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mwillems
Member Since: 06 Jan 2005
Location: Oakville, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 154
 
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Where do you other LR3/Disco 3 owners wash your cars?
I want to take mine through an automatic wash if possible. Here in Ontario we collect a ton of salt every time we drive, and washing the top manually (as I do) is all very well, but the salt still collects everywhere else. An auto wash would give me the "under wash".
But will I damage anything? Get stuck? Break off bits?
Ideas?
Michael
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 26th Feb 2005 2:23 pm |
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Gareth
Site Moderator
Member Since: 07 Dec 2004
Location: Bramhall
Posts: 26774
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Michael, I never use a drive through car wash. The road grit gets in the brushes, and they will put millions of tiny scratches in the paint. The garages in the UK also do not look after the car washes enough, and they are in my opinion to be avoided. Likewise the car wash outfits that have a gang of young lads who will wash your car for a few pounds, they don't know how to do it, and will not respect your car.
I have always washed my cars by hand, using top quality cleaning products. I have a Karcher 6.80 pressure washer to clean the salt off underneath, and this is probably the best investment of all. The 5 year old Disco 2 I just sold was as good as new underneath, after 108,000 miles. No Rust at all, and it had been blasted weekly underneath with the pressure washer.
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| 26th Feb 2005 5:14 pm |
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mwillems
Member Since: 06 Jan 2005
Location: Oakville, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 154
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Hi,
Well... that is encouraging. I would use the "touchless" car washes but agree that wash owners don't care. Plus, I have a ham radio antenna on the hood and that would come off I am sure. 
I do wonder how to get to the bottom though. Apart from the temperature being a bit more chilly here than in the UK, the main issue is just physically getting there. We have a LOT more salt here (I used up 5 litres of windscreen fluid yesterday just getting home: 5 litres!) so it's not academic: after not washing properly underneath a car here will not last many winters...
Michael
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| 26th Feb 2005 5:37 pm |
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Gareth
Site Moderator
Member Since: 07 Dec 2004
Location: Bramhall
Posts: 26774
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Yes I agree the temperature in a Canadian winter may be an obstacle to hand washing! It was not tropical here in UK today (2 degrees and snow on the hills), but I still washed my D3 after going for a play in the snow this morning.
To make sure I get all the mud and salt off the bottom, I raise the suspension to off-road height to expose the under side as much as possible. My Karcher also has a long extension lance that will reach right under the car and into all the nooks and crannies under there. I suppose there is no reason why you could not put a couple of car ramps under the front and rear wheel on one side to tip it over a bit, and expose even more under belly
One thing though, in Canada, when its minus X degrees, do the car washes still work? In UK, if it freezes for a day, they all grind to a halt and die! The Karcher pressure washer must also be protected from frost when not in use.
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| 26th Feb 2005 6:42 pm |
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mwillems
Member Since: 06 Jan 2005
Location: Oakville, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 154
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Oh yes, in Canada everything works when it is minus 20 Celcius, including the open car washes, no kidding. You just need to be quick or it freezes before you can dry it.
We all have a good laugh here about the UK... an inch of snow and life grinds to a halt, points freeze, police urges people to please stay home, accidents all over, companies close... but then what can you expect from a country where leaves on the track stop trains?  ) All I can say is, thank God they road tested the LR3 in northern Canada...!
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| 5th Mar 2005 5:15 pm |
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Gareth
Site Moderator
Member Since: 07 Dec 2004
Location: Bramhall
Posts: 26774
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I did not realise we were that famous! Oh yes, we are ashamed about our leaves on the track, but even that is half excusable, when compared with the all time best excuse for stopping the trains ever - The Wrong Kind of Snow!!!
Apparently, it was too fine, and clogged up the radiators on the engines, and they all blew up!
Now, in the North of England & Scotland we can handle the snow a bit better than those from down South, London etc. The roads in the south are so gridlocked anyway, that even 4x4's can't move in the snow 'cos everyone else is probably stuck.
Thats done it! probably started a north/south slanging match now!
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| 5th Mar 2005 6:04 pm |
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Slimer
Site Moderator
Member Since: 06 Jan 2005
Location: Last Exit to Nowhere
Posts: 16295
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Gareth, though I'd like to take up the gauntlet as a southerner I can only agree. The roads down here are often very congested but the main problem is we seem to have more than our fair share of idiot drivers which makes things far worse. Having driven a fair bit 'up north' (the missues is from Lancashire) I know you guys not only have the quieter roads but the better scenery to view whilst your on them.
And ofcourse everything grinds to a halt down here with the mearest mention of the word snow... suppose we do get better summers though
Simon
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| 5th Mar 2005 7:05 pm |
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mwillems
Member Since: 06 Jan 2005
Location: Oakville, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 154
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Well, I travel to the UK a fair bit (next weekend again, as a matter of fact) and I can only agree about roads in the south-east. On the plus side, I will see a lot of LR's (even some LR3's) while over; all the wealthy moms driving their kids to expensive boarding schools in Hampstead seem to drive one.
The wrong snow... I had not heard that one. Excellent!
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| 6th Mar 2005 2:10 pm |
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mwillems
Member Since: 06 Jan 2005
Location: Oakville, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 154
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That's excellent. I particularly liked this one:
"After a horrific 4 hour journey where I had to stand from Newcastle to London, the conductor apologised by saying that the overcrowding was caused by too many passengers."
Wonderful!! I hope Land Rover do not start taking a leaf out of that book... "we apologise for your car being in the shop for two weeks: this was due to a car failure". Or "We apologise for your car transmission failure, which was due to the transmission not working correctly".
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| 6th Mar 2005 7:10 pm |
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