March 14th, 2022 by Sarah Miles

The best time to wash your car is on a dry day, right? Surely it doesn’t get more technical than that? Well, in fact, there really are better times to wash your car depending on a number of factors, including weather, temperature, road conditions, and season.

Here are a few tips for getting your car clean, and protecting it, at the optimum times.

A dry, overcast day is the best time to apply snow foam

Snow foam is a fantastic pre-wash treatment that allows you to remove most of the grime and particles on your car without any contact cleaning (minimising the risk of scratches) before shampooing. However, to work properly, it needs to be able to cling to the surface for a while. This means the paintwork needs to be complexly dry, so don’t use it after a rain shower (unless you dry it off first) but equally, don’t use when very hot either as the heat will burst the bubbles in the snow foam and this will prevent it from clinging.

Choose cooler times of the day

Obviously, the temperature in the UK doesn’t often get really hot that often but we can have some prolonged spells of above-average temperature in the summer, especially as we feel the effects of climate change. If it is very hot it can render snow foam useless, as already mentioned, but it can also cause shampoo to dry on the surface before you have had a chance to rinse it which can leave a film as well as visible water spots. Water can even damage the clear protective topcoat on paintwork if applied when the car is too hot. Early morning or late afternoon are good times to wash your car in the summer. If it is still pretty warm, consider washing in sections so that shampoo is not left on for longer than necessary.

Think of wax as sunscreen for your car

Even if it’s not especially hot, the increased amount of daylight during the summer can be harmful to paintwork due to the UV rays of the sun. A really good way to protect against this is to apply wax or use a car shampoo that contains wax.

Pro-Kleen Amazing Glaze Carnauba Wax 150g

Price: £17.99

Buy Now

Make sure the temperature is above freezing

You would think that few people would attempt to wash their car when it’s below zero degrees but just in case you have a dirty car emergency and it’s freezing cold, think again. Applying warm water to a very cold car risks cracking the windscreen because the temperature difference is too extreme.

Wash more in the winter to avoid salt corrosion

Winter weather conditions make driving a dirty affair so you would expect to have to wash your car more often at this time of year anyway but there is another important reason for being more vigilant with washing and that is the increased risk of salt corrosion. Salt corrosion happens when the salt applied to the roads to de-ice them gets splashed onto the parts of the car nearest the road – the underside, the wheel trims, the bonnet, and the bottom parts of the side panels. Because salt and water combined produce oxidisation, it will start to cause rust spots over time. The best way to avoid this is to just wash more often.

Watch out for tar spots in the summer

While the risk of salt corrosion reduces in the summer, the risk of tar spots increases. The tar on road surfaces starts to soften in hot weather and this can splash up onto your car in the same way salt does in the winter. However, the sticky nature of tar means it hardens on the paintwork and is impossible to remove by washing alone. Not only does it look unsightly, but it will also cause damage underneath if left. To remove these, you need a specialist tar spot remover product that will deal with the tar spots without damaging the paintwork.

5L Pro-Kleen Tar-Dah Super Powerful Tar Remover

Price: £22.19

Buy Now