The Importance of Washing Your Car in Winter
As winter rolls in, many car owners focus on the basics - keeping their vehicles running smoothly, ensuring the tyres are properly inflated, and making sure the screen wash and anti-freeze are topped up. However, keeping your car clean from corrosive salt and road grime is also extremely important during the colder months.
While it might seem unnecessary to wash your car very often in the winter, especially when snow is falling, there are several compelling reasons why it's important not to neglect it.
1. Preventing Corrosion from Road Salt
One of the biggest threats to your vehicle in the winter is road salt. To prevent ice accumulating on the roads, salt is used to keep roads safe for drivers. While salt is essential for winter driving, it is also incredibly corrosive to your car's exterior. Over time, salt can damage the paint and cause rust to form.
By washing your car regularly, you remove a lot of the salt buildup before it has chance to cause any significant damage. The longer salt is allowed to sit on your vehicle, the more time it has to eat away at the paint and metal components. Regularly cleaning your car during the winter, especially before the roads are treated with salt, helps ensure that your car stays free from this corrosive agent.
2. Protecting Your Paintwork from Harmful Grime
In addition to salt, winter weather also brings a variety of other debris such as road grime, sand, and dirt. These particles are abrasive and can stick to your vehicle’s surface, creating a layer of contaminants that can scratch the paint if left untreated. This is especially true if anything contacts or brushes past your paintwork whilst there is a layer of grime on it.
3. Improved Visibility and Safety
Winter driving conditions can significantly reduce visibility, and one of the easiest ways to improve your view on the road is to ensure that your windows, mirrors, and lights are kept clean. This is especially important when you are driving through heavy rain, snow storms or on icy roads where visibility can quickly become a matter of safety.
Squid Ink Storm is our hugely hydrophobic glass sealant that will repel water and grime form all glass surfaces, which massively improves all round visibility. It's a fantastic product during the winter months and very easy to apply.
4. Maintaining Your Vehicle’s Value
Keeping your car in good shape throughout the winter months helps protect its resale value in the long run. A vehicle that is exposed to constant salt, grime, and other contaminants will inevitably suffer cosmetic and structural damage, which can significantly lower its resale value.
By regularly cleaning your car, you help protect its exterior from these elements, preserving its aesthetic appeal.
How to Quickly Wash Your Car in the Winter:
During the winter, you will probably want to clean your car as quickly as possible. Here’s a simple guide to follow for regular maintenance washes which can be completed in less than an hour:
Don’t Forget Your Undercarriage: The undercarriage and wheel arches are one of the most critical areas to keep clean in winter. Use a pressure washer to clear out any debris and salt from underneath the car. The Squid Ink Reacharound Tool is excellent here, spraying a jet of water at a 90 degree angle, allowing you to get to otherwise impossible areas of the car.
Clean Your Wheels First: Cleaning your wheels first is good practice for a couple of reasons. Firstly, they are normally the dirtiest part of the car. Secondly, if you wash the paintwork first, you risk getting water spots unless it's fully dried, especially if the sun comes out.
Squid Ink Blue Lagoon is an excellent all round wheel cleaner. It's PH neutral so safe on delicate finishes. It's also hugely slick, foamy, and unusually for a wheel cleaner it smells incredible, just like Cola bottle sweets.
Once your wheels have been cleaned, a top tip is to Spritz the barrels and faces with Squid Ink Wet-Seal, then rinse. This will add a hydrophobic protective coating, making them easier to dry, and easier to clean next time round.
Use Snow Foam and Citrus Pre-wash: Pre-washing your car is the most important part of the entire process. This involves spraying your car with a diluted cleaning agent, leaving it to dwell and then rinsing off. This breaks down and removes the worst of the dirt and grime before even touching your paintwork. An effective pre-wash routine will drastically reduce the risk of inflicting scratches or swirls to your paintwork.
Squid Ink Alkafroth Snow Foam and Squid Ink Citrus are both excellent pre-wash products during winter.
In fact, Alkafroth has just been named 'Product of the Year 2024' by the Auto Care HQ YouTube Channel, an award it's now won for the 3rd consecutive year!
Squid Ink offers two types of snow foams:
Froth - PH neutral, safe on waxes, sealants and great for well maintained cars.
Alkafroth - Alkaline based, super strong cleaner, fantastic for dirtier cars, especially useful during the winter.
Our snow foams are excellent at completely covering the car. Both go on nice and thick, dwell for ages, and have good cleaning capabilities. Simply dilute in a foam cannon such as our Snow Pro 2.0 spray on, leave to dwell, and rinse off after 5 minutes or so.
Main Wash: After the pre-wash is complete, quickly move on to the main wash. Here our HD Pure shampoo is king. It has a dilution ratio of up to 2,000:1, it's foamy, super slick, has excellent cleaning capabilities and it also smells of Parma Violet Sweets (notice a theme here!!)
Soft Mitts and Microfibre Towels: When it’s time for the main wash, add some shampoo to your bucket, fill with water, and give it a quick blast with the pressure washer to activate the foam. Use a soft microfibre mitt such as our Sea Urchin to gently remove any remaining grime from the surface of the car. Always wash from the top down to avoid dragging dirt across the paint. You can also use an old mitt for the lower areas and under sills which typically hold more dirt.
Your Winter Detailing Cheat Code: Once the car has been shampooed and rinsed, now comes the most exciting part...
Squid Ink Pro-Seal is your winter detailing cheat code! It adds a hydrophobic coating to your car's paintwork and glass, protecting them for up to 3 months. It also adds a silky, rich glossiness to the paint, making it look as if you've spent hours waxing it!
Simply dilute Pro-Seal with water in your snow foam cannon at a ratio of 1:4. Using 50ml of Pro-Seal will make 250 ml of ready to use product, this is more than enough for most mid-sized cars.
Liberally spray the diluted Pro-Seal all over your car. You will notice the water start to repel within seconds. Rinse this off and you'll see the gloss and hydrophobic beads form in front of your eyes.
Dry the Car Thoroughly: Once the car is washed, be sure to dry it thoroughly, especially around door seals, locks, and handles. This prevents water from freezing and causing damage. Our Great Owl or Fire Coral twisted loop drying towels are absolutely superb for quickly drying your car. You can also use a pet blow drier to get into the nooks and crannies, around window trims and wing mirrors.
Dress Tyres and Clean the Glass: The final stages, use Crystalline Glass Cleaner for crystal clear and smear free glass windows. Then dress your tyres with either Tyre-Guard or Satyre!
Stand back and admire all of your hard work. Your car will be the envy of your neighbours!
Final Thoughts
Winter is tough on your car, but by following the above will significantly reduce the risk of damage from salt, grime, and ice.
By removing harmful contaminants before they have a chance to settle, you can keep your vehicle in tip-top shape, enhance your visibility on the road, and protect its resale value.
It might seem like an effort, but keeping your car clean in the winter months can save you a lot of trouble, hassle and unnecessary cost further down the line.
Our Squid Ink products have been designed to be easy to use, effective, long lasting and affordable. You won't be disappointed with any of our range!
Hopefully this little guide has been useful.
Cheers,
Michael