On the internet, it’s the weird and unusual that gets clicks. Nobody cares about a Chevy Malibu getting a tint job or a labrador playing fetch. Nobody’s tuning in unless it’s a cocaine-addled German Shepherd power-sliding a pink Bugatti while simultaneously firing an MP5 at enemy aircraft overhead. It’s this lust for the extreme that has propelled a Chinese car wash channel to TikTok fame, for the way they deal with utterly filthy cars, inside and out. Heed my warning, though—you should never wash your car this way.
The channel in question, if you’re unfamiliar, is @bianca2849 on TikTok. It’s not just a catchy name, either; it’s a channel all about washing and detailing cars and car interiors. There are plenty of detailers working with dirty cars out there, but the content here takes the cake. In the most popular videos, you get to see cars that are absolutely caked in thick mud, and not just on the outside, either. We’re talking interiors and engine bays full of muck, too. One’s first thought might leap to the idea that these cars have fallen victim to flood waters, or maybe a local river. However, it’s worth considering that these cars might have also been dressed for the part. Supporting this hypothesis is that some shots show perfectly clean areas under seats or panels that were filthy; in a flood water situation, you’d expect a more complete permeation of sticky, nasty goop.
My own conspiracy theories aside, it’s the techniques that are problematic. The most popular video, now at 139 million views, shows an attitude to cleaning we’d best describe as “reckless abandon.” The dirty Chevrolet has thick mud covering the interior, so what do our heroes choose to do? They fire up the pressure washer and go to town with that badboy.
@bianca2849 Dirtiest car Washing Vid #fyp #carwash #satisfying #asmr #bianca2849
They’re spraying the water around this car like a toddler let loose with a firehose. The seats? Spray ’em down! The steering column, the dash? Go ahead! All the while the footwells are filling up with pools of brown, muddy water, which has to be bailed out with a small metal bowl. Once the entire interior is sopping wet, then the disassembly of the interior begins so they can actually, you know… clean the parts properly.
Doing this is a surefire way to give a car all kinds of problems down the road. For a start, you’re soaking the carpet and any underlying insulation, and getting water into all kinds of nooks and crannies in the vehicle body. Many of those areas won’t have water drains, because automakers don’t expect you to fill the B-pillars with water. Even in a really warm climate, this is something you should really avoid doing.
Beyond that, there’s the obvious electrical issues. Sure, if the car’s already flooded, it probably can’t get much worse, but again, you’re not helping your cause by making more muddy water and spraying it all around. Given the cleaning job requires a full disassembly anyway, you’re far better off pulling out all your modules and components first. Then, if you really want, you can powerwash the interior like a crazy person without unduly damaging any parts that were unscathed.
Either way, if you’re leaving your wiring looms and connectors in place, they’re sure to pick up some corrosion from being soaked like crazy. Nevermind the prospect of filling up your dash cluster, radio, or other parts with water, necessitating replacement. Fear not though; they’ve got a can of WD40 on hand. Not to worry then! The job’s a good ‘un.
It makes precisely zero sense, which makes it utterly hilarious to watch, and that’s why it’s got so many views. It bears noting the videos don’t always go this way. A previous video with a large SUV saw the team take a far more reasonable approach. The interior was disassembled piece by piece, with individual seats and carpets pulled out to be cleaned outside the car. This makes way more sense, as it doesn’t get mud everywhere and it avoids water pooling in the car. Beyond generating TikTok views, it’s entirely unclear why you’d spray the interior down like this other than it is deeply, embarrassingly satisfying to watch. They have to climb in and unbolt everything anyway; they just made their own job a lot messier!
I’ll cop to some unconventional cleaning methods myself. I’ve thrown a bucket of soapy water into the footwell of a Honda Civic before, but I had my reasons. I had a big sticky spill in the footwell, and I had no desire to completely disassemble the car to remove the carpet. Thus, I formulated a plan, in which I was able to soak the carpet and scrub it in situ. Furthermore, I’d already identified there was a rubber plug I could pull out to help drain the footwell from beneath. Finally, I did all this on an Australian summer’s day when it was 104 F and I knew the whole thing would dry quickly.
In the end, my Civic was fine. I hadn’t sprayed water with abandon, I’d made sure not to douse any connectors, and I made sure to clean up afterward. Even then, I wasn’t heaps in love with the method, knowing I’d probably left a layer of dirty goop festering under the carpet after my watery antics. In any case, I got the job done.
The video does offer one thing that I don’t have a problem with, and that’s the sweet payoff at the end. We get to see the car reassembled with all the interior plastics and carpets looking pristine. You can always question how realistic it is, and wonder how many of the parts were cleaned versus swapped out, but it still all comes together in the end. The car even drives away under its own power, which suggests that it didn’t suffer too badly from the spray down, at least in the short term.
Generally, a car that has been in a flood and gotten this filthy would often be considered an insurance write-off in the United States. It would make no sense to have someone spend hours and hours pulling apart a flooded car, especially as the result is usually a car that ends up with all kinds of niggling problems down the road.
Of course, in different countries, the economics work out differently. In China, labor is far cheaper and cars can be more expensive in relative terms. With these parameters, it can make more sense to try and repair a damaged car, because it’s not as expensive to do so.
Even still, doing it like this is just asking for problems. There’s no real time-saving in power washing the interior if you’re just going to pull it apart anyway. Basically, there’s a simple lesson to learn here. Feel free to spray down the interior of a car if you’re doing it for clout, or if it’s your best mate’s car, for a laugh. Otherwise, just pull apart the car and clean it properly and you’ll have way less headaches down the line. Good luck out there.
Image credits: @bianca2849, TikTok screenshot
Tell us more about this Chevy Malibu tint job, better yet can we tint one of David’s cars or the Changli?
This video aside,
Cars should be designed so that they can be hosed out.
A work vehicle, like a trailer or a shed, is essentially an outdoor space.
It should be built as such.
Buy a series 1 Land Rover mate.
This is 2023, not 1953.
David’s Jeeps can be hosed down because the rust has created drainage holes where the designers didn’t include them.
The Aveo may be a bleh car but it didn’t deserve this
These guys are very late to the party. They probably watched this:
https://youtu.be/png5BFnwg1I
Congrats, you’ve been scammed! (lol)
This is almost certainly the same crap that’s been on Youtube for years with things like “electronics repair”: some guy disassembled a decent condition working radio, dumps it in a muddy creek, then reassembles it dirty. He then “fixes” it on SocialMedia with some soap and a toothbrush.
The worst types like this are the ones who throw a dog in a river and then rescue it on video for the clicks.
I feel like anyone who’s going to powerwash their car interior based on a video they saw on TikTok is also the kind of person who’s going to ignore any warning not to powerwash the inside of their car like they saw on TikTok
“Please Power Wash Your Car Like On TikTok But Do It In A Unique Way So I Can Come Up With A Fresh Reason To Decry Your Work”