There have been several threads in the past relating to car cleaning (or the lack of it) but I'd like to hear of the differing attitudes that backroomers have towards the cosmetic and mechanical care of their cars.
What is your attitude towards the cosmetic upkeep of you car, do you take pride in its appearance? What about routine servicing, do you take it to the garage once a year but never lift the bonnet inbetween? Would you not bother repairing scuffs and scratches or are you a detailing enthusiast?
It seems to me that the bulk of the motoring population don't bother much about either and only really think in terms of the impending M.O.T. I think that it's healthy to take an interest in the mechanical condition and physical appearance of one's automobile. I feel that people who do this are more likely to take pride in their driving too, which is usually a good thing.
Yours, Hector B
Edited by Hector Brocklebank on 23/06/2009 at 21:32
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Interesting question. Here's my tuppence worth:
I wash/wax it when it gets dirty, or when I see the wax coat is wearing off when water starts to wet the surface rather than bead. I dont care about the actual cosmetic condition of the paint, but coat stonechips/scrathes with fresh laquer purely to prevent corrosion. I do not bother about any chips/scrathces on surfaces which will not corrode eg bumpers. I look for rust on the bodywork and deal with it, fortunately there has been very little. Redid underseal, and waxoiled sills.
Mechanically, I check fluids weekly, oil changes every six months irrespective of mileage. I do as much as possible myself but do not hesitate to take it to a workshop if it is a job beyond my expertise. I do not consider some home servicing as an inferior option in all cases.
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Mechanically I check fluids, tyres and make sure it is serviced according to schedule. I'm not really competent to do more and it still under warranty. Cosmetically I give it a wash once a month and vacuum the interior. I wax it 3 or 4 times a year. Any significant damage I get repaired a at my local body shop. Total time spent on maintenance/washing etc averages at one and a half hours per month.
I tend to change my car every 4 or 5 years and have always got a decent figure for my old car as it is in decent condition . Spending more time cleaning your car is fine if that's your hobby but its really not necessary. The guy opposite me spends 6 hours every Sunday cleaning his BMW, Goodness knows why,
If you have other things to do spending hours every week cleaning painted steel panels that will be dirty again within hours strikes me as a waste of time . I prefer going places in my car to cleaning it
Edited by Webmaster on 24/06/2009 at 01:46
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My view is there's no point in washing a clean car. Our 2 cars only get cleaned when doing so would make a noticeable difference to their appearance - apart from windows and lights, which need to be kept clean for safety.
That doesn't mean we drive around in filfthy cars all the time - I hate carrying junk around inside the car too - no old papers or wrappers allowed!
When I do clean the cars I tend to do it properly, though.
Edited by Sofa Spud on 23/06/2009 at 22:24
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Everyone washes their car once a week round here. They all have barbeques whenever it's a sunny Sunday too. Most of them put fairy lights outside their houses at Christmas and shove a "Santa please stop here" sign in the front garden. Most of them have block paving, silver blinds, a brown leather sofa and laminate wood flooring. It's seen as rock 'n roll to have been to Florida..Lawns are kept neatly mown and all becomes silent before midnight.
It is crushingly boring......
;-)
I do mine most Saturday mornings....don't to want rock the boat.
Edited by Humph Backbridge on 23/06/2009 at 22:30
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Or even "want to" perhaps....
;-)
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Never open the bonnet except to fill up the washer bottle. Wouldn't know how to change oil etc (did it once 20-odd years ago, under tutelage, and never felt the desire to repeat the experience).
Car wash when it gets really dirty and there's more than a few weeks to the service (which includes a wash of sorts).
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Wash when dirty, polish when beading stops. Hoover when required. Annual service by indy, interim oil change by me at six months, monitor brake pad wear and replace as required, strip, clean, and grease brakes as required, weekly fluid and tyre checks.
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I tend to wash mine weekly, I spent a whole day machine polishing it a few weeks ago and right now it's got possibly the best paint finish of any Mondeo of it's age and I want it to stay that way. Every couple of weeks I completely clean out the interior and to be honest it looks nearly new, it certainly doesn't show the 93,000 miles that it has covered.
I think I'm one of only two in my close that washes their own car regularly, everyone else gets it done for them or just doesn't bother. Surprisingly, my car is the second oldest in the street (W reg) but is the most religiously washed.
Mechanically I possibly don't pay as much attention as I should, I check fluids every few weeks and service it on the button, only ever use the best parts too, Goodyear Eagle F1 tyres etc.
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In winter the underside and engine bay are rinsed of frequently and alloy parts of the engine rubbed and sprayed with WD40.
Underneath (frames and brakelines) are greased and cared for and under the bonnet you could eat your dinner off the engine. I service the vehicles myself doing half interval oil changes.
I never waste time polishing or waxing and in Summer rarely wash it - certainly never bothering with dead flies on the front. I leave those to weather off with the November rain.
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Cars serviced at main dealers on time. If consumables are needed I shop around for parts and get my village mechanic to fit them. Both our cars are now out of warranty so I may stop using the main dealers now.
Tyres checked weekly. Fluids not so frequently.
Cars washed about once every month. Wheels sooner if really black.
Cars vacuumed every 2 weeks or so.
Try to give each of them a wax once a year, usually Autumn.
Bird poo cleaned off when it appears!
Edited by Marc on 24/06/2009 at 00:20
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I clean it once every 2.5 weeks probably unless I need to clean the windscreen which is every few days.
Hover it hardly ever.
I check the oil, coolant, washer fluid and lights weekly, I also check the tyre preasures too
Once every two weeks I will do a more in depth check, I will check the exhaust to make sure there is no signs of coolant or oil, check the discs to ensure they are still smooth and not warped and check other things which I feel fit.
I tend to get all my work done at the same place but have used fast fit pleases for tyres etc. I will replace tyres when they get down to 3mm or are cracking (in this house hold we have bought almost ten tyres in the past year!!)
I probably worry too much about my car but with the amount of luck I have had I think it is justified. I have a couple of customers which have the same luck with their computers as I do with my cars!
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"Bird poo cleaned off when it appears"
I pretty much do an amalgam of what everyone else appears to do re: the washing/hoovering routines, but will always respond to the aforementioned immediately/as soon as it's spotted.
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My car gets washed as soon as it gets dirty, i also wax it as well.
but as soon as the birds use it for target practice, out i come with a old dishcloth and wash it off as soon as possible.
I love nice clean interiors so i hover the car out as often as i can.
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Mine gets washed when it's so dirty you can't get in it withouth getting filthy - averaging about 1 / year (or 20k miles). Inside gets a quick hoover if I've been using it as a builder's van / skip lorry and it's really bogging.
However, they get regular underbonnet checks, and mechanical work as and when needed by me, and regular servicing and decent tyres. I am a careful and courteous driver - in 40k my car has one light scratch down the side where I rubbed it on the Eucalyptus bush in the drive parking it one day. I fail to understand how people get so many dents and scratches in their cars in so few miles (mine had two bumper corners and a dent in a wing top repaired when I bought it, and it had only done 47k).
I have far better things to be doing than washing cars - they are tools: when they're broken, fix them, or buy another one. Probably why I buy cheap cars and run them into the ground....
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Pretty much as already stated. Wash every week, wax every couple of months, check under bonnet every 500 miles (sometimes twice a week), don't look at tyres as much as I should.
On the subject of waxing, sometimes get the impression that when washing the week after waxing, I'm just cleaning the wax off. Wonder if it would be better to wash/wax every month then hose off bird muck etc. every week.
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I haven't washed my Merc (which I don't use much, but lives outside) since between Christmas and New Year, and I only did it then as we were going to a funeral. I do wash bird muck off it and clean the windows sometimes.
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Washed a few times a year - usually when I'm passing one of those "hand car wash" places and have nothing better to do. Inside hoovered out every month or so, less now that I've stopped wearing a navy blue uniform. :-)
Mechanically it's serviced when it's meant to be, and I check the fluids every few weeks or so. There's a slow coolant leak which requires occasional attention but that's it. I'm never, ever, EVER going to attempt changing the oil on the Passat by myself again.
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I think I last washed the S80 about four years ago. Not vacuumed out either.
Oil changed DIY every 10,000 miles. Brake components & tyres when they need it.
Now on 155,000 miles.
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The Volvo gets DIY serviced to the schedule.
The Golf is serviced to the schedule by a VW tech friend who charges me so little it's not worth getting dirty (90k major on the Golf for £80)
Neither car is ever clean or tidy. they work for a living. Might get a wash and wax once a month in the summer, but we both seem to have more important things to do.
Both cars are kept mechanically in good order with faults fixed quickly. One carries the kids and one is a hard working commuter. Reliability and safety are paramount. I check fluid levels every weekend.
Cheers
DP
Edited by DP on 24/06/2009 at 11:00
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Always fairly slobbish, but more or less depending on the car. Some cars can't be made to look really tidy.
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Wash the thing when it's dirty (so more often when it's colder - blast it).
Intend to wax it twice a year (it gets done maybe once every eighteen months).
Cannot bear unnecessary dirt inside - threw a hissy fit when SWMBO got chocolate on the gear stick - vacuum it maybe twice a year. How do you hover it?
Annual oil and filter changes (5K/year), with dismantling and cleaning of brakes.
Plugs and other filters done at probably half recommended manufacturers intervals.
The other, fifty quid car, gets oil and filter every few thou (maybe a couple of years), with annual brake dismantling, and power washed when I feel like it!
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During a concentrated campaign of car vandalism (mainly keying) in our area some time ago, a neighbour of mine noticed that it was always nicely polished upmarket motors on the receiving end. The pair of us decided to let the gunge build up on our own cars and see. Whether by luck or something else, our cars were spared, regular servicing being maintained of course. I have also received the same advice regarding personal appearance on holiday trips. Now I generally match the car, a little bit shabby, no jewellery or designer clothes at least and find I am left in peace. The times I have been accosted on the streets of continental Europe I have invariably been smartly dressed. A coincidence? Who's to say, but it's worth thinking about.
Ago
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I never washed my old red Volvo 240 GLT in the 6 years I lived on Bodmin moor, but then it rains everyday up there + twice on Sundays.
The paint had gorn orf obviously and had acquired a nice matt patina.
It was regularly serviced by an indy, when I got it home I would drain out the Vauxhall oil they'd used and stick some Castrol in, along with a genuine filter.
Tyre's - allways check em ... life & death job!
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My attitude to care care has change over time. When I used to run new cars, they were always kept in almost pristine condition. Hand washed, unless I was away from home when I would use a car wash if the car looked mucky. Polished several times a year. Hoovered out every couple of months and internal glass cleaned. All servicing was completed by franchised dealer.
Now I run an older car, I am not so worried about a small dent or scratch. This change happened after a nice youth ran a knife down the side of my current car - not once but twice (see an earlier thread from several years ago), and someone reversed on the front wing with a 4x4 on Christmas Eve. Now I wash the car when it looks dirty, but on a dark blue metallic it takes a time. I polish the car every year or two. The interior gets hoovered out about 2 or 3 times a year as I now regularly have a dog in the car. The car looks slightly tatty at the moment as I removed the towing hitch and the trailer electrics are held in a carrier bag as I have not yet got to obtaining a new bracket to hold them permanently. Also one of the wires from the reversing sensors has dropped and again I have not fixed it.
As to servicing this is carried out annually along with a MOT, this year my mileage will probably be less than 7,000 miles. I have a good local general garage that are very good and reasonable (£60 per hour plus VAT) only a short walk from work. They are very approachable and you talk to people who know what has to be done. They also allowed me to supply new disks and pads and just charged labour to fit them - on the understanding if I had the wrong part it was my fault. They are also good if there is a problem, recently I had the mounting holding the gear stick break. It took a couple of days to get the car back on the road as an original part was required and 4 hours of labour to fit it.
Mechanically the car is in better condition than when I bought it and now believe keeping it on the road is sensible as bills are fairly low compared to the depreciation of a new car. Even though I could qualify for the Scrapage scheme, I will not change as I feel it would be criminal to crush a car that is still performing well.
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Car kept in A1 mechanical condition.
Body kept with no rust or untouched up chips.
But only washed when needed (except windows- whenever dirty) and like others happy to see it look nondescriptly dirty at times.
Edited by madf on 24/06/2009 at 16:42
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The mondeo, now on 174,000 miles is dented and scratched, however its usually reasonably clean, washed every couple of weeks or so. Often litter round the inside, but it gets hoovered out every now and again.
Mechanically, its now had 17 oil and filter changes and everything else gets done when its needed, though I do keep the washer bottle topped up. Most stufff I do myself, though will use an indy when required.
The Porsche is kept immaculate, both cosmetically and mechanically.
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I was intrigued that a couple of posters have cars which they "hover" from time to time. Now that's cool.....
;-)
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