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5 Car Washing Mistakes That Cause Swirls & Scratches

5 Car Washing Mistakes That Cause Swirls & Scratches

The Auto Detailing Podcast Oct 01, 2025 19 min
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About this episode

Swirl marks on your car often stem from improper washing techniques rather than driving. This episode highlights five common mistakes that lead to scratches and swirls, including skipping the crucial preso stage, using the wrong wash tools, and inadequate lubrication. The host emphasizes the importance of using quality microfiber towels and proper drying techniques, along with the benefits of adding protection after washing. A bonus tip on investing in deionized water is also shared, which can help prevent water spots and enhance the washing experience.

Topics: car washing mistakes preso technique wrong wash tools lubrication drying techniques paint protection deionized water
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I did a few experiments one time and the end result of my experiments were that I learned that most swirl marks don't actually come from driving your car or whether they come from washing your car the wrong way, which was crazy to me. How could you wash a car wrong? I mean, it's almost like walking and talking. Everyone feels like they could do it, right? But today I'm going to break down the five biggest mistakes I think people make when washing their car.
And then more importantly, how to avoid these mistakes so that your car looks better, right? If you're anything like me, doing a paint correction or polishing paint is not that exciting. It's not that fun. It's a necessary evil, in my opinion, but it is evil to me. I don't enjoy it. And that's partly why I set out to make a polish that was so much better than everything on the market. It's because I personally don't want to spend five hours on a car with five different products.
Five different steps, five different pads. I don't like that. I don't enjoy that. I don't really enjoy it at all. So the simpler and the better I can make it, the better it would be for me and for everyone else. And that's why I created a picture for polish. But today we're not talking about polishing paint. We're talking about mistakes when it comes to washing your car.
So the biggest number one, I'm not going to make you sit through the top 10. Those list always suck because one through nine are really usually terrible. And then you're always waiting for number 10. So I'm just going to give you the biggest mistake first. The biggest mistake I see the biggest culprit is skipping the preso. Now, look, if you still want to do a two bucket method, you still want to do a three bucket method. You want to have, you know, all these buckets around that's fine.
Don't skip the preso and what do I mean about preso game, either in a foam cannon or a pump sprayer, you're mixing a soap solution or a solution that is going to actually separate or begin to separate that dirt and grime from the car before you go in and touch the car at all. So on a completely dry surface, you want the car completely dry. You're going to use a foam cannon, a pump sprayer, a foam, you know, garden hose foam cannon.
Whatever. In my, in my opinion, I will use two to four ounces of the super sober and I'm foaming the entire car, the entire dry car. I'm letting it dwell. And what it's doing, at least when you're using a good solution, like the super sober is you are separating that dirt and grime from the surface of the car.
And so I said, if you still do use the two bucket method, still presoca car, because it's going to make it much safer when you go in for your contact wash. Now, little asterisk caveat for those that are a little bit deeper, if your car is ceramic coated, a preso is basically going to eliminate the need to ever touch your car.
So if you presoak it, rinse off the presoak after it's dwelled on the car, given it time to break down the dirt and grime on the car. If you refoam it again and then rinse that, you're virtually going to have a spot free car, especially if you use deionized water. But we'll talk about that later. So what I noticed is that without the presoak and without presoaking, you're actually grinding debris and dirt into the paint because the pre rinse does not do enough. So again, we've gone over this.
But traditionally, people will rinse the car with the steady stream of water, then they go directly in with a wash mitt and their soap or whatever, their two bucket. And there's still a lot of dirt and grime on the car. Now people will claim that well, that's why you want a soap that has a lot of lubrication so can glide over the surface and you're actually picking up those dirt particles. And that's why you have your second bucket, your rinse bucket and the two bucket method.
And I would say sure, maybe, maybe. But in my experience, what I realize is not only is that more efficient, it's more effective if you just presoak the car.
So again, don't worry if you don't have a foam cannon. That's my favorite way to do it. But if you don't have a foam cannon, you can just do it in a pump sprayer.
This can be an electric pump sprayer. It can be a hand pump sprayer. It can be a big pump sprayer from Home Depot. It could be an IK pump sprayer. That really doesn't matter.
What actually matters the most is the solution that you're mixing up in the bucket. So some brands will recommend their all purpose cleaner. I tend to stay away from that because over time it does dry out plastics. It'll make streaks in your plastic.
It can wear down your paint protection that you have on the car. They could be a little bit too caustic. So I don't recommend doing it with an all purpose cleaner.
I do recommend doing it with something like the super sober. So mistake number two is using the wrong type of wash tools. So a lot of people don't realize that the tool itself can use can cause swirls.
I don't care how soft your brush is. Your brush is causing swirl marks. Traditionally what we've seen too is someone and I'm totally guilty of this as well.
Just rinsing the car with a steady stream water. Then you're dunking your sponge or some people just use a grout sponge or your brush straight into a bucket and then you're right onto the car.
That definitely causes scratches and swirls. Now we have a lot of cool tools like mint on a stick where you know Ian out of fiber who have known for I think 10 years now has really developed some cool tools that help with this.
And you know help you get especially on those larger cars and stuff like that. But you don't need to use like a grout sponge. You don't need to use old rags.
Those totally trapped dirt and again become another point of abrasion on the car. So if you can kind of avoid that, that would be ideal.
Instead what you can do and my favorite way to do it is I just use quality microfiber towels. So and this is kind of a conversation that me and Ian were having and then some developer, which I think is a great thing to have his wash pads, which I'm a big fan of that are basically just two microfiber pad microfiber towels sewn together.
But honestly I just like to use any you know any microfiber towel at all because I have a lot of control over it. It's flat. I can flip it to eight different sides.
And so I honestly think switching up this alone can easily cut swirl mark down and half right that your potential for swirl marks. I think you know and I told you I'd give you the best to mistakes up front. I think between these two mistakes that people make.
And it's not you don't really see too many people using just the microfiber towel as a wash mitt but honestly we all have tons and tons of microfiber towels. And so as long as you're using a clean one you're flipping to a clean side often you can flip to a clean side virtually every panel and only use two microfiber towels for the whole entire car.
Right. And so if you're doing that and you're presoking the car you're easily cutting out 75% chance of scratches and swirls happening easily easily so and it's easy it's simple you're presoking sexually less work and then you're using tools that you already have sure if you have extra funds and you have extra budget made on a stick is a great option.
I would stay away from any nylon brushes that are just maybe the brush itself is safe. However, the opportunity that the brush that the brush gets contaminated and then causes scratches is extremely high. So why take the risk when there's actually better tools better technology tools out there.
You don't need to go old school with a brush. It's just simply not necessary. So mistake number three not enough lubrication. This kind of goes into when I see brands recommending presoking with like an all purpose cleaner. It's not lubricious enough so and then also a common mistake kind of in this to not get enough lubrication is I see people trying to kind of trying to like chins out a little bit or cheap out on chins.
I don't know if that's a that could be derogatory cheap out a little bit on the product being used you know they want to try to use an ounce or two less a soap or whatever.
But the reality is you're kind of trading one thing for another you're trading a higher risk factor for a tiny tiny increase in money right.
In fact, I have a whole YouTube video on how to wash your whole entire car for like a dollar. I think it's a dollar 18 using the super sober using four ounces. And what I demonstrate in that video is that you can actually get a very, very inexpensive car wash done at home that is also very safe and very effective.
So you don't need to cheap out on dilution ratios you could still be efficient with your car wash methods and not being cheap about it and being safer.
So because if you trade the trade off is you run the risk of scratching the car then you're going to have to paint correct the car which is more time and money and really you should just added an extra answer to of soap.
So don't cheap out because a good quality soap is really encapsulating the dirt on the car and separating it from the service like I talked about.
So that's the real magic I think a modern soaps. I think we're out of at least I have mentally moved on from these pH neutral soaps that we've I've realized like when I step back and looked at it I'm like what is that actually doing it's not really doing anything.
So it's interesting to see pH neutral soaps still do very well but I think the modern take on a car wash soap is do have somewhat of an adjustable pH to where you can get it to pH neutral if you need it like that so that it's safe on everything.
But also you can add more product and increase the pH or you know adjust the dilution so the pH is a little bit higher for something like a presogue without running the risk like you do with APCs of you know drying out plastic staining plastic staining car paint in general
and that's something that's again awesome about the super sober is it is that kind of a modern take on car wash soap.
And I think we're going to see a lot more of that because it just makes a lot more sense. It's not super great for the brand because it's one product instead of two products again kind of the same thing with paint polishing.
It's like well I get the question all the time of like well if why were you able to figure this out with the picture perfect polish and bigger brands didn't figured out and my rebuttal to that is well it could be multifaceted but most brands don't want a single skew that's not very good for business.
I think it is long term for long term because I'm you know being open honest and trustworthy with people about it that it is possible but a lot of brands want to have multiple skews because that increases revenue so same thing is true with something like a car wash soap it's much easier to just create a pH neutral car wash soap it's much harder to create one that could be fully adjustable pH and actually work at different dilutions as well so.
Mistake number four is having bad drying technique and so I noticed this is also a really really big part of the car wash process where people actually do scratch their car and it's because they're the main reason is you're not pre soaking and so you're actually drying a dirty car still right or you pre rinsed you didn't pre soak and so when you went to your contact wash you actually rubbed in a lot of the dirt.
And maybe you used less maybe used a little less soap and so it wasn't as lubricious as you thought and you were grinding it into the car but a big portion a big part of this is that there's still dirt on the car because you're not using a quality soap right and so when you dry when you're drying the car you actually dry dragging that dirt around right.
Or you missed the spot when you're washing the car this is even more common you missed the spot when you were washing the car lower part of the panel whatever and so when you are using something like the you know massive drying towel you kind of pick up that dirt along the lower panels of the car which is again.
Another argument for why I like using a microfiber towel because you can flip the towel often and then you can make sure that you're getting all those sections of the car especially the lower panels of the car
and not risking contaminating your bucket because you just flip to a new side of the towel so you know the fix for this obviously it's pretty easy always start with the clean surface pre soak you know use the microfiber towel you could use a blower for a touchless drying when possible again that kind of goes back to people that are mainly
ceramic coated their car and again I I like using the massive drying towel so yeah there's that so number five mistake number five skipping protection after a wash honestly bear paint is just vulnerable and I know there for a long time there was this big push on durability I was part of that definitely with my torture test this big push into durability but
something just adding quick protection saves future headaches and so this is something I don't talk a lot about but something that I was aiming for with toughest shell is making sure it was lairable and like a lot of layers and so because I personally like adding protection to my car every time I wash it might be crazy it might be redundant and might be too much but it just makes
the process next time I'm washing the car so much easier and honestly it makes my car look better so I personally I'm not saying I recommend this I'm not saying you have to do this I'm not saying tough shell won't last if you don't do this but I like adding protection on my car all the time so I just use a spray usually one spray per panel of tough shell right after trying to create slickness less friction on the next wash
dirt won't stick as much your car will stay a little cleaner and I just think of it as insurance against future swirls that's really how I think of it so again an answer to around the whole entire car you're not using a lot you're not using a half a bottle it doesn't streak it doesn't do anything weird it's super lairable
and it just makes your life so much easier on the next go around as well and in the in term you have a shinier slicker nicer looking car I mean it's it's really worth it I think so of course I'm into bonuses so a bonus bonus tip number six
would be invest in dionized water this is something that I'm definitely going to be talking a lot more about but swirls aren't the only issue water spots can really etch and over time that can really really cost some damage and also make it so you have to polish your car again goes back to that I don't know why I'm bagging on polishing cars so much today
but I have a video coming out soon showing the difference between washing half a car with dionized water and then washing the other half a car the car without dionized water and kind of showing the difference between the two but water spots can really really be a big big big big issue
so dionized water systems they remove the minerals from that and they make it so it doesn't spot at all it also will make your soap foam a little bit better and especially helpful hot sunny climates where water dries fast Texas Arizona southwest even you know anywhere honestly in the summertime
and so we have that kind of old school mindset and that old school thought to of like will never wash your car and direct sun and never wash your car in the middle of the day and all those things in the reality is it's like sometimes I don't want to wake up at 5 a.m. to wash my car or wait till 8 30 p.m. to wash my car sometimes the only time I have is the middle of the day so what are my tools that I that allow me to do that and dionized water is definitely one of those so it's a little bit of an up front investment but it saves
a ton of frustration long term it saves your paint long term it makes car washing so much more enjoyable honestly and it's something that I plan to talk a lot more about in the future because I've been using it forever so anyway to wrap everything up again the mistakes how to solve the mistakes pre soak never touch a dry car never touch dirty paint pre rinsing isn't enough use the right tools when you're doing a contact wash you can skip
the buckets and maybe just invest in more microfiber towels again something like mint on a stick would be much better than a brush if you're watching washing something like an RV or a big vehicle making sure you're using a high quality soap like the super soap rich your best friend honestly it's an incredible soap it's fully adjustable pH depending on how you want to use it but don't worry I have all the information on that on the product page and on the label so you're not left to guessing
you got a picture drying mistakes drying a clean car is really worth that so and then always protect it just use something like toughest shell it's going to reduce future swirls it's going to keep your car looking better longer and then of course the bonus tip using dionize water so again swirl swirl marks spider webbing whatever you want to call it it's not bad luck they're definitely preventable and avoidable and so I think if you're serious about keeping your car swirls
free stop focusing on complicated methods it's again two bucket method three bucket method not need it right focus on these fundamental truths that actually work and you will have a swirl free car so with that which one of these mistakes have you made before or is it all five let me know in the comments below I will have everything linked and tag below and again like always I really really appreciate your guys support and because podcasting is my favorite
medium I enjoy it much more than YouTube if you do go over to jimbo's detailing dot com and type in code podcast at checkout I do have a special gift for you for being a loyal podcast subscriber or listener and so use code podcast over at jimbo's detailing dot com and I got a little
special surprise for you so hope you enjoy that again that's just my thank you for supporting my brand and use these you know don't make
these mistakes so with that I'll catch you on the next one see ya shopify helps you sell it every stage of your business like that let's put it
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