Those no water products are pointless unless your car is almost clean. If your car is really dirty you will be putting scratches into the clear. Instant detailers for quick cleans are ok, but water and a bucket are still the way you wash a car period. Your HOA doesn’t say anything about putting water down the drain, so…. Go to auto store, find a wash that says biodegradable on the back. Tell them you pay your dues, and they can leave you the hell alone. I would rather have a neighborhood with clean cars then dirty ones! There are a couple detail shops on the 6, im sure they would write you a letter to give to your HOA about how “nature friendly” modern car cleaners are. Much more pollution is done from cars leaking fluids then from people who like clean cars. That twice a year thing is irresponsible! Your neighbors must have permanently pitted wheels. Worst case scenario there are some touchless car washes out there that do a fairly good job but don’t get it perfect. Afterwards an instant detailer, assorted plastic and wheel cleaner all while using soft towels would substitute for a real hand wash.

 

Yes - I was told the same thing. In order to be brushless, the products are harsh on your paint. I would DIE if I couldn't wash my car - I do it every weekend and enjoy it. I live in a community with HOA too and I know if we were to implement a new rule, the HOA would need to vote. If it is not a city ordinance, you would need a majority vote to implement this typically. Good luck, keep us posted.

 

well, I ordered TWO 1 gallon bottles of the Optimum No Rinse already (maybe I should have started with one). We'll see how it goes. If the dirt seems a little on the heavy side I could always touchless carwash it first (although sometimes I just leave it at that especially if I know it will rain within a day or two).

As for my neighbors having pitted wheels, some of them have plastic wheel covers. I'm wondering if anyone else is making a fuss. I have a feeling no one will approach me if they see me "washing" the car in the driveway again and I will just see a fine on my HOA bill. I've been talking to the association manager to hopefully avoid this unpleasant surprise (can they actually force you to pay HOA fines?).

Thanks all for the support so far.

 

I liked the biodegradable car soap idea and then I saw this posted on the City of Kirkland website:

All soaps, even biodegradable ones, are toxic to fish. Don’t allow soap to enter storm drains!


Link to said website:
http://www.ci.kirkland.wa.us/depart/...n_Kirkland.htm

 

I used to live in a townhome complex just off of 124th and used to wash my car there every weekend. Sounds like a bunch of BS to me.

 

If you wash your car at home, wash it on a grassy or gravel area, where the wash water will soak into the soil and won’t drain directly to a storm drain or local water body.

 

Yeah, unfortunately no such grassy or gravel area in my complex.

Even better news, the association manager told me to get a note from the city of Kirkland saying that it's okay to use Optimum No Rinse. Laughable, really.

 

Pretty sure you should be able to wash the car over your lawn.

If not, the Griot's water less car wash works well on a fairly dirty car with no chunks on it.

 

My business is in Tacoma and about 4 years ago we were told to stop washing our trucks on premises. It was a very Large fine $1k-10k for doing so and it was a law that I thought was for most of Western Washington at the time. I originally thought it was for the grime and gunk of my large diesels but since found it's for even a car on the property. It has to do with not having the correct Oil/Water Separators in the drains to accomadate all the crap coming off of the vehicles. We wanted to fight it and decided another waste of time. Had to stop the weekly waterblaster that cleaned my trucks and now it sucks. Very expensive to have drivers bring the trucks down to the truck wash and spend the 40 bucks plus man hours to do it.

We would have had to put in a wash bay with spill over and an oil/water sep that was extremely expensive. so now i have dirty trucks driving down the road

 

we have the oil water seperator hooked into our steam clean pit and they still break our ***** annually and made us hook it up to the sewage line... a measley $15K plumbing job...

so technically if you refrain from washing your truck fleet, can you get a green tax credit?

 

Almost seem like I don't even use the car wash soap to clean my car, since I use so minimal amount where the foam doesn't even foam.

Pre-soak the surface, and then brush off the dirts on the surface and then wash it off again. What's the difference between the typical rain vs this method?