From grime to gleaming: Tips & tricks for car cleaning
A sparkling, spotless car is the pride of every car owner. But while daily use inevitably leaves traces of dirt and dust, the question arises as to how to effectively clean your vehicle to regain its former glory. In this blog post, we'll introduce you to valuable car cleaning tips and tricks to make your vehicle shine again.
Why should you clean your car regularly?
Whether it's road salt, pollen, insects or leaves, you should clean your car of dirt at regular intervals throughout the whole year. Even if it's just a commodity for you – bodywork and rims should be kept clean as much as possible. Otherwise, dirt could cause damage to the paintwork. This damage, in turn, can cause rust on the bodywork. In short, by regularly cleaning your car, you maintain its value and it stands there like new.
NOTICE
Before you get to work with the pressure washer and a car wash product, it is important to consider some legal aspects. Because sometimes you are not permitted to simply wash your car on your own property. Many municipalities and cities have enacted regulations prohibiting the washing of vehicles outside of specially designated washing areas.
These regulations serve to protect groundwater from contamination and ensure environmentally friendly car cleaning. So, it's best to check with your municipality ahead of time to see if you're allowed to wash your car in your driveway.
Interior cleaning
Contrary to exterior cleaning, you can indeed clean the interior of your car right in your own driveway. It's best to prepare the interior before vacuuming or general cleaning. To do this, remove the junk that has accumulated over the days and weeks and remove any floor mats or carpets from your vehicle. If there are rubber mats in your car, you can wipe them with a damp cloth to remove the dirt right away. Carpets or floor mats made of fabric can simply be beaten or vacuumed. Once your car is empty, you can start with the actual cleaning.
1. Thorough vacuuming
You can always start by vacuuming the car seats and footwell. Our Einhell cordless handstick vacuum cleaner TE-SV 18 Li is ideal for this purpose. The 2-in-1 vacuum cleaner can be easily converted into a handheld vacuum cleaner. Together with the flexible crevice nozzle, you can also get into every crack. Our cordless handheld vacuum cleaners, such as the TE-HV 18/06 Li or the TE-VC 18 Li, are also excellent helpers for car care. With its high suction power, ECO and BOOST modes depending on the model, and an extensive set of accessories consisting of various nozzles, the car interior can be vacuumed easily and quickly.
TIP
If you have a pet and often take your four-legged friend with you in the car, there is bound to be a lot of pet hair that has accumulated. This is where a vacuum cleaner can provide the ideal remedy: the Einhell cordless wet/dry vacuum cleaner TE-VC 18/10 Li. With its 2-in-1 crevice or brush nozzle and a suction power of 90 mbar, it is not only best at removing loose dirt from pets, but can also suck up up to 7 litres of liquid.
2. Clean windows and fittings
For the windows, you can go the classic route and use a window cleaner and paper towel or a microfibre cloth to clean the windows. Or you can make it easy for yourself and use the practical Einhell cordless window cleaner BRILLIANTO. With the included 300 ml spray bottle including washable microfibre cloth, any cleaning agent can be easily sprayed onto the car windows and immediately distributed over the entire glass pane. Then you can easily pull the dirty water off the windows at the back and vacuum it at the same time. With the narrow 165 mm suction nozzle separately available, you can even clean narrow glass panes. Fittings are best wiped with a damp rag or dry microfibre cloth. There are also often special interior cleaners that you can use to remove stubborn dirt.
Exterior cleaning
After the interior cleaning is done, you can now turn your attention to the bodywork. All kinds of coarse dirt can accumulate here, such as leaves, flowers or even small branches. The best way to remove these remnants is by hand or with a soft hand broom. Once the coarse dirt is removed, you can start cleaning large areas.
- Prewash: The Einhell high-pressure cleaner TE-HP 170 is the perfect choice here. With the spray gun and the spot and wide jet nozzle, you can spray water on your car with up to 170 bar. Coarser soiling is already removed during the prewash. However, be careful not to get too close to your car's bodywork and paintwork when using very high pressure to avoid damage. Your rims, on the other hand, can handle a little more water pressure. If you have a separate rim cleaner at home, you can spray the rims of your car with it and let the agent work for a short time. Afterwards, brake dust and other dirt can be removed more easily and your car tyres will shine like new.
- Cleaning: Following the prewash with clean water, you can apply a car wash product to your vehicle. The spray container, which you can fill with the cleaning agent of your choice, will help you with this. This container is integrated into the high-pressure cleaner and facilitates the application of cleaning agents immensely. Now you can thoroughly wipe your car with a sponge or rag to remove any remaining dirt.
- Rinse & dry: Finally, you should rinse the cleaning agent thoroughly with clean water again. The Einhell high-pressure cleaner with its wide-jet nozzle is also suitable for this purpose. Afterwards, you can either let your car air dry or dry it with a special car towel or leather cloth. This will prevent unsightly water spots on the paint.
Paintwork care
For that extra shine and extra care, it's especially recommended to take care of the paintwork. Fine, superficial scratches and so-called holograms – fine lines that can form during cleaning due to the rubbing of small dirt particles – are annoying and not pretty to look at. But they can be easily removed with a polish. So that your arms don't get too tired and you can also work on large surfaces, we have the Einhell cordless polishing machine CE-CP 18/180 Li E. It is equipped with electronic speed regulation, which allows you to work according to the application and with a lot of sensitivity. Simply apply any wax polish to the foam attachment and spread it on the paint with the device. Then you can use the synthetic polishing cover to work in the polish and polish the paintwork.
These devices are recommended for car cleaning:
Cl. Polishing/Sanding Machine
CE-CP 18/180 Li E-Solo
Cordless Vacuum Cleaner
TE-VC 18 Li-Solo
Cordl. Wet/Dry Vacuum Cleaner
TE-VC 18/10 Li-Solo
Cordl.Handstick Vacuum Cleaner
TE-SV 18 Li-Solo
Cordless Vacuum Cleaner
TE-HV 18/06 Li - Solo
High Pressure Cleaner
TE-HP 170
In this article you will learn all about:
Lisa Hegewald, as an online editor at Einhell, deals with almost all texts related to tools, gardening equipment, and accessories. Through collaboration with Einhell product managers and practical product training, she consistently expands her knowledge. Her must-have product is the cordless coffee machine because nothing works without caffeine, whether on the construction site or in the office.