Wash & Wax experiment
 

I'm going to buy a bar of detailers clay and thoroughly wash and wax my eclipse. I haven't made a final determination on which wax I will use. However, I'm going try and find out what the Nascar guys (and some of the World Of Outlaws sprint car guys) use to wax their race cars. I never would have thought of this, but I remembered seeing Steve Kinser (World of Outlaws) sprint being waxed before a race.

It can't hurt to try, right?

Be careful, you might get some elbow grease on the car... :D

Well it might be worth a tenth of a second a lap at 200mph.

No, it will not hurt. I don't think it will help your mileage. At least your car will look nice. I know air race planes are waxed for performance, but they move a bit faster than your Mits.

I keep my xB pretty clean and polished with RejeX which is used on Jet aircraft and I notice very high mileage readings when it is freshly polished - higher than usual. It sure feels a lot slipperier with a fresh application of the RejeX too. The bottle will not stay on the hood - just slides off - and the hood is fairly level.

I think somewhere on TV a study was done about clean v dirty. It may have been Shell that ran it to tout there gas cleaner additive. Anyway they kept one car washed and waxed and the other just hosed off. Over the length of the trial (2000 mile?) the clean car did get better mileage by 1 to 2 mpg. This does make a difference in my opinion. If you run you hand over a very clean and waxed car the surface is very smooth. One that is clean but not waxed is ruff, you can feel the drag. This drag resists the wind and creates some drag.
I keep my car as clean as possible and smooth as possible. It may only help a little but every little bit helps.

I'm thinking the benefit won't be reached until 40mph+ I'm hoping to be able to squeeze another mile or two per hour out of my car with the windows down. or at least my windows cracked and my sunroof cracked. This way, the venturi effect of wind passing over my sunroof (which is only open in the back) will help to pull air through the cracked windows.

Its probably a stretch in physics, but I'm going to try it. The car could use waxed anyways.

Dont think it will help to wax the primer on mine. I know my buddy who is going to paint it would be very upset, and I would have to work a lot more to get it ready for paint.

Once its painted I'll keep a good coat of wax on it and see if it helps.

regards
gary

I seriously doubt that waxing a car is going to make a significant difference, mileagewise. That being said, it will make the car prettier, making you want to go for a nice, long drive down some pretty road to a place you really enjoy. You will be enjoying the ride, so you might drive just a bit slower than you normally do to and from work. Because the car is a little shinier than usual, you will have a smile on your face, and will be less subject to being pissed off by other drivers, lowering the level of anger on the highway, and helping others get better mileage themselves. Because of all this, that trip will probably get you a bit better mileage than usual, but it won't be strictly because of the wax....

LOL....but you'll be using more gas than usual, because you took a trip you otherwise wouldn't have taken. :)

exponent,
Good luck with the experiment and I would be interested in your results.

Pete.

I think it's a good idea to try, especially with your Eclipse which is pretty good aerodynamically already, so laminar flow would effect it more than some cars where the flow is so turbulent that it barely touches the paint anyway.

(I think if I washed and waxed my Subie I would see a marked difference, not because of the airflow, just because it's usually covered in about 200lbs of dust, rust and mud. Someone once told me I'd need to file an environmental impact statement before washing my car. :rolleyes: )

Lufthansa doing the same!
 

I have also noticed when I put RainX on my windows it makes them a lot slicker, so I don't just put it on the windshield I put it on all the windows. I don't know if it helps mileage or not but it sure helps in the rain. It might be something else you want to experiment with to find out. I have always seemed to get better mileage when my car was washed and had a good coat of wax on it. I have always thought if it was waxed the air would move over the surface of the car with more ease resulting in higher mileage. I always try to wax right before taking a long road trip.

i have to try this

Jet airplanes go a lot faster than cars, and their aerodynamic needs are far different. There's no question that a smoother, cleaner surface will flow air better, but I question whether it's enough to cause a gain worth the very small cost at the speeds that we go.

Rain-x and wax are great for preventing snow and grime from sticking to your car, though.

I use the RainX and wax more for the protective properties, but just thought it was worth mentioning. A little increase here a little there equals a lot over all. The largest cost to either is the elbow grease it takes to do it, not a lot of fun on 95-100 degree days, but those electric buffers sure help ease the pain.

yea we are having our airplanes cleaned and polished again also

I like american airlines ... smooth alum.. no paint no extra weight. easy to clean no touch ups needed always looks good.

on the other side you see cyclist in the wind tunnel and they add bumps to the back of thier suit to help the air break off them

oh well.


kb

a clean car runs better :thumbup:

Im not driving when I don't really need to, but I take long relaxing drives twice daily--on the way to work and on the way home. I agree, when the car is clean and shiny it is easier to relax and enjoy the ride. The good mileage is a by-product of that attitude.

haha, I really enjoyed this reply. :thumbup: EOC has a similar effect. Even if having the engine off only saves a small amount of gas if the engine was otherwise idling--because you are bothering to turn the engine off means you are going to be more conscious about saving gas--thus drive slower and glide longer. :)

You've got just about as much commute now as I had 10 years ago driving from Lancaster to City of Industry, and back again. Was driving a 5-liter 1985 Lincoln Continental at the time...a somewhat detuned version of your car...not getting near what you are getting...mostly got around 20-21mpg then...but that was going about 75 or so...always did just slightly better after a visit to the car wash...

People tend to go to the carwash when they're expecting a week of sunny fine weather, not when they're expecting a week of rainy, dirty weather.

I've been washing both cars weekly for a couple months now. It's supposed to attract rain when you do that...so far no luck. (Maybe because the last time it threatened to rain, I bought new wiper blades...best way to ward off rain!)

wash wax wipers and rainx :thumbup:

I always feel like the cars cut through the air better after an extensive wash and wax. Maybe it is just in my head but I would love to see some actual real data on this. A wind tunnel would be the most accurate way to see if it really works.

No matter what it cannot hurt.

-Nate

Just a thought, maybe making a tape recording of the of the wind noise inside the car before and after washing would give us some insight.

Data is best to ward off skeptics but I wouldn't totally discount how it feels to you when you're driving your own car.

let the kids throw mud at the car and log mpg :D h

I'm glad to hear that all of the hard work is paying off in some way besides just looking nice and protecting the paint.