Washing your BMW car is one choir that a lot of BMW owners enjoy. The process can be as simple as vacuuming the cabin and cleaning off the dirt on the outside, or you can go down the route of a full detail. In either of these cases, there’s a personal gratification that’s hard to quantify. And one thing is certain: if you regularly clean or detail your BMW, your car will be in a better condition and might even better retain its value.

But there are tons of BMW car cleaning products out there and the choices are harder than ever. In this article, we will share with you some of the products we used our own BMWs: from the very special 1M to the E92 M3, i3 electric cars and more. Before we jump in, here are some of the essential tools needed to clean and/or detail your BMW:

Clean Your BMW Wheels

In order to get a really clean wheel, the best way is to take off the wheel first. A big caveat is that you apply a cleaner to a cooled off wheel. So you can forget using these stuff to get the brake dust of your M3 wheels when you come off a 25 minute hot lap session. Many companies recommend spraying a Wheel Cleaner directly on the wheel and letting sit for up to 5 minutes then you just rinse it off with water.

We found that simply adding a little effort with a wheel cleaning brush yielded a much cleaner wheel and used far less cleaner gel in the process. 303 Tire Balm and Protectant

Exterior Car Wash On Your BMW

With the wheels out of the way, you can now focus on the exterior of your BMW. Of course, the order is interchangeable, so it’s entirely up to you where you would like to start first. By far the safest way to wash your car is to use two water buckets. Next, use a safe car wash soap. There are plenty of good options, but here are two of them that we’ve used in the past: Chemical Guys CWS_402_16 Mr. Pink Foaming Car Wash Soap and MEGUIAR’S Ultimate Wash & Wax. 

Now it’s time for some good wash pads and start to work them up and down the BMW’s exterior body. It’s important to start at the top so the dirt from the lower parts of the car are not dragged upwards. After your BMW is soaked in soap, grab a water hose and wash out the car.

When it comes to drying the car, be mindful of the type of towels you use. It is important to use high-quality microfiber towels when drying out your BMW. Microfiber waffle weave towels are best for drying the body of the car. But please do not use the same towels on wheels or tires. Always have a dedicated set just for those highly contaminated areas.

Of course, there are tons of options when it comes to microfiber towels, but here is a set we recently used on our BMW 1M: Chemical Guys MIC_506_12 Professional Grade Premium Microfiber Towels

BMW Cabin Cleaning

When it comes to leather care, there is no one size fits all solution. BMW carries many different types of leather, as well as several versatile non-leather options to fit different budgets and styles. So we won’t get into the full BMW leather cleaning guide here. You can always read our dedicated article. But here are a few products that we use: