[itrocks4u]

Hi,

I have the E90 in alpine white. Previously I did a hand wash which went pretty good. I used the bmw car wash shampoo to clean the car first, rinsed, followed by bmw wash and wax, rinsed again and then applied the Meguiar's Ultimate Quick Detailer. The car looked amazing after that!

Anyways, two weeks later, I took it to a car wash, touchless and after the car was done, I realized there's still a layer of dust on it, which was weird. I though the issue was with the car wash itself lol. Then I took it to another gas station this week, got the touchless car wash and again the same thing! The're still a layer of dust on top of the car and it doesn't go away even after washing through the car wash.

I did come home, hand-washed the car and it worked. I'm not sure if this is because I applied wax or maybe I applied to much of it. or is that normal?

[drvai]

The answer is very simple: touchless car washes do not completely remove the dirt in your car. You have to consider that is just water at high pressure and by itself is not able to get rid of the dirt. That's why don't even think about hand drying the car after going through a touchless car wash.. you will scratch the car.

There is nothing better than a hand car wash....

[itrocks4u]

Yea, that's what I was thinking as well. Thanks. What about non-touchless car washes, they scratch the car?

[ChuckBMW3]

Originally Posted by itrocks4u

Yea, that's what I was thinking as well. Thanks. What about non-touchless car washes, they scratch the car?

Absolutely! They will scratch/swirl the $hit out of your paint. Your best option is to hand wash yourself.

[OrangeHooligan]

+1 Never go through a standard car wash unless you want to learn how to compound and polish your car hahaha

[Envious Eric]

they even have signs at most touchless that say "not 100%" or "will not remove all road grime from car"

They are ok if your car is dirty as hell before an ONR wash though.

However, nothing will beat a traditional wash!