Mottled Stripes On Roof Rails After Touchless Car Wash - Help!

satchurator

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Hoping to get some advice on an issue I experienced after taking my CT4 through a touchless car wash for the first time. My standard black MY22 CT4 has full XPEL PPF and Ceramic Pro. I usually get 3-4 thorough details per year, with between-details maintenance just being a manual rinse / spot clean for flies and bird dirt.

I’d gotten a heavy dumping of pollen and insect debris from my last roadtrip, so wanted to do a basic wash and rinse to tide me over to an already scheduled detail next week. I visited a nearby car wash that has PDQ LaserWash 360 equipment. I’ve used a different facility with the same laser wash equipment without issues on my old blacked out Cayenne without issues.

Immediately after I exited the wash, I noticed that both my roof rails had mottled stripes (photos attached). Because of the pattern, it seems like the soap somehow reacted-with or stained the ceramic or paintwork. It won’t wipe off with a damp cloth. Its specifically limited to the roof rails - doesn’t appear anywhere else on the car.

Has anybody experienced this before? Or can anyone diagnose? Any advice or informed speculation would be really appreciated.

Of course I shall have my detail shop take a look - they are the same place that did my PPF and Ceramic and are very good.

For now just looking to comprehend WTF happened and whether it can be easily remedied.

Porsche Taycan Mottled Stripes On Roof Rails After Touchless Car Wash - Help! 1


Porsche Taycan Mottled Stripes On Roof Rails After Touchless Car Wash - Help! 2
 

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The CT 4S we test-drove last year had a metallic mottling on it's black roof rails, very similar to your pics - but more blotchy than stripes. I asked the sales-rep about it and he was a bit non-committal - said it just needed a clean.

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Maybe asking a silly question, but is it normal to PPF the roof rails? I could sort of imagine it going either way, but would definitely make a big difference in terms of where that pattern might be coming from. That said, the first thing I think of when I see those marks are water drops that are getting heat dried off, but that would be weird for it to only affect the rails unless they weren't PPF'd like the rest of the car.
 
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satchurator

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Maybe asking a silly question, but is it normal to PPF the roof rails? I could sort of imagine it going either way, but would definitely make a big difference in terms of where that pattern might be coming from. That said, the first thing I think of when I see those marks are water drops that are getting heat dried off, but that would be weird for it to only affect the rails unless they weren't PPF'd like the rest of the car.
Fair question. It's 'Full PPF' in the conventional sense - so all main body panels and non-matte trim, front, side and rear plus the mirrors. But no PPF on the roof or roof rails AFAIK. Only ceramic on the rails (although given the isolated effect upon the rails, I'm wondering if my rails did in fact receive the ceramic treatment).
 

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I had this on my roof rails after ceramic pro. It turns out it was uneven wear/erosion of the ceramic pro. I think the ceramic pro struggles to cure properly on the roof rails. Your installer can polish to remove the high spots and reapply the ceramic pro.
 


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satchurator

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I had this on my roof rails after ceramic pro. It turns out it was uneven wear/erosion of the ceramic pro. I think the ceramic pro struggles to cure properly on the roof rails. Your installer can polish to remove the high spots and reapply the ceramic pro.
Thanks @Busski - did this reveal itself immediately after your original Ceramic Pro application, or did it take some other occurrence to highlight the issue? For me, the ceramic application was in November, but this only showed up months later after yesterday’s wash I described above.
 

wurzitup

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Could this be the harsh alkalinity of their particular wash detergent as it hit and then flowed off the car? Much like bird bombs, I've noticed some particularly harsh chemicals can leave some sort of etchings or staining if they hit and are left for even a brief period on the clear and/or ceramic before they are diluted or rinsed off.
Just a thought and my $0.02.
 

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here is what it looked like in mine. It was right after application but they indicated that they might have had the weekend crew use the wrong cleaning solution.

Porsche Taycan Mottled Stripes On Roof Rails After Touchless Car Wash - Help! 26C1EACB-363B-433B-A60C-460FBF59CAFE

Porsche Taycan Mottled Stripes On Roof Rails After Touchless Car Wash - Help! 8322D9E5-077B-49EB-B5D9-F5FC108D218E
 
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satchurator

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Hoping to get some advice on an issue I experienced after taking my CT4 through a touchless car wash for the first time. My standard black MY22 CT4 has full XPEL PPF and Ceramic Pro. I usually get 3-4 thorough details per year, with between-details maintenance just being a manual rinse / spot clean for flies and bird dirt.

I’d gotten a heavy dumping of pollen and insect debris from my last roadtrip, so wanted to do a basic wash and rinse to tide me over to an already scheduled detail next week. I visited a nearby car wash that has PDQ LaserWash 360 equipment. I’ve used a different facility with the same laser wash equipment without issues on my old blacked out Cayenne without issues.

Immediately after I exited the wash, I noticed that both my roof rails had mottled stripes (photos attached). Because of the pattern, it seems like the soap somehow reacted-with or stained the ceramic or paintwork. It won’t wipe off with a damp cloth. Its specifically limited to the roof rails - doesn’t appear anywhere else on the car.

Has anybody experienced this before? Or can anyone diagnose? Any advice or informed speculation would be really appreciated.

Of course I shall have my detail shop take a look - they are the same place that did my PPF and Ceramic and are very good.

For now just looking to comprehend WTF happened and whether it can be easily remedied.
Just to follow up on this thread, when I had my car properly detailed, I asked them to address this. The mottling effect was easily removed through the normal hand wash stage plus some light buffing. So in this case, it seems like it was triple-foam residue from the touchless wash rather than any subtractive etching or corrosion.
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