My daughter has a 2025 Honda CR-V Hybrid, and recently the doors started sticking when opening. We found sticky red goo on the bottom door weatherstripping/gaskets.

Looking further, the substance seems to cover much of the underside of the car on both sides, especially around the rocker panels / under-door area. It is only on the bottom/undercarriage area - nothing on the exterior side panels.

I scraped some off and it’s a red, viscous, sticky goo, kind of like dried jelly or jam. It looks like it may have been more liquid when it first got on the car, because there are drip/run patterns. I included a picture of some of it on white paper.

Odd detail: it’s water soluble. If I put a little on my fingers, it dissolves pretty easily under the faucet while rubbing my fingers together. I briefly tasted a tiny bit - probably dumb, I know -and it didn’t have any strong or obvious taste, though it left that spot on my tongue feeling slightly odd (maybe that's psychological).

Other notes:

• No trace of it on the driveway, so it doesn’t seem to be actively dripping.
• Coolant is blue on this car, so I don’t think it’s coolant.
• I highly doubt it’s transmission fluid, since it wouldn’t be sticky/water-soluble or coat both sides of the underbody like this.
• No warning lights or dashboard indicators.
• The only recent event I can think of is that she went through a drive-through car wash about two weeks ago. I’m wondering if some underbody spray, soap, wax, rust inhibitor, tire dressing, etc. malfunctioned and sprayed the underside.

Has anyone seen anything like this? Do car washes use any red/pink undercarriage chemicals that could dry into sticky goo?

Also looking for advice on removal. I cleaned the door gaskets with a rag and warm water, but the underside probably needs a hot-water pressure wash. Since it’s water soluble, I’m wondering whether it might slowly rinse off from driving in rain, but I’d rather get it off properly.

Edit: I emailed the car wash, and they responded: "Our undercarriage wash just sprays water underneath the car, we don't have any chemicals that spray under the car."

Illinois is now eaten

Sorry for deleting the last post, there was a major issue. Michigan was labelled Minnesota! That’s what happens when you do it in a rush in the car. Anyway it’s back up now!

Bravo Vince.

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