Using Microfiber Cloths

In the last few years microfiber has burst onto the auto-detailing scene. Almost overnight microfiber has changed the way people look at car care. However, with any instantly popular product there are a lot of myths, half truths, and flat out lies. In this guide, Pzev (from the focaljet.com forums) will answer a few basic questions about Microfiber, and explain its proper uses.

Time Required:
n/a

Tools Needed:

Microfiber Towels

Other detailing chemicals and tools as needed

Procedure:

Let's start with the basics. What is Microfiber? Well, unlike what most people believe MF (short for Microfiber) is a process rather than a material. It's a process that takes ordinary material like polyester, and weaves it into fibers so small that a single strand is a 100 times finer than a human hair. The advantage to such a process is that the material that results is much softer than the original. Also, several materials can be woven together to take advantage of specific properties they may poses. An example would by polyester, and polymide, which are the two most common materials, found in a MF towel. Polyester is used for its ability to be split and hold dirt, while polymide is used for its absorbency. Other materials that are often woven into MF are cotton, nylon, and even silk. Another key term used when describing MF is whether or not the material has been "split". Splitting refers to the actual process used to split the fibers that make up a MF towel. When split, the fibers are better at removing contaminants from the surface, and pulling them into the material away from the finish.

What is the advantage of Microfiber? Well, a few of the many advantages are greater absorbency, reduced risk of scratching, and greater cleaning ability. The truth is a MF towel will beat a 100% terry cloth towel every time in the above categories if they are of equal quality.

What makes a good Microfiber towel? A good MF towel is a mixture of many things, but perhaps the most important is weave style. Different weaves are used for different applications. The best example of this is waffle weave drying towels. It was discovered that a waffle type weave was better at removing water from the surface because of the suction effect created by the weave as it moves across the surface. Other examples include coarse weaves for wax and polish removal, and softer thicker weaves for quick detail use. Another key element in a good MF towel is the material that is used, and the percentages of them. The most common materials are polyester and polymide. Depending on the towels use, these materials will be varied in percentage. Usually the percentage is 80-20 polyester to polymide. However, natural fibers like cotton are also used. These towels while softer and more scratch resistant usually don't have the "bite", or cleaning power of synthetic blends. This again emphasizes that certain towels are for certain jobs. Perhaps the final key element that makes a good MF towel is the seams. The seams of a towel are the most dangerous areas as they can easily scratch the surface. There are several ways manufacturers go about seaming their towels. There are seams where a material such as silk is sewn around the edges. This is nice as it limits the chance of fraying, but the thread used to sew the silk on the edge can scratch a vehicles finish. Another type of edging used is hot cutting. A hot blade is used to melt the edges together. This is also good as it limits fraying however once again the melted material can scratch the paint. The third type of edging is actually no edge at all. Often called edgeless towels these towels employ some sort of reverse sewing that keeps the wave together. This is most scratch resistant, but depending on the mfg they may be more prone to fraying with continued use.

Do you really need Microfiber? The simple truth is MF has proven to be safer on painted surfaces than 100% cotton. However, it really comes down to the person. Many people still feel uncomfortable using synthetic materials like polyester on their paint, while others don't want to go out and buy all new towels. Eventually though, MF will take the crown for detailing towel of choice.

Where can you get Microfiber towels? You can get MF at almost all auto parts stores and warehouse stores around, whether or not they will be of acceptable quality is another story. For now, the Internet is the best source of MF around…and the only place to get the best towels. However, recently large detailing supply companies like Meguiars have started offering a line of MF. In fact, the majority of the Megs MF offerings are very nice for their price and availability. Companies like Zwipes also sell decent Microfiber products.

Here are some quality MF vendors on the internet- (special note: Many of these sites also have great info about Microfiber if you wish to read more.)

http://www.autopia-carcare.com/towels---chamois.html

http://www.properautocare.com/micprod1.html

http://waynestowels.com/

http://www.pakshak.com/

http://www.dftowel.com/

http://www.prestostore.com/cgi-bin/storefront.pl?ref=exceldetail

http://www.autofiber.com/

http://www.microfiberplus.com/microfiber2.htm

Thanks, Pzev!

Replacing Accessory Belt (Zetec)

Accessory belts wear out, but they're inexpensive and easy to replace.

Time Required:
15-30 minutes

Tools Needed:

Jack

jackstands

15mm wrench

socket set

Procedure:

Open the hood.

Raise and support the front of the vehicle

Under the car, use a socket set to remove the belt splash guard from the passenger side.

Find the belt tensioner. It's a small pulley (8) below the alternator (1) on a spring loaded pivot.

With the palm of your hand, push firmly upward on the tensioner pulley. If that does not work, get on the 15mm nut in the center of the pulley with a wrench for leverage. Acting like you're "tightening" this nut will provide the correct direction of movement to release belt tension.

The belt will loosen. While still pushing on the tensioner pulley, unloop the belt from the crank pulley (6) and/or A/C pulley (5). They're the two lower-most pullies.

Remove pressure from tensioner pulley

From above the engine or below, remove the belt.

Re-route new belt as shown in diagram below. Leave only the lower 2 pullies (A/C and crank) out of the loop.

Press the tensioner upwards again

While holding the tensioner, re-loop the new belt over the A/C and Crank pullies.

Remove pressure from tensioner pulley

Checking and re-wiring the coil pack harness wires

On many Focuses, the heat under the hood makes the coilpack harness brittle. This leads to cracking insulation and eventually corroded, frayed, and broken wiring. This can cause the car to run very rough, and might even cause a small electrical fire!

Time Required:
10-45 minutes, depending on if you need to actually re-wire the harness

Tools Needed:

Pin extractor or small flat-head screwdrivers

Metra 71-1784 radio harness (can be purchased at Best Buy) to dissect for wires

RTV Black sealant

solder

soldering iron

heat shrink tubing

lighter

Procedure:

To check the coilpack harness, pop the hood open and find the coilpack. It's the black brick next to the driver's side of the engine where the 4 spark plug wires terminate. Examine the 3 small wires going into the coilpack:

1) Draw a diagram of the wire colors and what hole they go into just in case the wires break
2) Press up on the little metal clip under the plug, and pull the plug off the coilpack.
3) Look for broken, stretched, discolored, burned or damaged insulation and/or wiring.

If the wiring is damaged:
1) Pop out the plastic insert on the harness plug
2) use a pin removal tool to pop out the pins. If I recall correctly, you go at it from the inside, but pull them out the back (inside = part plugging into the coilpack, back = where the wires go in)
3) cut the pins off past the damaged wire
4) Use the same procedure in step 2 to get the pins/wires out of the radio harness you bought. You only need 3 pins intact.
5) strip the harness wires
6) Solder the new wires and pins onto the old harness wires
7) Shrink tube the connections
8) Take note of which wire goes into which hole, snap into place
9) seal the outer side of the plug with RTV Sealant
10) put the plug back onto the coil pack and let the RTV set for a while

Tie rod replacement

This is a highly unofficial way to change out a bent or damaged tie rod, but cheaper and easier way than recommended by Ford.

Note: Ford calls for you to drop the subframe, pull the whole rack out, and put it in a bench vise. I didn't have time for that. At FocusHacks, you already agree that it's not OUR problem if you mess something up on your car or hurt yourself (see the disclaimer on the front page). I've done my tie rod twice this way with no ill result, however you can bend the main steering gear or cause internal damage if you're not careful with the pipe wrench. We thought we should let you know.

Time Required:
1 hour, give or take

Tools Needed:

Jack

Jackstands

lug wrench

BIG Pipe Wrench (The 18" one I have works great)

open end wrenches

screwdrivers

some screw-tightening hose clamps

sidecutters (dikes)

Procedure:

1) Raise and support the front, remove front wheel on damaged side.
2)Crank the steering all the way over, opposite the direction of the damaged tie rod so that the damaged tie rod is sticking out as far as possible.
3)Back off the tie rod end locknut.
4)Get on the body of the tie rod with the pipe wrench. Get on the tie rod end with an open end or crescent wrench. There's flats on it to make it easy to hold onto.
5)With the pipe wrench, turn the body of the tie rod until it comes out of the tie rod end. Don't allow the tie rod end to move much. You can easily damage the tie rod end if you put too much pressure on that ball joint that goes into the steering knuckle.
6)Break or cut the tie rod boot clamps. Remove the dust boot. Get on the large ball joint that screws into the steering gear with the pipe wrench. Turn it counter-clockwise to loosen it. It's on there pretty tight.
7)Thread the new tie rod into the steering gear.
8)Put the dust boot back onto the tie rod. Don't clamp it down or anything just yet.
9)Remove the locknut from the old tie rod and put it on the new one. Thread the tie rod into the tie rod end. Try to get it close to where the old one was threaded to.
10)Tighten the locknut
11)Replace the dust boot into position and get the air hose re-attached properly.
12)Use boot clamps or screw-on hose clamps to re-clamp the dust boot. I couldn't get a boot clamp tightener into the confined area, so I went with hose clamps.
13)Put the wheel on, lower the vehicle.

Go get an alignment. NOW. Waste no time.

PCV Valve replacement (Zetec engine, maybe others)

Replacing the PCV Valve is part of the regular maintenance of the car, like rotating tires or changing the oil. It's cheap, and not too difficult once you know how to do it. I recommend doing it every 10,000 - 20,000 miles.

Time Required:
30 minutes

Tools Needed:

Hands

Jack & Jackstands or Ramps

Procedure:

1) Lift and support the front end of your car, or drive up on ramps
2) Get under the front of your car. The PCV Valve is located behind the exhaust manifold, a few inches below the valve cover. Here's a photo, thanks to Penguini66 from the focaljet.com forums
3) Push up on the PCV valve to pop it out of the tube, or pull. You can get it out of the rubber tube with some effort.
4) Remove the rubber elbow from the top of the PCV valve. This can be re-used if it's not squishy. It can also be replaced cheaply.
5) Put the elbow on the new PCV Valve
6) Re-attach the elbow to the PCV tube
7) Push the new PCV valve back down into the large rubber tube

Thanks to Penguini66, G1-Focus, and Technarch from the Focaljet.com forums for discussing various tips on swapping out the PCV Valve.

Clean and dress wheel wells

One of the few overlooked areas of a car when doing a detail or exterior car cleaning is the wheel well section. Before you do any of your brightwork, consider taking care of this first. Who knows, it may be the difference between getting first prize, or an honorable mention at the next car show.

Time Required:
15 - 30 minutes

Tools Needed:

2 buckets (1 gal or less will do)

1-2 foam head toilet brushes (the longer and flexible the handle and head the better) or a pair good rubber gloves

some large sponges with the scuff pad side

Your favorite all purpose cleaner or some dawn dishwash

1 bottle Mop n Glow

Procedure:

This is a little time consuming, but patience is rewarded here. There are two ways to do this, the "quick way", and the "less quick way". The less quick way requires you to remove all the wheels to be thorough. The quick way keeps the wheels on, but you may not be able to cover as much as with the wheels off. Either method will make the wheel wells look much better in any case. The only difference is how picky you are and your access to other tools such as lug wrench (which you should have anyway), and access to a good lift (so you can forgoe all the running around).

This covers the quick way.

1. First, you need to rinse out the loose dirt in the wheel wells. Starting with the fronts, simply lock the steering wheel in one direction or the other. If I am starting on the driver side, I start with the steering to the left, and on the passenger side, lock to the right. Lock the wheel to the other side if you need more clearance.

2. Spray into the well at full blast from the hose to lossen up any mud or dirt. While you're at it, might as well do the struts and springs If you have a UDP installed and did not replace the shield, be gentle with the spray in that area, or rinse by hand. Also, if you do rinse off the struts and springs, be careful where you aim the water. Reason for this is to prevent any excess water from getting on the strut rod if there is no cover for it. The rod is meant to be lubricated with oil, but to be on the safe side, don't aim at the exposed rod. Rinse around that area by hand if need be.

3. Spray on your all purpose cleaner. If using dawn, just mix up some in the bucket with water as hot as you can get. Use one of the foam toilet brushes to scrub off the stuck on grime. If you need to to really remove the tougher stuff, get in there with your gloves and the sponge w/ scuff side. If you're doing the springs and struts as well, only use the sponge side, as the scuff side will scratch up the painted surfaces.

4. Rinse again with the hose, and in the second bucket, mix up some Mop N Glo with water. The intensity of the mixture will depend on how much shine you want in the well; for less shine, use less Mop n Glo, and for more shine, use more Mop N Glo. For maximum shine, don't even bother with the water, just use Mop N Glo full strength. Dip the toilet brush or sponge into the mixture, and squeeze off some of the excess. Apply the mixture to the wells until every bit of the well is covered in the mixture. Let the front sides set, and then go to the back.

5. Raise and support the rear of the car. Lift the rear up just enough to give you some room to work with, and just follow all the previous steps. If you do not have a jack, or you're a bit squeamish about working with the car raised, then you'll need to just work with sponges, toilet brushes, or a combination of the two.

6. Once all wells have been treated, you can go back to the fronts and inspect the work. The wells should have a glossy look to them. If you are not happy, you can re-apply another coat of Mop N Glo, and allow to dry.

7.Once the mixture is fuly dried (which should take about 10-15 mins depending on how much you used), your wells will be much easier to hose out clean, while leaving a nice glossy finish. You can repeat this step every 3-4 weeks, to insure the wells remain clean looking.

(Submitted by usdm from the Focaljet.com discussion forums)

Removing wax residue from trim pieces

After waxing, the textured black trim will often retain some dried wax. This gives the trim a white, powdery appearance that is far from desireable. We discuss how to remove this residue.

Time Required:
15 - 30 minutes

Tools Needed:

Pink Pet eraser (just a normal pencil eraser)

Procedure:

Simply rub the eraser over the areas where the wax residue is present. Only use the eraser on plastic trim. Don't rub it on painted surfaces, as it could leave rub marks. You can also try using products such as Mother's Back To Black, however, these often don't work to permanently remove the excess wax, they just mask it for a while.