carefully.

Avoid touch-free carwashes.

If you want to be confident your car is getting the care it needs during the winter, make sure it’s hand washed. This ensures that the underside is given attention and salt isn’t left behind. There’s also a simple fact that many touch-free carwashes are closed in New England winters because there’s a risk of freezing water lines. If a water pipe bursts in an automatic car wash and your vehicle happens to enter, there’s a serious risk of thousands of dollars of damage to your car.

Throughout the winter, you want to try to ensure your car is washed every two weeks. For maximum effect, time your washes for the third day after a snowstorm, when there isn’t much salt on the road—so your car won’t be ruined as soon as you drive away from a wash. Make sure you head to a place that will wash your car by hand, like Q Car Care. Contact us today to learn what we can do for you, and get your first wash scheduled today.

Why is Hand Washing Cars Ideal?

When it’s time to get your car washed, where do you go? Most people head to an automatic car wash, to enjoy the convenience and speed of a quick ride through the wash. However, automated car washes are not the best choice for actually cleaning a vehicle. Take a look at why you should consider getting your car washed by hand instead. Automatic car washes can actually damage your vehicle. The brushes rely on sensors to know where your car is, and sometimes, these sensors can malfunction. If the brushes come too close to the ca, they can scratch the vehicle, creating serious damage. Any bent or damaged equipment within the car wash can also harm the vehicle by scraping the underside or side of the car. There’s also the risk of leaving a window down by accident—an automatic wash can’t tell if this is the case and will flood the car’s interior with gallons of water.

Hand washing a car also provides a chance or the vehicle to be inspected. When a person is looking over your car’s exterior as it’s being washed, they can note minute scratches or dents that you may not have noticed otherwise. This gives you a chance to find and fix small problems before they could become large problems. At Q Car Care, we can take care of those minor scratches as soon as they’re found, saving you time and worry.

Hand washing a vehicle simply produces better results than an automatic car wash. Relying on sensors and automatic brushes means the small curves of the car will be overlooked. Dirt and salt can stay there for a long time, eventually causing further damage. If an area of dirt needs extra care, an automatic wash won’t be able to do anything about it. Hand washing means that all parts of the car are given attention, and the whole vehicle will be clean as new.