# How often to clean your car?



## JPM (Aug 28, 2009)

I wash and wax, on average, once a week and try to do a full detail - clay, polish, wax 3 or 4 times a year. I still get comments from neighbours and work colleagues about being obsessive about cleaning. Some of the comments include "you'll have no paint left" or "the cleanest car in the street"

Interested to know how often you guys detail? I would love to detail every day but I'm now getting paranoid that I am overdoing it. Surely once a week isn't being obsessive  ?


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## foster2108 (Oct 22, 2004)

I clay, machine polish, wax etc yearly around April. I wash at least weekly and re-apply wax every couple of months or so. In between I use a quick detailer every wash and a spray wax every couple of weeks to keep the protection topped up. I could probably clay more often but I doubt that more than twice a year is necessary unless the car does loads of miles and sits under atree all summer etc (which mine doesn't) I doubt you need to polish so often as with careful washing, the paint should stay defect free(ish). Don't forget that polishing takes a little away from the thickness of the paint. This year I left out the machine polishing stage on my TT as the paint was still great from last year's polish.


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## davelincs (Jan 1, 2010)

Mine gets cleaned every time it goes out, i had a full detail on her earlier in the year, the detailer never waxed it he gave it 2 coats of werkstat jett, so every other was i give it a coat of jett, this seems to bring out the metallic flake in the colour as well as give it a good shine, i also do the interior every wash as well, i have a bit of an obbsesion when it come to cleaning my cars


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## bobski (Oct 21, 2007)

Once a year about April / May. It gets the works.

Outside:
Washed twice, Virosol wheels, rinsed, clayed, towel dried, polished, glazed, sealant, waxed, tyre shine and gloss plastics. Then the inside:
Hovered, shampoo carpets, liquid leather seats, dash cleaned and windows.

Then just routine cleaning and waxing after for the rest of the year.


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## sTTranger (Oct 21, 2008)

was mine every week

I will do a full detail about twice a year.

By this i mean remove the wheels, clay, cut and polish. I was once a month and will start polishing once a month also .

Time is the issue :?


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## Hoggy (May 8, 2002)

Hi, If it doesn't look as it has just left the showroom, I wash & micrifibre her dry. 8) Hate putting her in the garage dirty.
Hoggy.


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## JPM (Aug 28, 2009)

Good stuff, its not just me then.. :lol:. Funny as I don't put so much effort into the housework too (so the wife keeps saying anyway)


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## dooka (Apr 28, 2006)

Not enough, have to many others to do..

Only one this week, having some time off.. Might clean the van..


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## Bikerz (Aug 23, 2008)

sTTranger said:


> was mine every week
> 
> I will do a full detail about twice a year.
> 
> ...


Disco, you know how to remove wheels? :lol:


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## LOWEY (Oct 3, 2009)

JPM said:


> I wash and wax, on average, once a week and try to do a full detail - clay, polish, wax 3 or 4 times a year. I still get comments from neighbours and work colleagues about being obsessive about cleaning. Some of the comments include "you'll have no paint left" or "the cleanest car in the street"
> 
> Interested to know how often you guys detail? I would love to detail every day but I'm now getting paranoid that I am overdoing it. Surely once a week isn't being obsessive  ?


I ignore people's comments. DO YOUR OWN THING. Remember you have a better motor than most, look after it. 8)

Paul


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## dooka (Apr 28, 2006)

sTTranger said:


> was mine every week
> 
> I will do a full detail about twice a year.
> 
> ...


Why are you polishing once a month? are you in an area where it needs it. I am sure you car has been detailed before, so should be clean..

For my maintenance plan customers, I wash and wax once a month, and will get them in every 6 months for an enhancement detail, and protect their vehicles for what season is coming up.

May I recommend that you only wash and wax once a month, this will top up your protection monthly, and this way you wont be stripping off your wax and sealant each time..


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## JPM (Aug 28, 2009)

dooka said:


> sTTranger said:
> 
> 
> > was mine every week
> ...


Sounds like good advice. Less is more, I like that. 8)


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## sTTranger (Oct 21, 2008)

@ dooka

I thought it was the best thing to do as i use my car daily. 3.5 months and 8500miles, so i figured it needed a little more care


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## dooka (Apr 28, 2006)

That's fair enough, if you feel she needs it, then pamper her.. 

We all have our own regimes when it comes to cleaning our cars, so if you have found one you are happy with, then carry on..


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## MXS (May 10, 2010)

I have to clean mine quite often as I live by the coast and the seagulls are quite unrelenting! :x


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## dooka (Apr 28, 2006)

Bird lime by the coast is more acidic than in-land, so make sure you have a bomb proof sealant on, and get it off as soon as you can, 20mins can see irreversible damage from coast gulls..


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## Ziggytt (Sep 9, 2009)

JPM said:


> I wash and wax, on average, once a week and try to do a full detail - clay, polish, wax 3 or 4 times a year. I still get comments from neighbours and work colleagues about being obsessive about cleaning. Some of the comments include "you'll have no paint left" or "the cleanest car in the street"
> 
> Interested to know how often you guys detail? I would love to detail every day but I'm now getting paranoid that I am overdoing it. Surely once a week isn't being obsessive  ?


Nothing wrong with that, don't feel that you are being obsessive by what your neighbours say, I get exactly the same replies from mine. Just remember that whilst you are cleaning it you are proud of owning such superb car and the neighbour who is saying that to you is only jealous and probably has a knackered out Vauxhall Corsa!

I've got a Phamtom Black car and drive to work, so usually every Sunday am either washing it (weather permitting) or trying out a new wax product on it to see if there is any difference, can't say though I have gone as far as taking the wheels off, probably cos I'ld be frightened of trying to put them back on again..

Enjoy your car


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## Guzi (Jun 13, 2010)

I wash mine every two weeks and wax once a month. Hoover every 2 weeks and shampoo carpets, and do the dash every 1 or 2 weeks. Clean the leather just as and when i think it needs doing, every few months i guess. I use my car every day so it gets dirty quickly. I love cleaning it!


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## audimad (Jan 7, 2008)

Once a week, sometimes twice depends how dirty the car is. It takes quite a while as we have three Audis. I don't clean the cars though, the wife does.


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## finallygotaTT (Aug 11, 2010)

How does this sound:

Exterior:
Wash once a week
Polish once a month
Wax once every 3 mths

Interior:
Wipe and hoover once a week
Clean the dash and shampoo carpets once a month
Clean & protect the leather once every 3 mths

Does this sound about right?


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## pars_andy (Dec 10, 2009)

I would wax more and polish less. As has been said, polishing actually removes a very fine layer of the paint so you don't want to do it very often. If you were to wax monthly, you really shouldn't need to polish much at all as the wax will protect your paint. 
I've only had my car a few months and I plan on using super resin polish twice a year. It's actually more of a filler than a polish so it shouldn't be harsh on the paintwork. I've been waxing it properly monthly and I give it a quick squirt of aqua wax every wash in between. It doesn't offer great protection on it's own but it's supposed to be a decent top up wax and it really helps with drying the car. And it can be applied wet so it really doesn't add much to the overall time.


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## finallygotaTT (Aug 11, 2010)

Nice 1. So wax monthly and polish every few. Never really used wax before, any recommendations? I usually stick to the autoglym range. I think they had a 2 for 1 offer once that I just got carried away with and stuck with it since.


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## pars_andy (Dec 10, 2009)

I actually think that autoglym's hd wax is a very good, underrated wax. When i got my mk1 i invested in some expensive swissol wax but i doubt i would go overboard with that again. It was good, but it wasn't 4 times as good. Autoglym can be a bit of a swear word to some of the more elitist detailers though. ;-)


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## Robtur (Jul 6, 2009)

sTTranger said:


> was mine every week
> 
> I will do a full detail about twice a year.
> 
> ...


Remember, Polishing will remove any wax, so each time you need to wax the car to give full protection, The car would not need polished more so after being corrected and in such a little amount of time. But keeping ontop of the wax (the protection layer) is most important for you.

For me, I wash my cars once a week, but will snowfoam and rinse my van at least every second day.....but in detailing, image is important.


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## Digi (Oct 20, 2009)

I clean my car at lease three times a week: power rinse, suds, power rinse, dry.
The wheels are done after every journey: spray alloy cleaner, power rinse, suds, power rinse, dry
Tyres are treated every week, the backs of the wheels are done also, and the under arches are cleaned with the wheels off, as car is never used on a wet road this is done about four times a year as is the the engine and under side of the car
and wax as often as needed or feel like doing.


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## csi_basel (May 11, 2006)

Digi said:


> I clean my car at lease three times a week: power rinse, suds, power rinse, dry.
> The wheels are done after every journey: spray alloy cleaner, power rinse, suds, power rinse, dry
> .


You're kidding right!! Sounds like you clean it more than you drive it :roll:


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## freeman (Jul 25, 2010)

I wash it once a week,

Wax the entire car once a month, but the front part almost every week. We have really bad insect problems here in the mid-west US so I wash the front of the car a little heavily than the rest, at night the view from my windshield looks like the intro to star-trek.

I find that wax makes the insect carcass on the car a lot easier to clean off...


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## Hark (Aug 23, 2007)

This thread makes me feel better about the small amount of time (compartively) on the car. :wink:


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