Take this with a grain of salt, because you can find people saying this about every car on the market. But, yes, the finish does seem very susceptible to swirls.
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Take this with a grain of salt, because you can find people saying this about every car on the market. But, yes, the finish does seem very susceptible to swirls.
GlennAlanBerry
Member
I don't think so. I think there are just a number of people who are extremely detail oriented, who are willing to spend a lot of extra time and effort washing and practically detailing their Model S on a regular basis, for a number of different reasons. I definitely keep my Model S very clean, since I know it gets a lot of attention, but I try not to be obsessive about it either. 
Glen is right. It's pickiness rather than paint quality.
I wash mine in a coin-op but just use the soap, rinse and spot-free rinse, then I hand wash the remaining dirt at home, even though it's technically illegal. Because I only use about a gallon of water and some detail spray, I'm hoping that if anyone catches me it won't be a problem.
Looking at Tesla Videos on their official site, the speaker of the video states that you can turn the car totally off to let it "free roll" in situations such as in car washes. I believe that makes it clear that Tesla knows that people will be taking it to the automatic car wash no matter what. As to the question below, I'm pretty sure that at the service center they have their own hand wash detailed specialist. I saw that in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Atlanta.
We have a local car wash that does a great job. But they put the car in and the wheels me it through. I assume the car is ur in neutral for this. Is that not possible with the model s?
Francis Lau
P-1456
Tacket
Member
Oh man, my black 60 gets swirl marks just looking at it! If I had had the gumption, I would have taken the car straight from delivery to get paint corrected and opti coated. Maybe next year. At least the sun only shines a couple hours a year here in Seattle. Or maybe my obsessiveness with the car will wear out over time.
BTW - I'm doing the wash "by the book" and am still getting the aforementioned swirls.
BTW - I'm doing the wash "by the book" and am still getting the aforementioned swirls.
Tacket
Member
I'm curious what they do, too. When I had it in for tire rotation, they offered to wash it, but I'd had it detailed a couple of weeks before, so I declined (plus that saved me time that I needed).
Anyway, car maintenance "washes" I've had in the past at other dealers were never impressive and sometimes left noticeable swirls. And I rarely notice things like that! So I'm kinda nervous about having a car maintenance place wash the car. ;-) Not that the Tesla Service Center is really like a regular dealer or indie place, but still, their business is fixing/maintenance, not washing.
I've decided not to use the traditional car washes (potential swirls and the tracks potentially rashing the 21's) or the laser-guided touchless washes (I've found the pressure coming out of these can be REALLY hard and at times can hit nearly perpendicular to the car). I hand wash 9 months out of the year (takes 15 minutes all-in, arguably less time than going somewhere) and use self-serve wands in winter so I can control the water pressure. I have no worries whatsoever about the battery in any type of wash though.
Undercarriage wash is, unfortunately, the only part of car washing which you absolutely *have* to do, in order to get rid of road salt.
I'm not sure how strong a blast is OK, but the touchless washes I've found with undercarriage wash don't seem to be terribly high pressure.
I've hand washed my car, and this doesn't take too long and looks the best of all the options.
I've run my car through automated touchless washes in between hand washing and quality waxing. It gets the crap off and hasn't in any way affected the paint or caused swirls. Was particularly nice when it warmed up enough to wash the car but not warm enough for me to want to do it outside. I even did 2 undercarriage washes out of about 6 automated washes that I've done and nothing bad to report during any of it. I try to let the undercarriage wash hit the front mostly and then the back with a quick move through the midsection to get off the crud. To get in, I have a profile set for "Carwash" to lower the mirrors so I can see the lines and those narrowish metal brackets that I don't want to hit. This allows me to get centered really well and avoid rashing on anything. When I get out, I hit my driver profile, I drive home briskly, and then I dry off any remaining drops. I believe in the manual it talks about powerwashing being okay and handwashing being okay. I don't see how a touchless pressure washing at a carwash would be extremely harmful in between a good wash and a good wax.
I've also done hand carwash with a track at the local carwash place, but I ride in the car all the way through because the people can't figure out how to keep in in neutral (it is fairly complicated). No road rash to report form doing that. But again, I think my own hand wash is the best looking.
I've run my car through automated touchless washes in between hand washing and quality waxing. It gets the crap off and hasn't in any way affected the paint or caused swirls. Was particularly nice when it warmed up enough to wash the car but not warm enough for me to want to do it outside. I even did 2 undercarriage washes out of about 6 automated washes that I've done and nothing bad to report during any of it. I try to let the undercarriage wash hit the front mostly and then the back with a quick move through the midsection to get off the crud. To get in, I have a profile set for "Carwash" to lower the mirrors so I can see the lines and those narrowish metal brackets that I don't want to hit. This allows me to get centered really well and avoid rashing on anything. When I get out, I hit my driver profile, I drive home briskly, and then I dry off any remaining drops. I believe in the manual it talks about powerwashing being okay and handwashing being okay. I don't see how a touchless pressure washing at a carwash would be extremely harmful in between a good wash and a good wax.
I've also done hand carwash with a track at the local carwash place, but I ride in the car all the way through because the people can't figure out how to keep in in neutral (it is fairly complicated). No road rash to report form doing that. But again, I think my own hand wash is the best looking.
The reason why I was wondering wasn't other people's comments, but the warning in the Owner's Manual:
If washing in an automatic car wash, use “Touchless” car washes only. These car washes must have no parts, such as brushes, that can touch Model S. Using any other type of car wash could cause damage that is not covered by the warranty.
I just don't remember ever seeing a warning like this in an owner's manual before. Out of curiosity I looked at the Mercedes S Class manual and it just says:
You can wash the vehicle in an automatic car wash from the very start.
The BMW 7 series manual says:
- Give preference to cloth car washes or thosethat use soft brushes in order to avoid paintdamage.
I was just wondering whether there was a special reason for the stricter Model S warning, but it doesn't sound like it.
