The 8 Most Annoying Things About Washing Your Car

Even if you're really enthusiastic about cleaning your own car, there can be times when it's a real pain...
The 8 Most Annoying Things About Washing Your Car

When bird poop ruins your hard work

Suggested by XSEAN
Suggested by XSEAN

It’s like birds have a sixth sense, or some sort of special guidance system that points out freshly washed cars that need to be showered in fecal matter.

Finding new scratches

Suggested by Gabz
Suggested by Gabz

Dirt on a car is generally a bad thing, but at least it hides any fresh scratches you’ve not yet seen…

Kinked hoses

The 8 Most Annoying Things About Washing Your Car

You can probably picture the scene: you’re walking around your car, hosing it down, when all of a sudden the hose sputters to a stop. You look back to see that your hose has bunched up and a kink has formed, blocking off the water flow. For me, this is just about the most aggravating thing that can happen when washing a car.

You can reduce the chance of this happening by storing your hose properly, and by laying it out neatly before dragging it around your car, but as a hose gets older, kinks are unfortunately inevitable. At the very least, it’s easy to cut out any weaker section of your hose, and it shouldn’t be expensive to replace the whole thing. Preferably with a beefier example that’s more resistant to kinkiness…

Exploding hoses

The 8 Most Annoying Things About Washing Your Car

The only thing more annoying than hose kinks? Hose explosions. There are the times when the nozzle falls off, soaking you in the process, and there are also times when there’s a failure at the tap side, giving you mere seconds to run back and shut the water off before your garden becomes a makeshift swimming pool.

The best way to avoid all this? Check and double check everything’s attached and screwed in as it should be, and make sure there’s plenty of slack - you don’t want to be inadvertently yanking anything out.

When you realise you missed a spot

Suggested by Smiller
Suggested by Smiller

We’ve all been there: you’ve washed a car in a hurry, leave the scene of the crime, only to return and find one (or more!) rather conspicuous spots that have been missed. The shame.

Frozen hands

Suggested by AwsMughal
Suggested by AwsMughal

As we discussed recently, it’s more important to keep your car clean over winter than it is at any other point of the year. The problem with that? You’ll end up with freezing hands by the end of it.

Dropping your microfibre or wash mitt

Suggested by Boys and Toys
Suggested by Boys and Toys

Since you’re going to be rubbing it all over your car, you really don’t want your wash mitts/microfibres/towels to be covered in grit or any other scratchy contaminants. However, inevitably something will get dropped at some point, rendering it useless until it’s had a damn good clean.

"That piece of microfibre cloth stuck between the tail lights and the body panel"

Suggested by Gabz
Suggested by Gabz

Being thorough is a good thing. However there are times - and this is one of them - that attention to detail comes back to bite you in the arse.

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Comments

Anonymous
  1. Cleaning the inside of the windscreen
12/17/2015 - 17:58 |
8 | 0
Anonymous

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

I was thinking this last weekend when I cleaned my car, I was like, this is definitely THEE worst part

12/17/2015 - 18:53 |
0 | 0
Deus Robert Paulsen

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Truth. As long as you have a nice car it sucks. If you have a car like a bmw Mini or a nissan cube its not bad. But who does buy a car with this in mind…

12/17/2015 - 19:21 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

As a detailer i can agree. But rear windows are the worst.

12/18/2015 - 05:31 |
1 | 0
Anonymous

It’s also annoying when you’ve dried your car or at least thought you did, only to realise water from the front grill or door gaps have dripped down leaving behind water stains or delaying you from polishing.

12/17/2015 - 18:23 |
3 | 0
Anonymous

But then when you’re done and the sun catches your swirl free beast. It’s all worth it.

12/17/2015 - 18:30 |
1 | 0
Timothy Brown

Finding new scratches is the worse. You’re like, “Who did this to you!? Tell me!” I had a deer RUN INTO my car a week after I got it. I looked at it under some dim light and I didn’t see anything so I figured it was fine. I waxed it a few weeks later and found a penny size scratch and I called that deer up. He’s yet to return my phone call.

12/17/2015 - 18:32 |
6 | 0
Kristian_EJ9

i washed my car yesterday at 9pm and after i was done some of the water spots started freezing it was so cold, but so were my hands

12/17/2015 - 18:47 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

At least you are allowed to wash your car by hand. In most places in the Netherlands you are not allowed to do so because of the “contamination of soil and the water suply” …..the result is having to go to a handwash box where you can pay to be able to wash your car by hand….

12/17/2015 - 19:26 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

#perks of working at a Carwash.

12/17/2015 - 19:47 |
0 | 0
KidSavesTheWorld

When you have a family who all have cars “mine next?”

12/17/2015 - 19:55 |
1 | 0
Anonymous

I did wash my all rust free ‘85 Saab 900 one time, I won’t do it anymore until I get a proper polish because after the washing it wasn’t rust free anymore…

12/17/2015 - 21:35 |
0 | 0
The Stan

Another thing bout the hoses is that, it slams into your car!

12/17/2015 - 21:38 |
0 | 0