would a commerical brushless car wash hurt the boxster? - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

this may seem like a stupid question, but would a good commerical car wash mess up the boxster or its top....the place says convertible tops are safe and this car wash does have a lot of high end cars going thru....but i have only used it for my crappy daily driver....i usually hand wash the boxster but there are times it is dirty and a wash through would get a clean car for several days until i can hand wash it again.......any thoughts???????

Anyone that doesn't want swirl marks will avoid commercial car washes. Beyond that though, I wouldn't put a soft-top convertible through any washing machine, regardless of what they try to tell you!

I use the touchless car wash in "emergencies" and it works GREAT. To me, an emergency is that my car is covered in salt and it'll be weeks before the water in the hose is above freezing for more than 2 hrs a day. Or I have treesap all over it, and I'm working late nights, and don't have time to wash it. No matter how good a job it does, and how much I THINK my car is ok, it still scares me. Which is why today, as I am in the treesap predicament, I will be working a mere 8 hour day (instead of yesterday's 12) so that I can go home and wash my baby the right way, by hand.

no it won't hurt the paint. The softop is anohter story. NEVER put soap detergent on that. Raggtopp cleanser with a feathertip brush only. Rinse weekly.

I went to one of the $15 car washes that are so common in California, where your car goes through a soapy shower then several attendants rub it down by hand. I deliberately went to the one in the middle of mariner's mile in Newport Beach because it ALWAYS had the finest cars going through there. Sure enough, I got in my car and a drip of cleaning solution had gotten INSIDE the glass of the dashboard dial and left a long cloudy mark. The attendant denied any error and the supervisor denied any responsibility. They were pretty rude. My lesson there was to not trust a place simply because I see other nice cars there. Now I go to a do it yourself car wash and pay quarters for a power hose. Then I can regulate the high pressure or low pressure, and direct exactly where it goes.

One thing about automated car washes no one has brought up yet is those precariously placed vents just behind the doors of our cars. Mine has been desnorkeled and I know a blast of water would get into the filter area. I'd imagine that water could easily be blown into the fan area on the passenger side as well, although that does not seem to be so critical.

The other issue with ANY car wash that has one of those wheel directors within it. With low profile tires, the wheel becomes exposed to being marred big time. I ruined two rims on a 911 that way. Pissed me off no end and that is the last time I went near one of those places.

You guys are probably gonna pooh-pooh this, but I've found a no touch carwash that kicks ass. The amount of time the soap stays on the top shouldn't be an issue...especially since I've been RaggTopping almost as much as I wax. There are plenty of people that don't RaggTopp at all and their top is still in good shape, even after years. The best part at this car wash is the deionized water that it rinses with at the end. I drove thru the other day in 80+ degree heat in the middle of the day...in a black car! Zero waterspots. Normally washing black cars is a nightmare in the sun due to the waterspots. I friggen love it. Gives me time to do more important things...like throwing on another coat of wax. -