Water Spots On Ceramic - Help!

[CNFLCTD]

I'm starting to get annoyed and the more I do some research, the more I'm regretting getting my car coated. Every time I wash my car it is covered with a million little water spots. From what i understand, this 'can' be a result of ceramic coatings. While i love the durability of the coating for paint protection reasons, I'm finding that I need to basically scrub down the entire car with a swirl remover to get them off the surface. I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this with their ceramic coated cars and if so, any quick fixes you can point me to....to either avoid them all together or make the removal process easier? Thanks in advance!

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[Voodoo Velocity]

Are you washing your car in the sun? Do you have hard water? Those spots will occur if coated or not. Water beads in the sun are like small magnifying glasses. Any contaminants in the water will form spots as the water evaporates. Best to dry / blow dry the car rather then let drying in the sun. Also, a quick wipe down with a detail spray after drying keep the spots forming on the finish when you wash and before you dry.

If you have stubborn spots, dilute some white vinegar with water and apply a wet cloth for a min, then wipe clean.

 

[Lorne34]

I've had two Mustangs with PPF and the Modesta ceramic coating, which is one of the hardest coatings as well as most glossy/candy like finish. It has a lot of benefits, but there are some drawbacks and water spots is a big one.
You have to make sure you are NOT washing your vehicle in direct sunlight or the hottest part of the day. If you get caught in a summer shower or sprinkle you can get a lot of "dirty rain" on your vehicle. The way it was explained to me is that the initial rain can sometimes be contaminated with atmospheric substances (pollution) and if the rain is short and the sun comes out it can bake on those water spots very quickly.
In the case of my Modesta coating, I tried everything under the sun to attempt removal and finally had to contact my detailer who applied the ceramic. He hooked me up with a water spot remover product specfiic to ceramics and that worked great. Depending upon what ceramic you went with contact the company and follow their suggestions...
If your washing method is taking considerable time you may want to consider doing a foam wash and rinse which can be done in under 15 minutes and requires just spot hand washing for any problem areas...
Personally, I don't think I am going to go the ceramic route with my current 350. Looking at doing Autoflex coating instead. It combines the PPF protection with a ceramic type durable layer.

p.s Voodoo Velocity also has some great points as well....

 

[Schwerin]

I

I've had two Mustangs with PPF and the Modesta ceramic coating, which is one of the hardest coatings as well as most glossy/candy like finish. It has a lot of benefits, but there are some drawbacks and water spots is a big one.
You have to make sure you are NOT washing your vehicle in direct sunlight or the hottest part of the day. If you get caught in a summer shower or sprinkle you can get a lot of "dirty rain" on your vehicle. The way it was explained to me is that the initial rain can sometimes be contaminated with atmospheric substances (pollution) and if the rain is short and the sun comes out it can bake on those water spots very quickly.
In the case of my Modesta coating, I tried everything under the sun to attempt removal and finally had to contact my detailer who applied the ceramic. He hooked me up with a water spot remover product specfiic to ceramics and that worked great. Depending upon what ceramic you went with contact the company and follow their suggestions...
If your washing method is taking considerable time you may want to consider doing a foam wash and rinse which can be done in under 15 minutes and requires just spot hand washing for any problem areas...
Personally, I don't think I am going to go the ceramic route with my current 350. Looking at doing Autoflex coating instead. It combines the PPF protection with a ceramic type durable layer.

p.s Voodoo Velocity also has some great points as well....

I LOVE my modesta.

 

[Kramerica]

I am dealing with the same issues right now. I recently purchased my 2017 with 650 miles on the odometer and some minor paint issues. I decided to have the paint corrected, Cquartz ceramic coated and ppf installed. After my first hand wash at home I was dealing with water spots, pretty frustrating. Granted, I do live in an area with hard water but I'm still amazed at how difficult it is to remove. To combat this I purchased a bottle of Carpro Spotless water spot remover. Its scheduled to deliver tomorrow so I can let you know how how it works out. As Lorne mentioned, I personally plan on moving to a foam wash, rinse and blow dry setup for washing.

 

[crazymayhem]

Ive had great results with Chemical Guys HEAVY DUTY WATER SPOT REMOVER - the orange stuff. Spots I couldnt remove with vinegar and water just disappeared.

 

[Alain]

I also think you may be dealing with “hard water” when you wash. I have the same issue we’re I live. I get rid of them with either some Adam’s H20 spray, which you spray on the car while it’s wet to help you dry the car.

Or I hit it with Adam’s detail spray (the pink one). Those usually do the trick, but I have to use lots of elbow grease.


I just bought a foam cannon to use with a pressure washer and plan on doing the foam and rinse car wash from now on.

I always wondered how clean can you get a car with just a foam wash and rinse. But I’d rather do that then deal with water spots or scratching the paint while hand washing.

 

[galaxy]

Never. Wash. Your. Car. In. Sunlight! This has nothing to do with ceramic coating. Temperature is Irrelevant also. Avoid the sun, period. This is not ceramic coated related. You cannot out-dry the sun, no matter what you think. The darker the surface the color, the worse it is.

 

[JadeGT350]

We have seen this issue with the AeroTek ceramic coating on my wife's GT but not on our GT350. Same coating on both cars and done at the same shop. We do not wash our cars at home. We only have them done by our detailer. This is the same shop we had the coating done at. The spots only appear on her car. Our detailer is working with AeroTek on the issue as it might be related to the coating. If that's the case AeroTek's warranty will cover the cost of stripping and redoing the coating.

More to come on this.....

 

[m3incorp]

I did a foam and rinse on my black Fusion today and it came out pretty good....I do have to admit the car wasn't too dirty, as I had only driven it a couple times since it's last wash.

I also think you may be dealing with “hard water” when you wash. I have the same issue we’re I live. I get rid of them with either some Adam’s H20 spray, which you spray on the car while it’s wet to help you dry the car.

Or I hit it with Adam’s detail spray (the pink one). Those usually do the trick, but I have to use lots of elbow grease.


I just bought a foam cannon to use with a pressure washer and plan on doing the foam and rinse car wash from now on.

I always wondered how clean can you get a car with just a foam wash and rinse. But I’d rather do that then deal with water spots or scratching the paint while hand washing.

 

[Alain]

I did a foam and rinse on my black Fusion today and it came out pretty good....I do have to admit the car wasn't too dirty, as I had only driven it a couple times since it's last wash.

My foam cannon should be delivered tomorrow. I’m gonna test it this week and see what results I get. I never let my cars get too dirty before I wash them, but they do sit outside all the time so they collect dust and the like.

 

[Lurker_350]

If I'm trying to get mine showroom (well, better than that) clean, I like to do a quick wash in the driveway using normal two bucket method (out of sun and keeping the whole thing wet) and then put it in the garage to do a quick no-rinse wash (I use optimum no rinse). This way I can wash and dry the car a panel at a time in the garage, in good light. I've found it comes out really nice without any water spots (and we get water from an aquifer).

I don't like to do the no-rinse wash without getting all the grime off using normal methods since I'm skeptical on the claims that it won't scratch anything. But once I've got all the grit and grime off, I feel good about it. No scratches in the stripes so far since 2016

 

[UXXR]

Get a powerful leaf blower and dry your car very fast with that. Since it's coated, water will fly off of it.

People already made good points as don't wash a hot surface car in the sunlight, don't let water dry on surface, etc..

What I do is I'm using Adams Car Soap exclusively, it's ph balanced and no effect on coating, no additives. I let the soap sit on the car, rather than water, because when rinsed, even it dries on car, it rinses clean. So I foam the car, hand wash the whole car, and then do a quick but thorough rinse. At that point, you can either do the blower dry, or get the car in the garage and hand dry. Even after I dry with blower, I get the car back in the garage and dry with towels - drying aid (I use Carpro Ech02, diluted light, very sparingly) - dry door jambs etc..

Years of having Cquartz coated cars, never had an issue with water spots.

Another solution would be investing in the DI Spotless water softener-filtration systems. DI water is free of minerals and even dried on the car, wouldn't leave spots (technically).

Hope this helps.

 

[ReapSow]

My car is ceramic coated with sapphire v1 and I use Adams wash + coat from the ceramics line. Even with washing in the shade and drying immediately with the Adams Air Cannon (leaf blower on steroids) my finish will typically water spot in some areas. Why? My water has more mineral content than most. OP issue may have a similar issue, hard water. The Carpro stuff works ok if you add it to the routine.

 

[torque124]

I use Carpro Cquartz and top off with Gliss... no water spots, ever. I wash it it with bucket and soft brush, never sponge (never ever use a sponge to wash your car), and wipe dry or blow. The ceramic coating is very hard, so I just wipe it dry with Meguiars drying towel.
I forgot, I use Reload as regular maintenance of ceramic coating every month or so ( every 3rd or 4th wash).

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