It’s cold outside in the northern climes, which means that washing your car is going to become a bit more difficult if you’re one of the unlucky frozen horde. Sure, the ideal is to always wash by hand in a warm, enclosed garage with a drain and indoor plumbing, but most people can’t do that. Here are some winter washing tips for keeping your car clean during this winter of automotive discontent.

Winter washing tips – Spray it down

Even though the rain, sleet, snow, salt and oily muck are going to play havoc with your clean machine, you’ll still want to make the effort to incorporate cleaning into your winter car care regimen. Full-service car wash with pressure wand is great for spraying off the road salt and oil from tires, and it is important to take this step regularly during winter. The few minor scratches and haze marks are more than worth it, as the salt in particular is highly damaging to a car’s paint job. Some damage to the finish is impossible to avoid during winter, so you’ll just have to suck it up and be ready with wax and glaze once spring returns.

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Winter washing tips – Wait for the freeze to pass

Speaking of wax, you did layer on a coat of high-quality Carnauba automotive wax before winter arrived, didn’t you? If not, your winter car care will be operating at a decided handicap when it comes to keeping the finish looking fine. However, you’ll still want to keep the car clean, even without a fine coat of wax underneath it all. Hand washing is the way to go, and special attention should be paid to wheel wells and body seams. Spray them out with fresh water, as these areas are particularly susceptible to exposure from road salts and gunk. Don’t wash when the temperature outside is well below freezing. If you must wash during such freezing temperatures, have it done professionally at an indoor wash, maybe even have the car detailed indoors. Just make sure the shop you enlist doesn’t use high-speed buffers. Full-service wash and wax is what you need.

Winter wash tips – Roll them down

Always be ready to wipe up a mess with shop towels. Keep some in the car when you go out. Then, wipe down door weather seals and trunk seals. Roll down the windows an inch, then dry the seals around there, too. Assuming you aren’t in a driving snowstorm, drive with the windows down and the heat up on full for a while so the seals have time to dry out as much as they will. After a little while, roll them back up so that they won’t freeze in place. If you’re concerned about locks freezing, a spray of door lock anti-freeze helps after a wash. Once spring comes, you can clean up the rest with a thorough detail job.

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Some winter washing tips