How to Clean and Protect Your Snorkel and Roof Rack (June 2026)

Never, ever wash your car when the metal is hot enough to fry an egg. Park it in the shade or wait until the arvo. If the cleaner dries on the plastic, it'll leave streaks that are a nightmare to get off.

Quickly check that your snorkel head is tight and there aren't any gaping holes. You're going to be using water, and while snorkels are made for it, you don't want to be flooding the airbox because of a loose clamp.

Give the roof and the snorkel a good hose down with just water first. This gets the loose grit off so you aren't scratching the finish when you start scrubbing.

Spray your APC onto the snorkel head. Take your detailing brush and work it into the mesh. If you've been out west, you'll see red mud start oozing out. Let it dwell for 2 minutes but don't let it dry.

Use a wash mitt with plenty of soapy water. I usually use a bit of extra pressure here because snorkel plastic is pretty tough. If there's bird droppings, let the soap sit on them for a bit to soften them up.

Roof racks (especially platforms like Rhino-Racks) have channels that love to trap dirt. Use your pressure washer to blow the gunk out of these tracks. Start from the middle and push the dirt toward the edges.

This is the annoying bit. Use your long-reach brush to scrub the roof surface underneath the rack. A customer once brought in a Ranger where the leaves trapped under the rack had actually started rotting and stained the white paint. Don't let that be you.

Run your finger over the front of the snorkel and the leading edge of the rack. If it feels like sandpaper, you've got bonded contaminants (bugs and fallout). Use a clay bar and some soapy water as lube to slick it back down.

Rinse from the top down. Make sure you get all the soap out of the snorkel intake. I usually just give the intake a quick splash, don't stick the pressure washer nozzle right down the throat of it.

Use a big microfibre towel or even a leaf blower if you've got one. Water trapping in the rack bolts will lead to rust streaks down your doors later on.

Before adding any protection, wipe the snorkel and rack down with a 50/50 mix of Isopropyl Alcohol and water. This removes any leftover wax so your sealant actually sticks.

Apply your trim restorer to the snorkel. If it's the grainy black plastic, use a foam applicator. For the rack, if it's powder-coated, you can actually use a spray sealant like Meguiar's Ceramic Wax.

After 5-10 minutes, give everything a final wipe with a clean microfibre. This levels out the coating so you don't get high spots or greasy patches.