Chemical Guys Bug and Tar Heavy Duty Car Wash (CWS104)

Both. At standard wash dilution it functions as a 2-bucket shampoo with bug and tar lifting in the same pass. At concentrate or pre-spray strength it functions as a dedicated decontamination step before clay or rinseless work. Community on r/AutoDetailing uses it both ways.

Yes, at strong pre-wash strength. The alkaline builder (pH ≤ 11.4) and surfactant package are documented by community on r/AutoDetailing and Autogeek to lift wax — that is intentional behavior for a pre-decontamination prep wash. If a panel is freshly waxed and you want to keep the wax, dilute closer to standard wash strength and skip the dedicated pre-spray. Rewax after use is the documented community workflow at concentrate strength.

Different chemistry, different use case. Stoner Tarminator is a DANGER-signal-word petroleum-distillate aerosol that clears baked-on tar faster on a single vertical-surface burst — at the cost of suspected carcinogen and reproductive toxin Cat 2 classifications, high VOC, and an outdoor-use requirement. CWS104 carries only WARNING-level eye and skin irritation and no inhalation classification at concentrate. It is slower on hardened tar but integrates into a normal wash and adds no inhalation risk.

The 2026-01-23 SDS Version 5 explicitly lists Prop 65 chemicals in §2.2 and §15. This is a change from earlier Chemical Guys SDSs, which often carried explicit Prop 65 negative statements. The Rainforest API flag corroborates the SDS — this is not a label-versus-data divergence on this product. The deduction applied to the health score follows the rubric's prop65_warning rule.

SDS §9 does not state a numerical VOC. The only disclosed volatile organic is 2-butoxyethanol at 1–<5% of the concentrate; at typical product density and that concentration the absolute VOC is well below the 250 g/L high_voc threshold. The SB258 ingredient disclosure document is on file with the SDS source archive but not parsed here.