jrbmwenthusiast

Yesterday morning it was minus 16 degrees fahrenheit in Chicago. Can it ever be too cold to wash your car? Once I was told that if you wash a car in extreme cold, small amounts of water may not have time to evaporate and may expand between component connection points, thereby damaging your car. Also, I recall years ago being told that spraying the underbody of a car in extreme cold could cause ice build up that cracks your engine block, breaks your brake lines, freezes or fuses brakes in place or otherwise damages other components. (Maybe in some ways the rapid change in temperature is similar to spraying a hot engine bay with cold water?) Is there any truth to any of the above?

Masterspy

I completely agree with your analogy. When I can really needs a wash, I turn on my heater in the garage and wash my car and dry it in the garage and leave the heater overnight to make sure it dries everthing in the car.

Westcoast M5

I grew up in a province where winter ranged from - 20 to -40 C for 5 months of the year and washed my car at least once a week. Never had any problem with damage from car wash water freezing other than door seals sometimes sticking/freezing a bit.