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How Often Should You Wash Your Car?

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So you are wondering how often you should wash your car? Do you know that keeping your car always clean can extend its lifespan? Cleaning a car is something that many people take for granted, not knowing that when the dirt is allowed to stay on the car for long, it will lower your car’s aesthetic value and hasten wear and tear. For example, dirt that settles on unpainted parts of the car will lead to rusting that will eat into the metal.

How often to wash a car is a question that doesn’t have a straightforward answer. While some people wash their cars daily, some wait until they feel the car is too dirty to drive around. Yet, another group of people waits until they are reminded with a “PLEASE WASH ME” writing on their cars.

What should determine the frequency of washing your car?

Your location: Where you live has a great bearing on how fast your car can get dirty. Do you live near an ocean, an industry, a construction site, or a region with many trees or bugs and insects? Do you live in a place with a lot of dust or mud or live in a clean urban area?

How often you use your car: Of course, a car that’s not used daily will not get dirty as fast as a car that’s always on the road. The more you use your vehicle, the more it will get exposed to bugs, mud, dirt, and other environmental elements that make it dirty.

Weather: Weather comes with its challenges that can determine how often you should wash your cash. When it dry and hot, you have to face dust. On the other hand, when it rains heavily, your car will get exposed to mud, salt, and heavy winds.

Where you store your car: A car that’s packed in the open is bound to get dirty even if it’s not used. This is not the same case with a car parked in a closed garage.

Car’s appearance: This is a personal choice. If you always want to drive a clean car, you’ll want to clean it more often than a person who doesn’t mind driving a dirty car. So if you feel proud of driving a showroom-shiny car, you need to clean it more often.

When to wash daily/weekly

You can wash your car daily/weekly if you want always to drive a clean car. Again, if your work demands that you always drive or be driven in a clean car, you’ll have no option. If you live in an area with lots of bugs or bird droppings, it would be wise to clean your car as often as possible. This is also the case when you like parking your car in a wooded area. The bugs, bird dropping, and tree leaves should not be left to stay on the car for long as they may interfere with the paint.

Other issues that may make your car to need regular cleaning is how far you drive the car daily and the weather in which you drive the car. For example, when it rains heavily, your car may collect a lot of mud that makes it unsightly to drive again. The same applies when you are living close to an industry that releases lots of air pollutants.

When to wash bi-weekly

If you don’t expose your car to bird droppings, bug guts, tree sap, and mud, there wouldn’t be any need to wash it so often. This can only be possible if you live in a fear weather area, and you store your car in a closed garage. If you live near the coast, you’ll have to wash your vehicle at least twice a month to remove salt deposits on it that might cause it to rust faster.

You can either wash your car on your own or have it cleaned for you, then you pay.

What do you need to wash your car?

When you use wrong items like dish soaps or dish towels to wash your car, the paint will get damaged. Rather than using these kitchen items, you need to buy the correct cleaning items to protect your vehicle. Here are some things you need to upgrade car washing accessories:

  • Car Window cleaner
  • Wheel brush
  • Cash washing soap
  • Microfiber towels
  • Car wash mitt (microfiber)
  • Two dirt traps
  • Two buckets
  • Water hose
  • Nitrile gloves

You can buy most of these items from your local store as an all-inclusive package. You can as well check if you can get them from a reliable online store, in which case they’ll get delivered right to your doorstep. Before you wash your car at home or wherever you want to clean it, check the local building rules and/or laws to ensure you aren’t violating any rules, codes, or regulations in so far as the car washing location is concerned. You might get fined for washing your car in the wrong place.

Car Washing Steps

You can do this, and it won’t take much of your time. Here are the steps to follow:

  1. Fill the two buckets with water then add the cash washing soap. Use this to clean any dirt trapped at the bottom of the car
  2. Use the hose to rinse the top of the car as you move to the body, and finally to the car’s bottom. This will help loosen the dirt.
  3. Now use the soapy car wash mitt to wash the car, start from the top, move to the body, and the bottom. You can rinse and wash the car in quarters to prevent the formation of water spots and/or dried streaks.
  4. Using the wheel brush, wash the wheels, then rinse them thoroughly. It would be best if you washed the wheel last to prevent brake grime, dirt, and dust from getting transferred to the car’s painted parts, which might end up scratching them. But if you’ve decided to clean the wheel first, you can use a different towel or brush.
  5. Once you’ve washed all the car’s parts, rinse the car again, starting from the top to the bottom.
  6. Use the first towel to soak up water from the car, and the second one to dry the vehicle.

It is also advisable to wax your car once in a while to protect it against dirt.

Final Words

If you’d never washed a car, you might think it’s a complicated and tedious task, far from it. Car washing is a low risk and simple task, provided you use the right tools and nontoxic cleaning products. You have to protect your mouth and eyes against grime, detailers, shines, waxes, and soaps you use in cleaning the car. Wearing gloves is necessary to protect your hands against cleaning chemicals.

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