Hey all,

Something weird has been happening on and off when I've been washing my car the first half of this year and I'm wondering if it could be the fact that I've gotten lazy about measuring my car wash concentrate. I bought two bottles of Meguiars Deep Crystal wash a few years ago because they were on special at my local store and over time I've eventually wanted to switch to another product.

Anyways, this year I have been getting lower on my last bottle and I guess I've gotten a little antsy about buying some new stuff so when I've been pouring my car wash into my bucket, I've been just pouring some of the stuff haphazardly into the water to dilute.

I've recently read that you should generally follow the instructions about how much you should mix with water(eg. 1oz per gallon of water) and have wondered if I'm putting too much soap in. The reason being is that, after I've been washing, the water beads up on my paint really weird like there is some residue on my paint. I just clay bared(sp?) within the past four months too! Its kind of hard to describe but I usually do my pre-drying routine by running plain hose water over my finish so that it will take most of the beaded up water with it. Lately, when I do that, even though it takes most of the water with it, there are tiny little beads of water that show up and stick to the paint like there is something holding them there. It's kind of weird, like there is some oil or something on the paint. Could this be a diluting issue?

 

I've used deep crystal wash before and found it to be decent. Just after use, water beading tended to be pretty good, but was short-lived. I think the water beading you're seeing might be due to other residue or your wax. I'm sure Phil or Richard have had more experience and ca give you more information.