Who here is a fanatic about keeping their vehicle clean?

[signalman]

I was at the car wash earlier this afternoon.  While I was waiting for the guys to finish cleaning my car I thought of this topic.  I figured I can't be the only roadgeek who's obsessed with keeping their car clean inside and out.  I will add that most of the year I do the interior and exterior cleaning myself.  I take great pride in it and am very meticulous.  During the winter it's normally too cold to stand outside (especially this winter) also, my outside spigot is off and the hose brought in to keep things from freezing.  So instead, I must outsource.  I generally have the exterior washed once a week, unless there's a bunch of storms in close succession.  In that case, I'll wait until weather improves to where I can keep it clean longer than a day or two.  Every 3 washes or so, I'll pay extra to have the floors vacuumed and the mats washed.

Anyone else out there anal about keeping a clean car?

[kphoger]

Definitely not me. I just went to the car wash today, and I think it might have been only the second time since June.

[cpzilliacus]

Not me.  Except the engine oil and filter, which get changed at very conservative (frequent) intervals.

[roadman]

I've often been accused by relatives of being obsessive with keeping my car clean.  However, apart from washing my car an average of once a week (which I consider mandatory in winter due to road salt and the like), I'm not that excessive with the car cleaning.  For the most part, my car stays reasonably clean (especially the interior and the trunk) because I don't use it for daily commuting to and from work.

[ET21]

I do a spring and fall clean of the car. Outside of oil change, I don't clean it until either they stop salting roads or my car turns from green to salty white lol

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Meh. I just wipe the windshield and sometimes the headlights when I fill up, and I usually consider that good enough for my needs. I am pretty aggressive about keeping a clean windshield, though.

[Laura]

I should be better about it than I am. Now that I live in the city again, at least the interior doesn't have a lot of clutter in it (don't want to encourage any thieves). But when my dad was still alive, it was a thing where we would wash the cars together and vacuum them and wax them. I always helped him, even when I was a kid.

I don't think my current car has been waxed at all, and I've had it for 3.5 years.


iPhone

[Pete from Boston]

Laughably impractical here in Fortress Snowbank.  There is a perpetual pool of salty mud in my floorliner.

[hbelkins]

When I was younger, I did. Washing and waxing my vehicles was a frequent Saturday ritual, as well as cleaning the interior, putting Armor-All or Son-of-a-Gun on the dash, etc.

Now, not so much. The interiors of my vehicles are a mess and I rarely wash the outsides of them.

[Pete from Boston]

When I was younger, I did. Washing and waxing my vehicles was a frequent Saturday ritual, as well as cleaning the interior, putting Armor-All or Son-of-a-Gun on the dash, etc.

Now, not so much. The interiors of my vehicles are a mess and I rarely wash the outsides of them.

This pleases me in the warm months.  I'll camp out and pull every bit of anything, remove the seats and vacuum the crevices, wipe down the whole damn thing.  Not frequently, but enough.  November to April this does not happen.

[J N Winkler]

I am scrupulous about caring for the appearance of my car, but that does not mean it looks clean inside or out much of the time.  Bitter experience has taught me that avoiding cleaning agents and processes that make existing problems worse is a large part of vehicle upkeep.  Inherent vice aside, cars are designed to be used outdoors and therefore the materials that define their appearance will suffer degradation due to UV, heat, and mechanical damage.  Some of these processes can be slowed but none of them can be stopped altogether.  (Grit and bugs in particular will do a lot of damage to exterior paint and glass over several hundred thousand miles.)

*  I wash my car at a brushless DIY car wash (rinse, soap wash, rinse, spot-free rinse) as needed to remove road salt, birdlime, tree sap, hard water stains, and excessive dust accumulation.  I try to schedule a visit to the car wash soon in the thaw following a major snowstorm, but otherwise I don't go there very often--perhaps just once or twice a month.

*  Once or twice a year, I slather the leather-covered surfaces (seats, steering wheel, and gearshift selector knob) with Meguiar's leather conditioner.  (Cavo-Ox is an excellent leather conditioner as well, but it is a Danish product and quite hard to find in the US.)

*  When I get tired of grit on the floormats and surrounding portions of the carpet, I take the floormats inside to clean them with a standing carpet vacuum, and run a handheld vacuum over the carpet in the car.  I try to avoid staining the carpet in front of the driver's seat by levering myself into the car so that both feet land on the mat, but this is not always easy to do because I have aftermarket mats that are just a bit too small and don't protect the carpet under the pedals.  After snowstorms, I also shovel a path clear to the car so I can get into it without having snow cling to my shoes.

*  I clean the inside of the windshield fairly infrequently--generally when the sun film becomes unbearable--because the procedure is difficult.  I use Windex blue solution, which is the only window cleaner I have found that cuts the film effectively, and since it is a very harsh ammonia-based cleaner and will damage plastic, I have to use four or five towels to mask the dashboard and hold a towel in my other hand to prevent overspray from hitting the A-pillar trim pieces.

*  About once a year, I clean the outside of the windshield with Windex blue, using towels to prevent overspray on the paint and body rubber, and then apply Rain-X.  The only practical parking place for my car is outdoors next to a lawn irrigated by an automatic sprinkler system that runs three times a week.  This system uses unfiltered groundwater, which leaves hard water stains on every glossy surface it hits, so the Windex and Rain-X treatment helps preserve visibility while making the stains easier to remove.

*  I don't currently do anything for the interior plastics, though I wet-dusted them several months ago.  I will not use Armor-All because once it is sprayed on interior plastics, it has to be applied again and again to prevent them from cracking.  I have looked into using 3M vinyl dressing, but it is available only in bulk (1-gallon jug of concentrate for about $40), so it is unattractive to buy on a trial basis.  I have heard good things about 303 Aerospace Protectant and may give that a try after some more investigation.

*  I treat the weatherstripping every so often with silicone spray.  I think the last such treatment was about two years ago.

*  I am looking for a suitable way to revitalize some flat black painted areas (outside mirror housings, door frames around windows, etc.).  So far I haven't found an approach I am sure won't do more harm than good.

*  I don't wax or polish the exterior paint finish.  Aside from the possibility of leaving swirl marks or fine hairline scratches, I have never been convinced that waxing and polishing does anything useful over the long term to slow down dulling or oxidization of the clearcoat.

*  I am slowly trying to clean the engine compartment, generally with Dawn and water applied with rag to specific components.  Supposedly all of the under-hood electrical connectors in the Saturn S-Series have been weatherproofed, and some Saturn enthusiasts have reported success using Dawn or Simple Green (a powerful automotive degreaser) loaded in pesticide applicators to spray-clean under the hood with low pressure.  However, I am not yet brave enough to try spray cleaning.  I am also aware that there are components under the hood, such as the cam cover, the ignition coil seats, and the battery tray, that will collect water and cannot be drained in place.

*  Like others, I stay up to date with mechanical maintenance--there are no prizes for having the shiniest and cleanest car in the junkyard.  For engine oil and automatic transmission fluid I use synthetics only.

*  I have never taken my car to a detailing shop, though the other two cars in the family have been.  The experience with both was so unsatisfactory that I think I have been warned off detailing shops for life.  On one car, the shop used something on the inside of the windshield that has subsequently made sun film all but impossible to remove without leaving streaks.  On the other car, the same shop managed to lose the keys (replacing them cost around $200), shined up the dash cover so much that polarized sunglasses are now necessary when driving into the sun, and used something on the instrument panel face that has since caused it to cloud up.  Used cars are also typically detailed before being put out on the lot and this is actually one reason I would now prefer to buy used from a private seller rather than a dealer.

[1995hoo]

I always keep the interiors clean and I do not go through the drive-thru if the product purchased may smell (so no McDonald's food, for example, but a McDonald's shake is OK). I've never found it at all difficult to keep the interior clean.

Keeping up with the exterior is harder, especially in the winter. I make an effort to go through a car wash with an undercarriage wash shortly after most of the roads are clean after a snowstorm so as to clean off the salt and brine. I may be paranoid about that because back in 1995, my '82 Accord succumbed to undercarriage rust (failed state inspection and couldn't be fixed). I'm going to have to do a serious exterior detailing this spring once the weather improves just because the front of the car is all gunked up (black car just doesn't look good with the white gunk from winter road treatments).

I'm religious about keeping up with maintenance. I'm typing this from the waiting area at the mechanic because I needed the high pressure power steering hose replaced. This year is going to hurt because I'm going to need a clutch replacement and a new power steering rack. I'm still on the original clutch (2004 Acura TL), so I guess I've done fairly well, but the bill will sting.

J N Winkler, there was an Acura service bulletin a few years back that recommended a way to treat interior plastics. I tried it and it worked pretty well. If I can find the bulletin via the Acurazine forum, or if I can find the thread discussing it, I'll let you know. One of the products they recommended was a little hard to find and wasn't available everywhere due to VOC content, however.


Edited to add: The TSB isn't available, but it's summarized in the following two threads. In the second thread, you'll see my comment about how the second product Acura recommended was not available in Virginia (this was in 2008; doubt it's changed) and so I used a Griot's Garage product instead with very good results.

http://acurazine.com/forums/problems-fixes-114/acknowledgement-faded-blotchy-dash-588542/

http://acurazine.com/forums/third-generation-tl-2004-2008-93/id-like-nice-shiny-dashboard-699395/

[slorydn1]

I am a  stickler for the oustide of the car(s). Both Mustangs get detailed every week, my wife and I enjoy doing that together. This recent spate of crappy weather as definitely put a crimp in that action. To top it all off, my car got its first exposure to salt (oh the horror!) I can't wait to get it somewhere where I can fully pressure wash the undercarriage

The interiors, well, we both smoke so.....

I still do try to at least vacuum up everything as often as possible but its gonna smell in there one way of the other.

[Brian556]

I am very picky about windshield cleanliness, as well as dashboard cleanliness.

I will let the floors get a little dirty.

I am not obsessive about the exterior, that is a lost cause.

I was more obsessed with exterior cleanliness when I was a teenager.

I had had co-workers who would let their dashboards get filthy, and I never understood how they could allow that to happen. One guy, who lived in a rural area, let his get really dirty, and then let a drink spill on it, so the radio and a/c controls looked like a dried-up diarrhea waterfall.

[KEK Inc.]

I currently have gym clothes, a jacket, deoderant, gallon jugs of water, and swimming goggles littering the back seat of my car.  Otherwise, I dust the dash and try to keep the windshield and exterior presentable. 

[Pete from Boston]

I had had co-workers who would let their dashboards get filthy, and I never understood how they could allow that to happen. One guy, who lived in a rural area, let his get really dirty, and then let a drink spill on it, so the radio and a/c controls looked like a dried-up diarrhea waterfall.

I always have one of those plastic cans of "wipes" close at hand.  In stopped traffic, or when pulled over and on the phone, I'll wipe off any dust and debris off the dash.  It's just nice to get the dust off.  Particularly at this time of year, little bits of normalcy help ease the siege mentality of salt and snow and grit everywhere. 

[Scott5114]

I always keep the interiors clean and I do not go through the drive-thru if the product purchased may smell (so no McDonald's food, for example, but a McDonald's shake is OK).

You've mentioned this before but it's always seemed kind of paranoid to me. I regularly transport food in my car and as long as it doesn't sit in there overnight or something I don't notice any residual scent at all.

[1995hoo]

I always keep the interiors clean and I do not go through the drive-thru if the product purchased may smell (so no McDonald's food, for example, but a McDonald's shake is OK).

You've mentioned this before but it's always seemed kind of paranoid to me. I regularly transport food in my car and as long as it doesn't sit in there overnight or something I don't notice any residual scent at all.

Given some of the strange habits and paranoias displayed by some forum members in other threads, this one seems mild to me. Part of it comes from back when I lived on the 8th floor of my apartment building for two years in Charlottesville. I got on the elevator one day and someone else who wasn't even looking at me said, "I smell McDonald's." I was carrying a McDonald's bag; I never asked whether it was the fries or the McNuggets that she smelled.

I just don't like having that sort of smell permeating the car. It was a bigger deal when the car was new. I wanted to preserve the new car smell as long as possible, so back then I also avoided opening the windows and sunroof. The new car smell is long gone, of course (the car is a 2004), but I guess the habit is completely ingrained.

I did get food at a drive-thru yesterday morning, but since it was just some donuts it was a non-issue.

[J N Winkler]

J N Winkler, there was an Acura service bulletin a few years back that recommended a way to treat interior plastics. I tried it and it worked pretty well. If I can find the bulletin via the Acurazine forum, or if I can find the thread discussing it, I'll let you know. One of the products they recommended was a little hard to find and wasn't available everywhere due to VOC content, however.

Edited to add: The TSB isn't available, but it's summarized in the following two threads. In the second thread, you'll see my comment about how the second product Acura recommended was not available in Virginia (this was in 2008; doubt it's changed) and so I used a Griot's Garage product instead with very good results.

http://acurazine.com/forums/problems-fixes-114/acknowledgement-faded-blotchy-dash-588542/

http://acurazine.com/forums/third-generation-tl-2004-2008-93/id-like-nice-shiny-dashboard-699395/

Many thanks for these links--the information is helpful.  I've looked into Griot's Garage vinyl and rubber dressing, and it appears to fit into the same market niche as 303 Aerospace Protectant:  water-based (no silicone), high molecular weight plasticizers, low gloss, about a dollar an ounce.  I'll ask around on the Saturn forum I frequent and see if anyone has tried controlled experimentation with these products (it should be possible, for example, to pull a dash trim piece from a junkyard car, leave it exposed to the sun, and treat different portions of it with a different product).

I am not obsessive about the exterior, that is a lost cause.

I still took my last car to the car wash frequently even after the clearcoat oxidized and started to peel on the hood and roof.  It was less about keeping the car shiny and clean-looking and more about allowing me to touch external surfaces (door handles and so on) without getting my hands dirty.  Back in September I spent about ten days in California driving all over, from redwood country to the high desert, and could not find any brushless DIY car washes despite searching (not enough local knowledge--and when I mentioned this problem on Facebook, the California residents who responded came up with examples only in the northern part of the state).  By the time I crossed the Colorado River into Arizona, the finish of my car was so thickly encrusted with dust, redwood sap, and dead bugs that I was opening the door handles with one finger.

I had had co-workers who would let their dashboards get filthy, and I never understood how they could allow that to happen. One guy, who lived in a rural area, let his get really dirty, and then let a drink spill on it, so the radio and a/c controls looked like a dried-up diarrhea waterfall.

In my car, liquid would not be anywhere near the dash.  Otherwise I can see why a conscientious person would just leave an undisturbed dust coat.  Wet- or dry-dusting porous or matte surfaces are among the operations that have to be done thoroughly, or not at all, if the car is not to be left worse off cosmetically.

I currently have gym clothes, a jacket, deodorant, gallon jugs of water, and swimming goggles littering the back seat of my car.  Otherwise, I dust the dash and try to keep the windshield and exterior presentable.

I transport my gym kit in the trunk and take it into the house when I come home from the gym.  I do resistance training only (no cardio element), so my gym shirt usually gets sweaty only at the sleeve ends, but the sweat smell is still strong and is easier to manage with the bag inside the house and stored with the zipper open so everything can dry out in continuously circulating air.  If I were doing cardio, I would actually have to take the shirt out and dry it on a frame.

I always keep the interiors clean and I do not go through the drive-thru if the product purchased may smell (so no McDonald's food, for example, but a McDonald's shake is OK).

You've mentioned this before but it's always seemed kind of paranoid to me. I regularly transport food in my car and as long as it doesn't sit in there overnight or something I don't notice any residual scent at all.

Given some of the strange habits and paranoias displayed by some forum members in other threads, this one seems mild to me. Part of it comes from back when I lived on the 8th floor of my apartment building for two years in Charlottesville. I got on the elevator one day and someone else who wasn't even looking at me said, "I smell McDonald's." I was carrying a McDonald's bag; I never asked whether it was the fries or the McNuggets that she smelled.

I can assure you from personal experience that if an order of fast-food french fries gets accidentally left in a car for several days, you will be looking under seats, taking out mats, etc. trying to find the source of the smell.  It is really very distinctive and hard to ignore.

I am often tempted to carry takeaway orders in the trunk rather than inside the passenger compartment just to avoid taking a chance on lingering food odors.  I don't do it often, though, because the typical form factor is several closed food boxes stacked on top of each other and packed into a plastic bag, and it is easier to keep them from sliding on each other (and possibly spilling separately packed sauces) in the front passenger seat footwell than in the trunk.

I just don't like having that sort of smell permeating the car. It was a bigger deal when the car was new. I wanted to preserve the new car smell as long as possible, so back then I also avoided opening the windows and sunroof. The new car smell is long gone, of course (the car is a 2004), but I guess the habit is completely ingrained.

My car is exactly ten years older than yours and still has the new-car smell--it is especially evident when it has been sitting in the sun and indoor temperatures have risen to at least 80° F.  I think there are some plastics in common automotive use (though perhaps not in Japanese makes) that never really stop outgassing.

[1995hoo]

....

I am often tempted to carry takeaway orders in the trunk rather than inside the passenger compartment just to avoid taking a chance on lingering food odors.  I don't do it often, though, because the typical form factor is several closed food boxes stacked on top of each other and packed into a plastic bag, and it is easier to keep them from sliding on each other (and possibly spilling separately packed sauces) in the front passenger seat footwell than in the trunk.

....

This is in fact exactly what I do–my trunk has cargo netting on the left side and I put the fast-food bag behind that to hold it in place. Works quite well. There's another cargo net that I don't use because it stretches all the way across the trunk and I felt it would just get in the way when I put it up to see how it looked.

Putting the fast food in the trunk underscores a reason for not going to the drive-thru, of course. I suppose I could pull over after leaving the drive-thru, but that's a hassle and it's usually faster to go inside anyway. I often park the car, go inside, order, pay, receive my food, and am back in the car driving away in less time than it takes someone on the drive-thru line to move from the "order" device to the window, though of course that will vary at different establishments (the KFC/Taco Bell nearest our house always has an absurdly long drive-thru line for some reason).

[jeffandnicole]

The only reason the inside of my car stays relatively clutter free is because I do the carpool.  But it rarely gets truly cleaned inside. The outside actually got washed this month because of the salt.  A nearby self-serve carwash is $5 for 15 minutes.  It was 28 degrees out.  Somehow I didn't slip and fall.

[formulanone]

When I was younger, I did. Washing and waxing my vehicles was a frequent Saturday ritual, as well as cleaning the interior, putting Armor-All or Son-of-a-Gun on the dash, etc.

Now, not so much.

Same here, to an extent. The change came as my job leaves me less time to do so, and moving a climate which is too cold for 3-4 months changed my attitudes on car washes. I use the Gold Class Meguiar's lineup of cleaners and soft waxes. Maybe once a year, I'll spend five hours washing and detailing both vehicles (four if dinner is ready).

I'm still a bit more demanding of the interior and inside of the windshield; before and after long trips, I try to give it a vacuuming, dusting, and clean-up in the garage during the colder months. I still eat in the car at times, and a quick collection in a plastic bag gets used for disposal at a gas station, rest stop, or home.

I'll store items like fast food in a plastic crate in the passenger footwell to prevent spilling. The odors are only temporarily noticeable (at least in my olfactory-based opinion) even though that's where recirculated air typically comes from.

[texaskdog]

I take trash out regularly and "clean" it weekly.  I might wash it every 2 weeks.  At most it is "guy clean" not OCD woman clean.

[Scott5114]

I always keep the interiors clean and I do not go through the drive-thru if the product purchased may smell (so no McDonald's food, for example, but a McDonald's shake is OK).

You've mentioned this before but it's always seemed kind of paranoid to me. I regularly transport food in my car and as long as it doesn't sit in there overnight or something I don't notice any residual scent at all.

Given some of the strange habits and paranoias displayed by some forum members in other threads, this one seems mild to me. Part of it comes from back when I lived on the 8th floor of my apartment building for two years in Charlottesville. I got on the elevator one day and someone else who wasn't even looking at me said, "I smell McDonald's." I was carrying a McDonald's bag; I never asked whether it was the fries or the McNuggets that she smelled.

Well, yeah, that's because you had the bag of food two feet away from her face. I'm sure that the elevator didn't smell like McDonald's after you left.

I can assure you from personal experience that if an order of fast-food french fries gets accidentally left in a car for several days, you will be looking under seats, taking out mats, etc. trying to find the source of the smell.  It is really very distinctive and hard to ignore.

I am often tempted to carry takeaway orders in the trunk rather than inside the passenger compartment just to avoid taking a chance on lingering food odors.  I don't do it often, though, because the typical form factor is several closed food boxes stacked on top of each other and packed into a plastic bag, and it is easier to keep them from sliding on each other (and possibly spilling separately packed sauces) in the front passenger seat footwell than in the trunk.

I'm hard-pressed to think of scenario in which an entire order of fries remains in the car overnight. If that happened when I got food it would be noticed because it would mean one of us would be missing part of our food and would go hungry. I suppose if you're in the habit of doing something like ordering 4 orders of fries ala carte and sharing them communally, that could happen, but that seems like a portion-control disaster. We tend to order combo meals where each person gets their own fry and drink.

The other scenario I can think of that would result in food remaining in the car is spillage, but that is easily enough avoided by folding the top of the bag a couple of times (which also helps to keep the food warm). I also keep the bag on the passenger seat, so if I notice it threatening to tip over I can easily adjust it (or even better, have a passenger hold the bag if one is present).

[1995hoo]

Well, as I said before....

Given some of the strange habits and paranoias displayed by some forum members in other threads, this one seems mild to me. ....