Pre-service clean - Eureka moment

[Splash]

Years ago I learned the hard way to never take a car in for service when dirty - they opened the doors onto rubber stoppers and pressed the grit into the paint. Ever since, I always jet wash the car at the very least.

Maybe it's peculiar to where we live, but every car seems to collect moss or lichen at the very bottom of the windows behind where the trim sits. The perfect tool for getting this out (sometimes in clumps) is the pointy straw from a Capri-Sun at a really shallow angle. I don't like jet washing seals.

Also cleans out the fuel flap drain hole perfectly too.

Possibly one for a sub-forum on "detailing", but I've never been there if such a place exists. I just wash and go...

[Akash]

Good tip!
Funnily enough - I too wash the car thoroughly before I hand it over to Audi but for different reasons!

I had a good friend working at in a service centre and he had once mentioned that while they do look after all models/types of cars, the cleaner and looked after ones always get that much extra tlc.
And related to this is also during the pre-booking inspection, any scratches/dents (or hopefully lack of them) are seen rather than a case of you damaged my car while it was in your hands ...

The fuel drain always annoys me so I might just stick a straw in the flap for future!

[SMK_C7]

A blast of compressed air in the fuel filler drain clears it a treat and no risk of damaging the drain tube with mechanical methods.

[cjmcb]

I have used a bicycle brake cable to purge the drain holes and a very soft bristled brush for the window seal de-greening.

The rapid build up of greenery means you live somewhere with high quality air ;-)