Honda Car Forum

"Even better is to rinse salt out of those
spaces with water - not the salt recycled water found in car
washed. What does a car wash do? Wash that salt into places
you don't want it. "

Now this is an interesting point of discussion. I've wondered about
this. Does a decent car wash have anything in it's water recycling
system to remove salt from the water? Do they at least use clean water
for the rinse? If not, I wonder how high the salt concentration would
get and how long after the last application of road salt it would be
before the car wash had eliminated most of it from the water in use?

Its funny that no one here has really hit the nail on the head on this one
yet.

Increasing the number of freeze-thaw cycles over a car's life along with the
presence of moisture (and compounded by corrosion- inducing ions found in
road salt) will certainly accelerate the pace of rusting. The moisture
gets into seams and beneath undercoating and dirt and paint (even in
microscopic size locations) and then freezes (which expands, causing minute
but detrimental movements in the metal and paint bonding) and then thaws and
allows the moisture-salt solution into even more new new places to repeat
the process is what does the damage over time.

And by the way, a high pressure car wash in the winter will force that
corrosive solution deeper into the seams and nooks and crannies and can do
more harm than good. Worse yet, some car washes use water that has been
recycled several times and has a very concentrated salt solution from
everybody elses car before you use it - shooting this stuff all under your
car a few times every winter is really asking for it. Sounds funny, but if
you suspect recycled water after the carwash owner denies it, taste it for
saltiness (have a bottle of good water handy to rinse afterwards in any
case!)





<trader4@optonline.net> wrote in message
news:1133651113.603055.313620@g49g2000cwa.googlegr oups.com...
> "Even better is to rinse salt out of those
> spaces with water - not the salt recycled water found in car
> washed. What does a car wash do? Wash that salt into places
> you don't want it. "
>
> Now this is an interesting point of discussion. I've wondered about
> this. Does a decent car wash have anything in it's water recycling
> system to remove salt from the water? Do they at least use clean water
> for the rinse? If not, I wonder how high the salt concentration would
> get and how long after the last application of road salt it would be
> before the car wash had eliminated most of it from the water in use?
>

Tom Levigne wrote:
>
> And by the way, a high pressure car wash in the winter will force that
> corrosive solution deeper into the seams and nooks and crannies and can do
> more harm than good. Worse yet, some car washes use water that has been
> recycled several times and has a very concentrated salt solution from
> everybody elses car before you use it - shooting this stuff all under your
> car a few times every winter is really asking for it. Sounds funny, but
> if you suspect recycled water after the carwash owner denies it, taste it
> for saltiness (have a bottle of good water handy to rinse afterwards in
> any case!)

I think that it would be a bit safer and easier to just use an ohm meter.
Recycled water with a high ion concentration should have considerably lower
resistance. It might also save you from consuming a mouthful of
hydrocarbons, antifreeze, and who knows what.

Eric

<trader4@optonline.net> wrote in message
news:1133651113.603055.313620@g49g2000cwa.googlegr oups.com...
> "Even better is to rinse salt out of those
> spaces with water - not the salt recycled water found in car
> washed. What does a car wash do? Wash that salt into places
> you don't want it. "
>
> Now this is an interesting point of discussion. I've wondered about
> this. Does a decent car wash have anything in it's water recycling
> system to remove salt from the water? Do they at least use clean water
> for the rinse?

Most use clean water for everything.

"Most use clean water for everything. "

Is this true? I'm pretty sure the local one uses recycled water. And
unless water was free or really cheap, I would think most would recycle
at least the wash water?

Tom Levigne wrote:
> Its funny that no one here has really hit the nail on the head on
> this one yet.

I think the real "nail" here is how old of a car are we talking about? I
haven't seen rust on any car that was less than 10 years old for a long time.
Who actually worries about rust any more other than those that have "vintage"
vehicles?

Keeping cars looking newer longer these days is almost entirely a matter of
avoiding dings and dents and keeping the paint from fading/oxidizing. Rust is
simply not the issue any more. About the only time a newer car is going to rust
is after it has been damaged in a manner that exposes bare metal.

On Sun, 04 Dec 2005 02:59:50 GMT, "Tom Levigne" <toml37@excite.com>
wrote:

>And by the way, a high pressure car wash in the winter will force that
>corrosive solution deeper into the seams and nooks and crannies and can do
>more harm than good.

I've heard this before, but think it's over-rated. The water is
hitting flat pieces of sheetmetal and bouncing off. Some gets into
panel gaps. I don't see any real "forcing" of water into strange
places any different from where rain-water would drip. Plus, those
"hidden" places aren't what's going to rust first. What's going to
rust first are areas where the paint has been damaged by rocks and
sand.

Rick Brandt wrote:

> I think the real "nail" here is how old of a car are we talking about? I
> haven't seen rust on any car that was less than 10 years old for a long time.
> Who actually worries about rust any more other than those that have "vintage"
> vehicles?

I've seen some late 90s Chevy Cavaliers and Malibus with moderate rust
along the edges of the doors and trunk lid.

<trader4@optonline.net> wrote in message
news:1133709953.156603.134800@g47g2000cwa.googlegr oups.com...
> "Most use clean water for everything. "
>
> Is this true? I'm pretty sure the local one uses recycled water. And
> unless water was free or really cheap, I would think most would recycle
> at least the wash water?

I work for an environmental company, and have done clean up at a few local
washes cleaning out the traps.

All fresh.

"Steve Bigelow" <stevebigelowXXX@rogers.com> wrote in message
news:HrmdnUh98LpSig7eRVn-rA@rogers.com...
>
> <trader4@optonline.net> wrote in message
> news:1133709953.156603.134800@g47g2000cwa.googlegr oups.com...
> > "Most use clean water for everything. "
> >
> > Is this true? I'm pretty sure the local one uses recycled water. And
> > unless water was free or really cheap, I would think most would recycle
> > at least the wash water?
>
> I work for an environmental company, and have done clean up at a few local
> washes cleaning out the traps.
>
> All fresh.
>

i agree, i've been there as well (in the south)

always been municipal water into a holding tank of some sort, that fed the
pumps, some times with water softners to help soap and wax treatments do
their jobs easier and of course prevent spotting etc.. the water drained to
sewer, all the crud stuck in the PIT, when the PIT was full the crud stayed
and the bays just flooded

definately would not want recylced water shooting on my car.