Automatic Car Washing Maverick?

[KJHChemist]

Does anyone run their Maverick through the automatic, brushed car washes? Does it work ok, without hurting the truck?

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[pmav23]

Check out what I learned about washing from the company that did my ceramic coat. Way more involved than I realized. In general, brushes are no good (including snow brushes), so if you go in a car wash, it should be contact less. But the company gave me some other useful tips about maintaining your paint job.
https://www.mavericktruckclub.com/f...-maverick-photos-club.297/page-25#post-730115

 

[ShadowChas]

Does anyone run their Maverick through the automatic, brushed car washes? Does it work ok, without hurting the truck?

If your maverick is a show vehicle then nothing but hand wash/polish,etc… I personally have always used brushed car washes on my black maverick and yes it can get scratches but they are easily taken care with a wax/polish I have unlimited every day washes for my Michigan salty winters and usually wax once a month in the summer but you will find many opinions against any automatic washes

 

[RobertD]

I have run our Maverick through the car wash with brushes and it has been fine in my opinion.

In car wash opinions, especially ones with brushes spinning about, there are two groups of folks.

Group 1. Folks like me, I just don't care if the paint is getting micro scratches. I would rather run it through the car wash every few days than spend time and effort washing it by hand. I never notice the micro scratches. I also don't detail my car to make it look absolutely perfect. Also in my world parking lot dings and rock chips are going to happen and I learned early on in life to not obsess about them or I would go nuts.

Group 2. Folks that care about making their cars look absolutely perfect and debate the wonders of clay bars, ceramics, waxes and such. They would never take their car to a car wash and ruin it with spinning brushes that have glass and rocks and other paint scratching monsters left by other cars. These folks always seem to have a car that shines much better than mine did when I bought it and their effort really shows. They always look ready to enter a car show.

If I had the best of both worlds I would be in group 1 and my car would look like it came out of group 2. But at last the real world kicks in and I have chosen group 1. I wont be winning any car shows but that is OK with me because I have time to do other things.

The choice is yours, which way will you go......

 

[Scott Asheville]

I would add Group 3. We wash it once or twice a year, because to us it's just another unexciting and depreciating vehicular appliance that gets discarded and replaced at the appropriate point. No insult intended to those who take better care of their trucks - totally respect that. But there is definitely a Group 3.

 

[The Real Maverick]

Dirt and dust is literally UV blocker.

I had a 1988 truck.
Never washed unless it rained.
Lived it's whole life outdoors.
Paint looked better than decent when I sold it in 2010. Was fire engine red.

 

[dalola]

Does anyone run their Maverick through the automatic, brushed car washes? Does it work ok, without hurting the truck?

Yes & yes.

 

[YazYaz]

Yes & yes.

Auto car washes will not damage your Maverick or any other vehicle. During the winter I use the car wash just about every day and it looks great. At my car wash, just about every employee is a young person who is devoted to their cars/trucks and they also use the car wash. Micro scratches are total BS put out by some dishonest auto detailers and companies that sell auto products.

 

[Billy2mav]

I took both of our mavericks to the car wash last weekend. I looked all around for damage, did not find any. The only way to keep them clean in the winter.

 

[Robert C]

This is my first new vehicle.
I will never run it thru an automatic car wash.
Nothing will ever touch it.
Self service pressure hand wand only - from a distance, not even the hand brush.

 

[Montana]

I'll never use an automatic wash with a brush. RIP your paint and it's just asking for crap from other people's vehicles to scratch up your vehicle.

It's safe to agitate the surface, and helpful to remove debris that buries itself in the pores of the surface, but public brushes are never a good option. Soft microfiber stuff and the right chemicals make the difference.

If you can't do this during winter, just stick to the touchless washes and keep as much of the crap off as you can, then make up for it in summer and prep before the winters. I have to go to the public wash bays where I live and I'd say on average each winter I only agitate the surface maybe twice; three times at most and I bring my own brushes/wash cloths.

Thankfully Montana only uses sand on the roads instead of salt based crap.

 

[MrCigar]

Of all the stresses in life don't let this be one...my MAV loves her weekly run over to the car wash, no scratches, moonroof doesn't leak, looks great, enjoy life my friends.

 

[ejgroth2620]

Does anyone run their Maverick through the automatic, brushed car washes? Does it work ok, without hurting the truck?

There are new car washes where I live in FL, and I run my Maverick thru about once a month. I find the newer ones to be more harsh than the older ones, and the "dry cycle" produces hurricane force winds, giving me concern for my bed cover and bug shield. So far no damage, but I suspect eventually something negative will happen - it's just a matter of time.

 

[paneubert]

Auto car washes will not damage your Maverick or any other vehicle. Micro scratches are total BS put out by some dishonest auto detailers and companies that sell auto products.

While I don't care at all what others choose to do with their truck, I have to comment to say you are wrong. Haha. Mean that in the nicest way I can. Seriously.

This is one of those things where you can't prove something won't or doesn't happen (really hard to prove the absence of something, like Bigfoot or Aliens), but I can easily prove it did/does happen.

We have a black Subaru that literally has giant (like more than a foot long) wavy/"S" shaped scratches all over the hood from being run thru a tunnel car wash a few times over a few years with those "dangly/curtain like" fuzzy octopus arm style cloths that rub all over. The scratches match perfectly with the "wavy" back and forth motion of those dangly arms in the car wash. Plenty of scratches on the side panels as well. And I don't mean that there are 1 or 2 of those. I mean dozens across the hood, gained over years of car washes. While we don't care about the paint on that Subaru, I am 100% certain of where the scratches came from.

Saying that a high usage (dozens if not hundreds of washes per day), physically contacting/spinning/waving/rubbing automated brush or cloth doesn't scratch automotive paint is misleading at best. The reason folks are in the car wash is due to having a dirty car. Some percentage of all that dirt/gravel/glass/microplastics/iron fallout does get embedded into the brush or cloth that is vigorously spinning/pushing on your paint. Those car washes are not replacing those giant brushes or cloths very often, they are not cheap, and they are virtually impossible to clean of contamination. If you want proof about them not being able to clean them or replace them often, read my earlier statement about how we gained our giant scratches over multiple years time, not from some single freak event.

 

[Toinky]

Does anyone run their Maverick through the automatic, brushed car washes? Does it work ok, without hurting the truck?

I'll let the debate rage on, but if you decide to run 'er through, be sure to turn off the auto hold/auto brake feature. I nearly forced the machine to shut down before I realized that my truck was holding the brakes on for me!

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