Mistakes when washing cars and motorbikes at home

Washing your car with detergent at home can affect the durability of the paint. Illustration: QA

The pros outweigh the cons.

Many people choose household cleaning chemicals such as laundry detergent, dishwashing liquid, and even floor cleaner because they are convenient and cheap, not knowing that they can cause significant damage to the car's paint as well as metal parts.

However, the benefits of cheap price and convenience are not enough to compensate for the limitations of washing powder when used to wash cars. Specifically, the ingredients of washing powder, dishwashing liquid, and floor cleaner contain very high levels of alkali, which can gradually fade the protective layer of car paint, causing the car surface to quickly become dull and discolored.

Not only that, soap sticks to the car surface very tightly, so rinsing it clean also takes a lot of time, effort and water. In particular, metal parts on cars such as rims, engine compartments, etc. can also react with the lye in washing powder, leading to rust and stains over time.

That is why experts advise us not to wash our cars with detergent. Instead, we should use specialized cleaning solutions to clean motorbikes and cars.

Experience needed when washing your car at home

According to experienced people, you should wash your car once a week because it is often exposed to dust, tree sap, bird droppings and hundreds of other things. With bird droppings and tree sap, you should wash immediately because if left for a long time, strong corrosive substances will destroy the paint surface. In addition, if after each long trip or a rainy day, washing immediately after will ensure that dust particles do not scratch the paint.

Illustration photo.

A small note is that you should wash in the shade because if done in the sun, the car surface may dry before the dirt is completely removed. In case of heavy dust, you should use a spray nozzle and not a towel to rub it because it will cause scratches. However, the water pressure should not be too strong because it will be no different from scrubbing with your hands. A common mistake at car wash stations today is using a high-pressure nozzle because the car wash workers want to finish quickly.

You should wash from top to bottom and wash each section. However, some professionals prefer to wash from bottom to top. According to experts, washing from top to bottom will reduce the risk of scratching the paint because dirt does not stick to the cleaning cloth. The bottom of the car often has a lot of dirt and large dust particles, if you clean here first, the dust can stick to the tool and scratch the paint. If you wash from top, the water and detergent will flow down and loosen some of the dirt before we get there.

Car wash steps include:

- Gently wipe the entire vehicle with water to remove dust.
- Wipe and wash each part, from top to bottom to avoid some areas drying too quickly, causing dirt to accumulate on them.
- Rub gently.
- You must make sure to always scrub gently, not stopping in one place for too long to prevent dirt from settling in one place.
- Rinse the entire car with water to remove all dirt.
- Finally, wipe away any remaining water.