Clairemont Mesa Car Wash

This place, based on my 2 experiences, are hit or miss. I will write my experience on the ‘hit’ and give them the benefit of the doubt.
Firstly, as mentioned, don’t use a card. I got quarters from my local bank. My workflow is as follows:
–First $ 3 cycle–
1.) Use the high pressure hose to rinse off hard dirt /​dust from car.
2.) Quickly switch to foaming brush to scrub car. Bonus: If you have another person, they can use the tire scrubber first, then switch to foam while they scrub.
–Second $ 3 cycle–
3.) High pressure hose to rinse off all the foam. If still time and want wax, switch to wax and see next cycle
–Optional 3^rd $ 3 cycle–
4.) after applying wax, high pressure hose it all off again
Bring your own towels or you can buy them there for $ 2 a pop.
For about $ 10 I got my entire car washed and interior vacuumed. Not bad.

UPDATE: still have NOT heard back from them… I assume I won’t be getting money back. Tip: do NOT USE CARD, USE QUARTERS ONLY.
Used credit card for the high pressure rinse and it should’ve only been $ 3 but I was charged $ 10. Please credit back to my account and I’ll update this review for more stars. Thanks.

This is the worst experience I have ever had with a car wash. The credit card machine continues to charge you and it’s trying to charge me over $ 500 for the car wash because the stop button does not work.
If you want to drain your bank account for some soapy water, come here!

TERRIBLE…
NEVER EVER wash your car with a credit card.
The change machine in the middle didn’t work at all, so I had to use my credit card. It costed $ 2 on the display but I was charged $ 10.
There was no info to contact and no one around there.
;/​

I got charged $ 10 according to my bank. On the display it said $ 200. The washer didn’t start. May I refund my money please? It was on the first bay from the left. There are no contact numbers if there is any problems. Seems fishy.
Update: left the bay (first one from the left) @ 5:04 pm. You can check your cameras. I didn’t wash my truck because the sprays weren’t working, but my card was charged…

If you are familiar with DIY car washes, this is a pretty standard place, with a high pressure hose, and separate brush, plus the dial that allows you to switch the feed (pre rinse, soap, rinse, wax, etc).
It costs $ 3.00 to start the clock and extra quarters buy you 15 second slots of time. My particular bay didn’t beep or give any indication that time was running out, so I had to pay extra attention to the countdown.
Overall it worked as expected, and if the machine beeped when time was running out, I’d give another star.

Simple, and easy self service car wash. A little more expensive than what I’ve seen before, but definitely not breaking the bank. There are only 3 car ports, so people will be waiting behind you if you choose to go during a busy time of the day. Also, the vacuum area is disgusting and littered with random objects and motor oil. On a positive note, I’m told it’s open ²⁴⁄₇. Can’t beat that, especially not when I feel like washing my car at 3 a.m.

Good car wash, the owner needs to replace vacuum hose. It’s pretty beat up. I’ll be coming back, good location and they accept cash instead of coins or tokens, that’s convenient.

Best car wash ever!!! The owner has made some excellent improvements to the facilities– the vacuuming station is awesome! It’s so affordable and my car looks great. I recommend this place to everyone!

This place is amazing! It was getting a little run down looking but in the last year they have revamped all the machines, and vacuums, put in vending machines, and I think they even painted. Last time I was there, while I was in the bay washing my car, a trash can was knocked over, trash started to scatter around, but by the time I pulled out and finished vacuuming an employee had come and cleaned the whole area up. The guy was really nice, and even helped an old guy maneuver his truck into one of the bays. So even though it’s a self service wash they obviously are out there all the time taking care of the place and most importantly to me, they are all about their customers.

I’ve missed washing my own car since I’ve moved to California. This is a good place to do it and it’s open ²⁴⁄₇ so I go at night when nobody is there.
I recommend bringing your own sponge because the brushes they have are worn out.
It’s very hard to find so just pull into the strip mall and go behind the Cotixian Mexican Food Restaurant.
It accepts credit cards, so don’t worry about quarters if you have a card on you.

A bit hard to find, it’s in the back corner of the shopping complex — but great! There are not enough coin operated /​self service car washes in San Diego, and I would NEVER take my car through an automated wash. The wash itself takes credit cards and I spent about $ 3 for the entire wash being thorough. My only complaint is the soap setting of the main washer gun isn’t sudsy enough, but maybe my stall was just low on soap. The vacuum is great too although the cord is a little short, even on my midsize sedan, to reach all the way around the car.

Lemme tell you this place is awesome! Mainly because they are open so late so no matter what time you wanna go bathe your beast it’s open and reasy. I love all the different choices there and the vacuum and air freshener combo stations are dope as well. i give this place 5 starts for sure no complaints

This place is perfect. I can even fit my massive Sprinter van in. The credit machine worked well. It has an auto stop after 7 minutes (in case I forget to turn it off).

People when you come here please move with a sense of urgency. Hanging out at the carwash is not my ideal of a great time!
So I am being very generous with the 2 stars.
There are only 3 bays and 1 of them was «out of service.» The other 2 bays had 2 slow people — seriously think they were having a reverse-​race as to who could take the longest to wash their 8 year old car. In this corner — a guy in his mid-​50s, a bucket, and his mats removed so he could wash them… in the other corner a typical mid-​40s «soccer-​Mom» sans the «hotness» usually found in La Jolla or the «trashy-​hot» look found in Clairmont Mesa. Of course they finish at about the same time — having replenished the coin-​machine 3 times! If you moved with any urgency you could have washed your car with only 1 to 1 ½ times.
The place takes coins/​dollars or beware — TOKENS… do not make the mistake I made. 1 machine gives you quarters — the other tokens. Sigh… guess which one I did… the signs look the exact same (although I should have paid closer attn). The machines that sell the goodies to dry/​Armor-​All/​etc. do NOT take tokens. So I donated my token to the guy waiting in line behind me. Figured $ 1 — but the odds of me returning in the near future is slim — unless it is as some odd hour when there aren’t 2 slow-a$$es washing their cars. :)
Tip — you do NOT need to run the time down to 0 to add coins — in fact by doing so you are required to spend the $ 1.50 to load it up… vs depositing a quarter to add another 30 seconds or so.

No frills. It’s not easy to spot, but I think this is the only self serve place in the area. They recently updated the washing equipment (nozzles and brushes) so the quality is more consistent now. Most of the time the vacuums and extras are broken to some extent, so that knocks the stars down. I really just go to this place for the wash anyhow.
Also it can get a little sketchy in that back corner of the complex.

It was ok. First, it’s tucked way in the back corner of a large shopping lot. It was pretty hard to spot. It was night time also and the lighting wasn’t very good — pretty dim. I went there primarily to use their coin operated vacuum but it was pretty weak and struggled to pick up all the debris inside my car.
Seems like the equipment is pretty old and needs some upkeep. On the plus side, it’s open 24 hours and was a 10 min drive from my place, which was exactly what I needed. When it’s your only option, it’s not so bad.

Seriously? Very tiny and crammed and only one vacuum. Not worth the time it takes to wait for something to open up.

DO NOT USE YOUR CREDIT CARD HERE !!!
If you swipe your card, they charge $ 7 dollars. The normal rate when you use bill or coins is $ 2 for 4 minutes. I ran out of coins so I used my credit card. When the timer was approaching 4 minutes, the screen told me to switch the knob to «OFF» if I wanted to stop. I did, and I was charged for 7 dollars.
Other than that, the facility is okay. It’s nice to wash your car under the shade.
Tip:
Bring your own bucket (s) and water with soap. I use couple of gallon water bottles to fill hot water from home, mixed with quality car washing soap. Use the first $ 2 to rinse your car completely. Wash the car thoroughly with enough soup and without being rushed. Finally use another $ 2 to rinse off.

good little spot. glad they are here! It’s painless and no one’s there to bother you! I like the convenience of this place!
bring cash!!! or they do accept credit cards but sometimes the machines are a little hard to read them. So bring extra cards too!!!