Automedia.com - CarCare - Cleaning Articles

Automotive Carpet Cleaning

The United States is a fast-food culture. Even those of us who swear we'll never eat in our cars eventually yield to the modern realities of not enough time to do too much work and having to spend too much time in traffic. Consequently, food and drink spills on automotive carpet are a modern reality when we eat and drink on the go...

Automotive Glass Cleaning

Cleaning automotive glass seems like such a no-brainer that it shouldn't warrant explanation. However, household cleaners aren't always auto-glass friendly...

Buffer How-to

There's absolutely nothing that makes an automotive finish shine like a coat of top quality wax. While the end results are worth the effort, the task of waxing a vehicle top to bottom can require an almost superhuman effort. With prices on random orbital buffers dipping into the boy-that's-a-good-deal zone, it's tempting to grab onto the handles of a power buffer and jump right in. Yet, as with any application of power, one must be careful...

Car Covers

All vehicle covers are not created equal. There are many types and weights of fabric, all designed to do a specific job. Selecting a vehicle cover is not something to be taken lightly, particularly if you're serious about protecting your favorite ride. Various factors should enter into your selection, but the most important is where you are parking or storing your vehicle. Do you need a simple dust cover or a super cover that can stand up to seriously bad weather? Both types, and everything in between, are available from several suppliers, but here we'll look at some of the criteria surrounding vehicle covers and how to select the right one for your application...

Car Interior Cleaning

Has your vehicle become a second family room? That is, are you surprised what you find wedged between the seats or lying underneath the floormats? You know ... mashed fries, cookie crumbs, or a funky, multicolored object that you can't identify but might qualify as a biohazard. The problem is, even when you get rid of this crud and various other stains, their odors may linger. Here are a few tips for clearing the air...

Choosing Wax

The car-care aisle in the average auto-parts store has a mind-boggling array of products. The wax section alone offers products formulated for new paint, old paint, clear-coated paint, scratched paint, oxidized paint—just about everything but roller-applied paint. Many of these products claim to restore routinely maintained paint to its original factory finish (when used as directed). So how do you know which wax is best for your car? We'll attempt to boil it down to the basics...

Clean and Condition Leather Interior

Ask a random sampling of automotive consumers what single thing most typifies luxury in a car and the first answer is likely to be "leather upholstery," even though leather can be had in cars with nameplates that are much more associated with low price and thrifty transportation than those we more commonly think of as luxury models. All that leather is nice in the showroom, but many car owners are at a complete loss when it comes to caring for it...

Cleaning Leather Upholstery

Leather upholstery has always been synonymous with luxury. Leather costs more than cloth or other textiles used in cars, but it's actually more durable than most of these fabrics. With the possible exception of vinyl, leather is usually easier to clean than other upholstery materials. In fact, some detail shops even charge less to de-gunk leather and vinyl than fabrics...

Convertible Top Fabric Cleaning

Whether your automotive top is canvas or vinyl, dirt will accumulate there in the same way it does on your paint and other exterior surfaces. But, unlike your paint and other exterior surfaces, a fabric top is a textile and has a grain and, thus, little pores and grooves. The same is true of pseudo-convertible lids and tonneau and boot covers of all sorts. The look and feel of real fabric carries with it a tradeoff: it's more vulnerable to environmental fallout, grime and all the other airborne filth. Sadly, those cracks and crannies in the surface give dirt a place to hide from typical car cleaners. So how do you clean a fabric top correctly?..

Dash and Console Care

Manufacturers of car-care products often liken vinyl or leather automotive interiors to human skin. That's a valid comparison, especially when it comes to protecting those surfaces. Regular cleaning and application of dressing (akin to a cosmetic moisturizer) is the key to preventing damage. Careful maintenance will keep your dashboard's skin plump and smooth, looking years younger than its actual age...

Degrease Your Engine

We all know how hard it is to keep dirt and debris off the outside of our vehicles, but there's one essential part that often gets neglected. Ironically it's the very thing that enables you to keep making a mess of your vehicle in the first place. This thing is under the hood. This thing is your engine...

Engine Cleaning

When cleaning your car, you normally think in terms of washing the outside and sprucing up the interior. How about under the hood? There are a number of practical reasons to include engine cleaning in your regular maintenance...

Erase Chalky Paint

Automobile paint is by far one of the toughest, most resilient, and flexible types of paint that exists. With proper care, the paint on your vehicle can withstand harsh weather, debris, burning hot sun, masses of flying insects, even kids—and still survive it all looking shiny and new. Even so, every Superman has his Kryptonite...

Fast Vehicle Detailing

In a perfect world, we'd have time to wash our cars every weekend and wax them as necessary to maintain the factory finish as long as possible. In reality, few of us spend as much time on car care as we should...

How to Eliminate Water Spots

Water should be a fairly harmless liquid. After all, we drink it, we bath in it and we even use water to wash our vehicles, so how bad could it be? The answer to that question depends on where you live and the minerals that are present in the local water supply. For example, the water in the Southwestern portion of the U.S. is full of hard mineral deposits that will literally etch themselves into paint and window glass if they are left on your vehicle for an extended period of time. Lawn sprinklers are the worst. Leave your vehicle where it gets water-spotted by the sprinklers, then baked by the sun, and the spots are not only difficult to remove, but they may do irreparable damage as well...

How to Wax Your Car - Part II

In part one ("Wax Wisdom") of this saga, we discussed the key things you need to know before you embark on the journey to flawless paint. Now you're ready for the real work...

How to Wax Your Car - Part II

In part one ("Wax Wisdom") of this saga, we discussed the key things you need to know before you embark on the journey to flawless paint. Now you're ready for the real work...

How to Wax Your Car - Part I

It's been said that a clean car is a happy car. Okay, maybe it's never been said, but who's going to disagree? A clean car may not run any different under the hood, but your driving experience will change dramatically. Would you rather be behind the wheel of a dirt encrusted bird target complete with "wash me" inscribed in the rear window or a blindingly brilliant ride bound to turn heads at every traffic signal? Those who prefer the latter will recognize that the weekly washing in the driveway is barely enough for regular care of that precious high shine...

How to Wax Your Car - Part I

Interior Fabric Cleaning

Agitation is the key. Get dirt and discoloration loose and all will become cleaner. Or so we'd like to have you believe. Is there a stain or two in the interior of your car? Do the seats, carpet and other fabrics have that obviously used look? Treating them with a carpet and upholstery cleaner and a little patience will bring a strong pulse back to that interior...

Leather Interior Cleaning and Care

Leather automobile interiors, once reserved for only higher end models, are now available in a variety of vehicles from compact coupes to gargantuan SUVs. Yet with the comfort and luxury of leather also comes a degree of added maintenance. As most of us don't have a butler and staff to clean and condition the leather interior of our motor coaches, we end up having to do it ourselves...

Performance Air Filter Cleaning

Oil-coated cotton-gauze air-filter elements tend to free up horsepower because they allow more air to flow into the engine than standard paper-type filters. These oilable elements trap even minute dust particles, but when excessive crud collects on the pleats, air flow through the filter becomes hampered—and the engine's performance suffers. Then it's time to clean and re-oil the filter element...

Plastic Polishing

Clear and semi-opaque car parts really show their signs of wear. Scratches, smudges, stains and yellowing can make light lenses, gauge covers and even convertible-top windows look prematurely old...

Polishing Plastic Headlight Lenses

One of the casualties of the 1970's safety blitzkrieg forced upon American-sold cars was glass headlamp covers. Used to be that durable, sleek glass could mirror the hood profile and streamline the front end (think early Jaguar XK-E). Seems that the glass was a bit of a hazard to pedestrians and in frontal collisions. Apparently one or two Nader ideas made sense, even if the Corvair never recovered. That aside, though, we're now stuck with durable, cheap and relatively easily scratched and faded plastic in front of our headlights...

Removing Window Tint

When old window tint starts to bubble, the glass looks like it has malignant melanoma. Light splotches disbursed over dark tint give the car that urban-beater attitude—whether that's your intent or not...

Simple Car Cleaning Solutions

Car-care product guidelines will tell you how to get road tar, bird droppings, brake pad dust and other automotive-related crunk off your vehicle. But for the things we spill, the food our kids smear, and annoying pet by-products, some the best sources for removal are adaptations on simple household tips...

Simple Car Wash Tips

Most true automotive enthusiasts won't let anyone bathe their baby—except possibly their properly trained progeny. After all, even "brushless" automated car washes can scrape trapped grit across the paint. Thus, many hours are spent hand-washing your car the old-fashioned way. But better living through chemistry now allows us to get superior results from this time-honored process...

Spray-On Wheel Cleaners

Wheels make the loudest visual statement about a car. Rock stars and pro "ballers" aren't the only ones who know that huge, shiny rims personalize a ride more than any other single component. But as wheels get taller, they become larger targets for brake dust and road grime...

Spring Cleaning Car Care

With winter at long last fading into the warmer and longer days of spring, people often find great relief in opening the windows to take some fresh air into the house. Hearing the birds chirping and the melting of snow means that old man winter has finally gone home. If opening the door of your car brings forth anything but spring fresh air, it may be time to consider some spring cleaning. Keeping a motor vehicle clean not only keeps your ride looking good, but can even help save a few bucks down the road. ..

Spring-Clean Your Car

Any time is a good time of year for proper care and cleaning of your vehicle. But when spring finally rolls around, the nice weather makes getting your ride looking good that much more pleasurable. Once the temperatures rise and the rain and snow subside, it's time to open the doors, trunk and windows and get ready for some good, clean fun...

Undercarriage Wash

As much as we don't like to acknowledge it, a little bit of our car, truck, minivan, or station wagon wears out every time we take it for a ride. Tires leave a small amount of themselves behind. Brakes pads dust themselves all over wheels, calipers and suspensions. Clutch discs deposit miniscule fragments of disc as they grab the flywheel. Coolant overflow tanks drop a few drops here and there. Multiply these factors by the unfathomable number of people turning the key and going to and fro everyday and it all adds up to literally billions of pounds of debris deposited on the roadways of America every year...

Vehicle Storage Tips

Cars are meant to be driven. Leaving a vehicle unattended for a long period of time can cause something akin to automotive atrophy, a slow deterioration of the vehicle that can create problems when you try to drive it again. Rust and corrosion can form on the body or inside critical components, gum and varnish can clog the fuel system, sludge and acids can form in the engine oil, mildew can grow in the interior, and constant sunlight can slowly fade the paint and deteriorate vinyl, leather, and rubber parts. That's why if you need to store your vehicle—whether for the winter or because it can't be driven for an indefinite period of time—certain precautions should be taken before you put it into mothballs...

Waging War on Brake Dust

Nothing looks worse than a clean, shiny vehicle cruising down the street with the front wheels caked with brake dust. The stuff is hard to get off. Commercial car washes don't seem to budge the gummy brake deposits unless you opt for the optional five-dollar wheel service, and they build up again in less than 500 miles. Scrubbing the dust off by hand looses its appeal fairly quickly too, especially if your wheels have a lot of nooks and crannies such as mesh-type cast wheels...

Wheel and Tire Clean-Up

Wheel and tire care has come a long way over the years. Used to be you just soaped up the tires and wheels while you were washing your car and left it at that. Of course, we used to wash our cars with dish soap too. Alloy wheels and high performance tires give us more incentive to take better care of our rolling stock; dish soap followed by silicone spray doesn't cut it anymore...

Wheel Detailing

One can look at a wheel as a utilitarian device for allowing something to roll, or the ultimate in personal expression when it comes to cars and trucks. The inventor of the wheel had no clue that the surprisingly simple rolling rotundity would not only eventually allow the automobile to travel at then unimaginable speeds, but also serve as a means of personal expression to those whose hands were held firmly on the steering version of this groundbreaking circular innovation...

Windshield Polishing

Windshield damage is a year-round phenomenon, but it seems to happen more often in winter. Aside from the projectiles ejected from tire treads onto cold glass, many people scratch their own windshield when they turn on the wipers and discover that the rubber has deteriorated. Metal on glass leaves a scratch...

Winter Wash-and-Wax

As the days get a little shorter and the weather a little frostier, the last thing on your mind may be the paint on your car or truck. That paint, the thin layer of space-age polymers is all that makes the difference between your vehicle looking like the shining gem it is, and that chalky, oxidized, paint-peeling rust bucket your crazy relative or neighbor drove until the doors fell off. The important thing to remember here is that the paint needs to stay strong enough to protect the steel underneath, yet flexible enough as not to dry out and lose its strength...