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Car wash design complaint

3769 Views 8 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  GTSeoul
I have had my Stinger for 6 weeks now, driving WAY more than usual because now it is so much fun (previous optima driver). One complaint I have in the design of the stinger is the decorative only hood air intake pieces. when ever I wash the car, water gets trapped in those little hexagons and then when I drive it trickles out toward the windshield, leaving a streak. I was wondering if anyone had an idea to deal with this. No matter how hard I try to soak up the water, it never seems to be good enough! I would love to see some sort of a custom foam tool, cut to fit inside the hex pattern (mimicks the turn signal, which is cool) to suck out all the water, and keep my Stinger looking great!
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I have a lot of those water trapping areas on my G8 so I use a leaf blower to dry the car. It also helps to reduce swirls on the paint, mine is black so it really helps.

If you have a good coating of wax or polish on the car, water will just roll off of it and the car will be dry in minutes with little effort.
You could also consider getting a hydrophobic spray and using it on those hood vents. Should prevent water from collecting there. Glad to hear that you're happy with the Stinger and spending plenty of time behind the wheel.
If it's just the vents, then you can take a gentle towel to it and dry it off before driving. Not much you can do if you go through the auto car wash.
There is no way to get all of the water out of those spots with just a towel. Before the leaf blower I would drive it around the block a couple times and then come back and clean up the streaks left by the water spraying out of those pots.

If you have an air compressor, that would work as well.
Guess it's another one of those quirks you learn to live with and there's not much you can do aside from blow drying it or cleaning up the after streaks.
Seeing as how those air intakes serve no function, hopefully we'll see some aftermarket alternatives come to market. If this is a common problem due to their design, I'm sure we'll see owners with an interest for replacements.
Could probably try to replace the grille looking portion of the vent with an actual perforated grille so air actually goes into the engine bay and water can drain out. Not really a big concern and something aftermarket companies will look into. The long windshield wiper is more of an issue when washing cars than anything else.
You might want to invest in a small air compressor that might even be able to plug into a cabin charge port. Detailers sometimes do this to get in certain areas that are difficult. Seen it used quite often.
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