Newark Self Serve Car Wash

Never use your your credit card here. They turn 2.50 $ transaction into 12.50 $, and nobody answers the phone number posted there. Not going there ever again.

A self-​service car wash is a nice convenience and rare find. When all works well I’ve had a good experience washing my car. Occasionally the credit card reader malfunctions and I have to come back another time..

This place is dirty and not well maintained. Facilities are old and about to retire. Besides, I used their coin exchanger and got a fake coin. There seems to be only three lots working, and I drove into the middle one with a lot of mud which the previous customers left on the ground. I drove out with my pants and shoes muddy, and my car remains dirty. Not a happy experience.

First of all I’m grateful this place exists, it’s nearly impossible to find self service car washes around here. That said here is the good and bad.
Bad: Vacuum second from the right sucks. In a bad way, as in it doesn’t suck at all. Total waste of money, please fix this.
Good: Great water pressure, hot/​warm water, plenty of soap, and it seemed like a great bargain as far as how much time you got per quarter. A small car can be washed, foam brushed and rinsed for $ 3 – 5.
In short Newark Self Wash, please do some maintenance on your vacuums and in the words of Joe Dirt, keep on keep’n on.

no complaints same as all the other coin op car washes. the machine I used glitched and I got my wash for 1.75. so yay to that.

I had a dusty post-​Burning Man RV to wash and found this wash near the RV’s rental center, Cruise America. As others mentioned, there is a difference in the water pressure between the stalls. The leftmost stall was a little light and the rightmost stall (the outdoor RV stall) was amazing. Even if I were driving a car, I would highly recommend the rightmost RV stall. I had no problems paying with a credit card and all of the foam options worked. There are lots of bolts and broken bits in the rightmost dirt lot near the train tracks but I don’t think most people would venture over to this area. I never encountered the grumpy owner that others have mentioned. It was $ 2.50 for 4 minutes. I was in and out of the wash in 15 minutes.
If you need to quickly wash off your rental vehicle, this is a hassle-​free, economical option.

I’m not sure what the complains are about, but I went tonight for the first time and I think the place is fine. For $ 2.50 you can work really fast and get your car wet, soaped and rinsed. I used the second bay from the left as you drive onto the lot. The water pressure is a little lower that other places that I’ve used but I like that because it’s easier to wash the soap away rather than just blasting it off without actually rinsing.
Simple wash for a compact car:
Set to Rinse — Wet your car. (0.5 minutes)
Set to Foam Brush — Run the brush all over your car (1.5 minutes)
Set to Rinse — Rinse your car (2 minutes)

DO NOT waste your time or money at this dump! The kiosk WILL NOT take your change and the soap dispenser DOESNT work… NEVER AGAIN will I ever go this dirty poor excuse for a car wash and neither should you!

I’ve been washing my car here for the last 10 years but today was my last day. Twice I have enountered the rude caretaker. I usually bring a bucket with me to add water in it and mix it with the soap from their soap brush and use sponge to clean my rims. He said I wasn’t allowed to do that anymore because I was «taking money away from their business». The guy is very rude and seems angry all the time. Way to treat your customers dude. You just lost a loyal patron. Oh, if the owner reads this, he’s the guy who drives the Volkswagen.

Really run down. There was a bunch of bolts and industrial staples in the wash area. Spot free rinse doesn’t work. I paid 5 bucks to have a spotted car and possibly get something stuck in my tire… will drive farther to another, better maintained, wash. I do NOT recommend this wash. I was hoping this place would be better cuz it’s tell closest one to my house. :(

Place looks a little old but equipment works fine. The credit card reader was not working but I had qtrs (better cause identity theft is easy since it’s in the open all day) I washed my car and vacuumed it here. Thx

I usually go wash my car in milpitas but this place is closer. So yes they have a card reader so u can use «plastic» but be aware of glitches or identity theft. $ 2.50 turned into $ 25.00 but they refund it after 2 days. Weird. The setting is by the train tracks so keep an eye on your kids. My foot was muddy from a pothole when vacuuming overall an expensive & unpleasant experience.

I come here once a week for all my cars. The equipment works and they take Credit/​Debit cards.

This place SUCKS now.
When I started coming here in 09, it was well maintained and everything seemed to be in working order, but after a few years and especially the last few months this place has gone to shit.
The foam brush doesn’t seem to work in any of the 3 out of 4 stalls I tried on different visits. Last night in the 3^rd stall was the worst, since the brush didnt work at all, at the end (where the hose and brush connect, was spewing out soap all over my car and myself.
The water pressure goes from on to barely a sprinkle in one of the stalls.
If you stay parked longer than 20 seconds after your time is up, expect some water, soap and tire cleaner to come raining down on your car from above.(I’ve gotten into the habit of leaving when I’m down to my last 30 seconds at this point).
So yea, a major ripoff.
Does anyone know of another self serve car wash in the area? I have a convertible and cant exactly drive it through the gas station car washes.

This place is great for those who do not own a hose or for those want a quick wash for their car.
$ 2.50 for 4 minutes and $ 1.00 for each additional minute.
FYI, the «PRE-​RINSE» option is totally useless… no pressure in the water hose at all! Use FOAM RINSE for wetting your car before you start washing, then the FOAM BRUSH option, and finally the SPOT FREE RINSE! No drying necessary! I’m a happy camper.

This place is really beat up, but I guess at the end of the day the primary goal of washing your car does get accomplished. I’m not coming back unless this really is the only self-​serve car wash around.
The foam brush I used had some bad leaks in the fittings, so the soap leaked (read: constantly poured) all over my hands and everything else. There wasn’t even any foam at all, just a sticky pink liquid that sort of made bubbles; I’m not even convinced it was pumping any water.
Edit: changed from two stars to one star; you really don’t want to go here.

The draw for me here was not to have to deal with stocking up on coins and singles to bring with me to wash my car, but just slide a credit card. But I could not get it to accept any credit cards (I tried multiple cards, oriented both ways, in three of the four stalls before dejectedly giving up and driving off). I have called to report the issue — let’s see if they address it.

Yeaaaaaahhhhhhhh a self service car wash that let’s you pay with plastic?! SIGN ME UP!
Considering that it was going to rain all week in less than 2 days, I brought my car in to have it rinsed off. I’m too cheap to keep on adding on time when it was going to rain for 5 days on end — but with one quick swipe, I had four minutes of pure unadulterated bliss to spray the heck out of my car. In fact I got away with using the soap for about one minute AND a brush to scrub a wee bit. I’d probably grab two folks to do a quick job, one to rinse, one to scrub — that way you can maximize your $ 2.50!
It’s not TOO busy but not lacking in customers. There are a few guys in the back in the vacuuming area, «detailing» but what self-​service place doesn’t have folks like that?
Do note that the vacuums are coin operated — no plastic accepted.
Sadly — not AMEX friendly, VISA/​MC only.

The place has been cleaned up and renovated. New machines allow us to use credit cards or bills instead of just quarters. The soap is obviously there– (I’ve used self serve car washes that say they are adding soap but no obvious soap is present.) My only complaint is that they high pressure could a bit more «High» but over all a good clean.