I have been told by my salesman that there have been a couple of owners that have brought their MCS through an automatic car wash and it has ripped the real spoiler off the car. I do not have 1st hand knowledge of this and I am interested to see if anyone else has had this problem or has heard of this happening?

 

Welcome to MCO!

Is he talking about a brushless wash? I, personally would never take my MINI to any carwash other than one that is touchless.....you never know what might happen. If you are worried about this happening just go to a wash that is brushless!

Winter time - Touchless car wash.
Summer time - Wash only by hand.

 

Sounds possible. Some of them beat the c#$p out of your
car. I know there is a car wash owner on this site...hopefully
he'll post comments....

 

I take mine through carwashes all the time, although I do try to find brushless ones. No problems yet! My main concern is trying to find one where they have guys towel-drying at the end, that way MINI doesn't end up all spotty!

 

Right now I am living in Germany... active duty Air Force and haven't checked into touchless or not. I know that there are many Germans that take their very pricy BMW's, Mercedes etc. through them. And yes, I WILL be hand washing in the summer myelf.

 

I always wondered about that? Spotty... what do we do when it rains? I don't see many people out there after the rain to towel -dry their car?

 

as it happens, I work for a company that washes cars. We have had a few MINI's go through a couple of our locations without any problems whatsoever (well, except for the guy that left his antenna in the door handle and nobody saw it).

We operate a mix of friction (machines) and touchless washes, and haven't had any problems with either. I plan on using our facilities as soon as I get mine without any hesitation

 

DB...I'm bringing my MINI and my Aztek and I will wash them BOTH at your facilities!

I have this kick-a$$ water absorber that I picked up at Salvo....the thing works miracles. Very few if any water spots after washing!

 

>>DB...I'm bringing my MINI and my Aztek and I will wash them BOTH at your facilities!
>>

leave the aztec at home...the tent gets stuck in the brushes!

Another option to having the guys in the detail area at the end of the tunnel is to look for any car wash that offers either flex-serve or ultra wash. These usually have top of the line equipment, and when your car comes out of the tunnel it is totally clean AND drive. Whatever you do, stay away from the gas station car washes. Those car be brutal!

 

I've taken mine through a brushless (not touchless) car wash and it came through with flying colors. BRG colors that is!

 

I would advise against any contact car washes. (Here in the burgh they say Car Warsh) Anyway, on former cars in whiling brush car washes I've had nylon bristles get stuck under trim and bust off. Sometimes loosened the chrome. Especially if you have a dark color, in the sunlight you will see the brush mark scars. For this reason I do not use an electronic buffer either.

The do-it-yourself car washes, where you get out and use the foaming brush wand are suited to cleaning your wheels, at best. One of those things ruined my paint job once, since I think the guy before me did just that. I also try to not wash my car so much now, unless it's all around filthy. Instead I put a good coat of wax on it. I keep one of those big car mops in the boot to dust it frequently. I also keep a small cotton towel for wiping the exterior and a no-lint towel for the glass, along with foaming window cleaner. If I have to wash the car, in between hand wash-waxes I take it to the automatic touchless place, and for $8 get a pretty decent wash-wax-blow dry and undercarriage wash. I then do the finishing touches in the relative warth of my garage.

 

I had a friend that took his 240 into a carwash. The overhead round brush wrapped up his antena and actually lifted his car off the ground before the entire antena assembly pulled out leaving a nice size hole. If you're going to go to a car wash then make sure it's touchless.

 

Never mind the brushes, I am more worried about ground clearance. Last time I drove through the car wash ( the "touch" kind, even) I had no difficulty with the rags and brushes, but I think I managed to drag my suspension over the rail used to guide the car through the wash. At the end of the wash, it felt like I had to pull the car off the railing. It didn't damage it at all, but I don't think I'll try my luck with that again!

 

To answer kramseib question at the top of this thread, yes the rear spoiler can be riped off, I've seen it. The dealer I bought my MCS from figured it would be a good idea to run the test drive MCS through the car wash (with rollers) to clean it up a little. And sure enough it riped the rear spoiler off the car leaving two nice bolts sticking out the back of the boot along with a few dents. I'm not sure how he fixed it, but it had to go to the body shop. So my advice is to hand wash at all times.

DRM

_________________
DS/B MCS all three packages with Nav, Yah-Baby!

 

I am having great difficulty coming to terms w/the fact that a Mini owner actually owns an Aztec and then admited it in a public forum.
I am speachless.

 

>>I am having great difficulty coming to terms w/the fact that a Mini owner actually owns an Aztec and then admited it in a public forum.
>>I am speachless.

If you didn't know, next to MINI's, Aztek's are the most beloved car on the board.

_________________

"Suzee" 02 MCS ~ Sport, Aero, Rally Lights, Motor Home

 

If you are only using the car for a few years ang then getting rid of it, use the carwash! I cannot imagine putting mine through an automated wash! Touchless, prefer not to due to the scraping mentioned above. This car fits into the "Imust wash this by hand" category. If you do this the value will come back to you in many ways! An aotowash still leaves a lot of film, that is then ground(dried) into the surface by the towel guys at the end! Just my preference and 2 cents. Enjoy the car

 

During the winter in Michigan, seems most auto washes are pretty much worthless.
Went out this morning, went thru the nearest "touchless" auto wash..... By the time I got home, the back end had dried and looked like it hadn't been washed at all. I broke out the buckets and re-washed it by hand (hoses are frozen, so we're talking rinsing and washing from buckets.....).

Anybody found a DECENT touchless auto wash that actually gets your car clean?

 

>>The do-it-yourself car washes, where you get out and use the foaming brush wand are suited to cleaning your wheels, at best. One of those things ruined my paint job once, since I think the guy before me did just that.


I think I did that last night. I used the "bubble brush" and now I've got swirls all over the car. I'm hoping it is just surface and if I get it washed, waxed & detailed professionally, I'll be back to where I was before. If it actually scratched the paint, I will just cry. Any suggestions?

 

I too live in MI (plus Chicago and Mpls years ago) and find the Midwest to a challenge in the winter to get /keep a clean car. Three solutions:
- Live with it (Not)
- Purchase a MN beater for the winter (Maybe) or
- Build a heated garage with water / floor drain to wash the MINI inside during the winter.

I'm opting for option 3. Construction begins this spring on a second 3-car garage as with the addition of my MCS and the refurbished IHC Farmall - I need space.

As far as car washes go, given the size of a MINI say to a SUV, why wouldn't we all wash / wax by hand at home as the time must be MINIscule.

 

I go through the unmanned, 24 hour touchless Laserwash here. My wheels even come out white :smile: Dirt still seeps out afterwards from under the rear plate though.

 

>>> I used the "bubble brush" and now I've got swirls all over the car. I'm hoping it is just surface and if I get it washed, waxed & detailed professionally, I'll be back to where I was before. If it actually scratched the paint, I will just cry. Any suggestions?


I'm afraid you may have scratched the paint up with the brush. The same type of stuff that you washed off your car was washed off of the cars of all the previous users of that brush. A good deal of all that schmutz stays in the brush and acts like sandpaper when it's being rubbed over car finishes. The end result would be a series of fine scratches and swirls. There are products that can help restore the finish. I'd imagine a detailing place would have the products and the know-how to use them. A lot of information (more than you want to know actually) about cleaning and detailing can be found at http://www.autopia.com

Good luck.

 

I'm not sure about MI, but here in CA almost all of the storm drains go to the ocean. Unless you are positive that when you wash your car the run off goes into the sewer, it isn't. Also, hand washing your MINI, unless you are really careful, will use between 20-30 gallons of water (average driveway wash uses between 50-75 gallons). The self serve places only use about 7-10 gallons per cycle, and most tunnel wash places uses about 20 per car, and all of the water is properly processed and recycled. And none of it goes into the storm drains. If you aren't almost in drought conditions or have any kind of water restrictions where you live, then I wouldn't worry about it.

Those brushes can be brutal. What I've done in the past is use the car wash only for the high pressure/spot free rinse, and hand wash it. Just like washing in the driveway, but with the spot free rinse and high pressure wash to make sure all of the gunk gets off. you could even take your own soap in a bucket.

As far as the automatic tunnels go, you just have to find one that you trust. The MINI shouldn't have any clearance problems at most of them, unless you have modified you suspension and/or wheel/tire combo.

Just my .02

 

I know it's rather obsessive, but I can't bring myself to take Tabby to a car wash. The mild weather here in Texas (I'm not from here) lends itself well to washing her myself, and the water company told me to pull her into the yard to wash her so that my grass would get the benefit of the water, plus it filters the soaps so that it doesn't drain into the water system. I would have considered the do-it-yourself thing, though, before I read this thread. WOW! I had no clue they could wreck your paint! Thanks for the info!

 

Our MINI dealer (in Indianapolis) has a free car wash service for all BMW and MINI owners every Saturday with donuts and coffee. It is an automatic wash, but didn't notice if it is brushless or not. It got Alice clean, although I wouldn't use it for the only washing on her. But compared to the "Express" was at the premium car wash monolopy in town, it's great at $6.50 cheaper, plus free breakfast!