Undercarriage washing

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Dtilton

New member
Longtime lurker- first time poster. Just got a new VW Passat- first brand new, off the lot car for my wife and I in almost 10 years. We're really trying to take good care of it, especially with our salty Boston winter roads. We wash it once a week in the driveway, as needed we stop at the local carwash to spray down the body, just with plain water, and NEVER with high pressure, and we bought a ton of Autopia products for detailing. The Klasse SG really made the graphite blue paint POP! 3 coats of that and the car looks amazing! The only thing I'm having trouble with is the undercarriage. I can't get under the car so I use a plain old oscillating garden sprinkler on the end of a hose and lay next to the car and kind of move the sprinkler around for 10 minutes or so to get all the nasty stuff off. I don't have the hose on very high- kind of medium to knock the gunk off, but not so high as to mess up anything under there. Is this a good method? Is there a better one? Thanks! -Dan
 
How do you like your new Passat?



I have the previous generation. I test drove the 2.0T B6. I thought the engine was good and the stiffness of body was good. But I felt the steering was too light and the interior and exterior styling took a step backwards.
 
We love it. Newest car we owned was a 98 Taurus, so this is a huge improvement. It's fast w/ the turbo, great on gas- avg 32 MPG with mixed driving, comfortable, and people think it's a beemer on first glance. We drove a ton of cars and this was one of the few we both agreed on and in our price range- which did go up when we saw the dearth of good-under $20,000 cars out there. My wife hates ricers, so our first foray in fine German engineering has made us very happy. -Dan
 
Thats a new one for me. I never thought of that. I usually use some A.P.C. to get the main dirt off then hose off whatever I can with my hose by reaching under the vehicle.
 
Dtilton- Welcome to Autopia!



Good thinking, using the oscillating sprinkler :xyxthumbs



I'd turn the hose up as high as you can. No amount of normally-achievable water pressure will hurt anything down there. IMO that's gonna do a fine job for routine cleanups. What I'd then do is, come spring, get a floorjack and some jackstands (the method I use) or a set of ramps so you can get the car up in the air a little. Then crawl underneath on a creeper with a hose, a brush, and some APC and give everything a thorough scrubbing. Heh heh, some of us who are a bit fanatical about this stuff do this at every wash ;)



Actually the Passat shouldn't be much lower than my wife's A8. While I use an undercar wand for the rinsing (much as you use the sprinkler), I'm able to wash everything off pretty well on her car without raising it up. I use a brush with a fairly long handle and I just scoot around on the creeper with my hose and a spray bottle of APC. With that car and the minivan (high ground clearance on that one) I only have to raise them up for infrequent, meticulous cleanings. Get a creeper and a long-handled brush and see what you can do on the Passat. Bet it'll work pretty well ;)
 
Brandon- Sweet ride! That looks really nice!! Considering we have 3 inches of snow, now turning to slush before my eyes, I think it may be a few more months before I get the car up to do a really good washing. Thanks all for the info and encouragement. My wife is totally on board with increasing frequency of Autopia purchases, she even details with me and we have fun and it goes fast. -Dan
 
Like accumulator, I also drive the car up on ramps and clean the undercarriage (only 3-4 times a year though ;) ) A bottle of APC and a scrub brush gets everything looking great.



WHen I went and got the oil changed a few weeks ago, I even got commented on how nice the undercarriage was by the mechanic :D
 
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