Before I screw up my Model 3 in the car wash...

[Fernand]

@MikeyC you sound like a friend we could all use. And I can certainly understand your reasoning on the wash. If we had a good touch-less place around here (there's a Tommy 363 miles away) I'd probably use it on occasion, though I like the way the ((ONR+W) + OptiSeal) leaves a slick deposit.

I drove into a car wash in Nevada, looked around, and said "ten bucks and all you need to do is spray rinse it from a hose".

The COVID joke doesn't apply if you don't let 'em do the interior. My dear wife just had COVID, she wasn't hospitalized, but almost. Her Oxygen Saturation was dipping low enough that she didn't tell me - so I wouldn't panic. Anybody who says it's "just a flu" is mistaken. Nasty nasty sickness.
.

 

[Michael Knight]

I've always hand washed on the first wash and applied my own wax, then use the carwash after that. The thinking being, the slipperier wax will prevent some scratches. But I took my 2015 Challenger SRT through there probably 25 times and that car was black. I examined it after the first wash and before I traded it with ~25 car washes under its belt, in sunlight, and never saw any micro scratches. Now the key question here is: is the Model 3's paint weaker than other cars? If you're telling me I'll get micro scratches on the Model 3 where I wouldn't on most other cars, I may have to rethink things as I don't know the answer to that question. Of course, I've heard about the Model 3 having weak paint but don't know whether that is FUD or not.

Mike

I have had my model 3 for about a year and a half. I use the wash co drive thru wash atleast once a week and do a thorough hand wash and wax a couple times a year. I have never had an issue with swirls or fine clearcoat scratches. That being said, they really need to step up the paint quality on these cars. I can only speak about the model 3, but their paint is subpar at best. My car is absolutely covered in tiny paint chips on the front bumper, hood and rocker panels. I have had good luck hiding this with some of the products from chemical guys, but if I had realized this I before purchasing the car I would have chosen either white or red instead of blue as the two prior colors are said to be a multi coat paint. I got it brand new and put 50 something thousand miles on it so far, and the condition of the bumper and hood are worse than that of a hyundai sonata that was purchased new and did the same commute for 283k miles. I really do love the car, I just think they need to improve their painting process.

Side note, I found this out a little too late to save my paint but I have been told by a few classic car owners and a bunch of body shop guys that the best thing to do is immediately take the car to your body shop upon delivery and have them apply about 2 mm of clear over the factory paint. The additional clear will make the color appear deeper and will drastically reduce damage to the paint color and also give a surface that can be polished and buffed many times to remove swirls or imperfections.

 

[MikeyC]

I've now used the Tommy Wash 6 times in total and so far, not a single scratch or swirl mark to be found. And believe me, I've looked. With magnification. Without. In sunlight. With LED flashlights. The car wash is simply not leaving swirl marks of any kind anywhere on the car. With that said, I am getting some rock chips and like Michael said, I'm not impressed with the paint quality. It's smooth and actually has less orange peel than many manufacturers; it's just too thin (and soft)!

Mike

 

[Altes]

I've had my Model 3 for 5 days and it's almost time for its first wash. With my prior three vehicles, I've always used the same carwash: it's a "Tommy Wash" with the conveyor belt. Always done a superb job and I've never gotten as much as a micro-scratch from it. My prior car was a Chevy Bolt so I'm not so much worried about the EV aspect, but I want to make sure I have the routine down for the Model 3. I've read a bunch of threads about putting the car in "roll" mode and not using neutral, turning HVAC and wipers off, folding mirrors, but I want to make sure I have the most recent info.

My plan was to:

(1) Fold mirrors
(2) Turn HVAC off
(3) Turn wipers off
(4) Put car in neutral on the down-slope leading into the wash and enter that way (I've practiced getting into N)
(5) Roll in N onto the conveyor (it's a conveyor for all 4 wheels). When the front wheels hit the conveyor, it'll already be in N.
(6) At the end when the light says "GO", lightly touch the brake and shift to D and lightly touch accelerator to exit.

It's mostly that last step that worries me. Attendants tend to freak out when they see brake lights on the line. Is there a better way to go back into D from N?

Thanks,
Mike

No.

 

[MG535]

I've now used the Tommy Wash 6 times in total and so far, not a single scratch or swirl mark to be found. And believe me, I've looked. With magnification. Without. In sunlight. With LED flashlights. The car wash is simply not leaving swirl marks of any kind anywhere on the car. With that said, I am getting some rock chips and like Michael said, I'm not impressed with the paint quality. It's smooth and actually has less orange peel than many manufacturers; it's just too thin (and soft)!

Mike

Good to hear. Btw what is “Tommy”? Is that the brand of the machinery/equipment? How would one tell from outside?

Or is it a chain/franchise of “Tommy” branded car washes?

 

[MikeyC]

Good to hear. Btw what is “Tommy”? Is that the brand of the machinery/equipment? How would one tell from outside?

Or is it a chain/franchise of “Tommy” branded car washes?

Tommy Wash is the brand of the equipment. They're top notch. I don't think I'd be taking mine to a car wash if we didn't have that brand here.

Mike

 

[bo3bdar]

the dust is annoying as hell....but what kills me are the yellow droplets (is it from a certain tree?) that pummel the hood and roof

The crazy thing here is that those yellow droplets are hummingbird poop. I kid you not.

https://www.reddit.com/r/hummingbirds/comments/9qu70f

 

[bo3bdar]

You all seem to prefer to keep your cars in very good shape. I'm a bit, uh, lazier than you, although I don't want my car to be thrashed by brushes or poorly maintained brushless. That's tempered by my not wanting the car to look like hell, and also leave on stuff like bird doo or stuff that might etch.

So, just curious if you all have a take on my car wash of choice- the high pressure manual washes, where you put in quarters/slide-a-card and get 5 minutes of rinsing, wash, rinse spray. The only part I scrape with their dirty foam brush are the rocker panels that seem to always be muddy. Only takes me maybe 10 minutes and comes out good enough for me.

Bad idea?

 

[Shelburne]

You all seem to prefer to keep your cars in very good shape. I'm a bit, uh, lazier than you, although I don't want my car to be thrashed by brushes or poorly maintained brushless. That's tempered by my not wanting the car to look like hell, and also leave on stuff like bird doo or stuff that might etch.

So, just curious if you all have a take on my car wash of choice- the high pressure manual washes, where you put in quarters/slide-a-card and get 5 minutes of rinsing, wash, rinse spray. The only part I scrape with their dirty foam brush are the rocker panels that seem to always be muddy. Only takes me maybe 10 minutes and comes out good enough for me.

Bad idea?

I used a high pressure manual car wash a few (maybe 4) times until I found a nearby touches car wash. I was careful NEVER to use the nozzle at full pressure and NEVER to get it too close to the car. As a result I had no problem with the high pressure nozzle doing any damage to the paint job. But I much prefer just sitting in the car and letting the machinery do the work

 

[MG535]

Tommy Wash is the brand of the equipment. They're top notch. I don't think I'd be taking mine to a car wash if we didn't have that brand here.

Mike

Thanks. How does one tell whether a car wash is using Tommy equipment?

 

[MikeyC]

Thanks. How does one tell whether a car wash is using Tommy equipment?

I do it by look. The sites mostly all look the same:

Mike

 

[JackLuminous]

The good thing about ONR is that future washes go much faster after a really good clean. I probably spent an hour on my first wash after the winter, and the next one only took 20-25 mins.

I also put some in a spray bottle and hit it with that first, and then come behind with the Big red sponge.

What do you do about the wheels?

 

[Fernand]

The water situation in California is going to make things harder. I'm afraid of the spinning monsters. It only takes one bad pass to do some ugly damage. I found a touchless car wash in El Cerrito that looks funky, like they're planning to scrap it for steel, but for $12 it actually does a decent spray-washing. The machine's drier stage sucks but if you park the car on the side and spray on a little "detailing spray" (more concentrated ONRW in distilled water), and final-dry it with a waffle-weave microfiber towel and some OptiSeal, it's OK.

And in Palo Alto there's a hand-washing place on El Camino for $16. Bunch of energetic brown-skinned people with towels and such. If you pay more you can elicit all sorts of makeovers and acrobatics. But the basic wash was fine.

In light of the black paint issues, there should be some products that add significant amounts of black pigment for us black cars matter people. The black waxes and such that I've tried are much too dilute.
.

 

[Flybyglass]

I used to use a car wash that was hand wash on a conveyor track with rails (like many car washes). They always had someone in the seat while on the track. This was also nesecary for other cars like Acura. My solution for track rim scuffing (since Tesla outfits with 235's that seem to be the width of the rims) was to up my tires to 245/40/19. The extra 5mm per side along with the rim guard of the tire protected against rim rash. An added benefit was about 200# extra load capability per tire reducing pothole risk). The car wash I use now uses a "Belt" system and the whole car rides on a belt so no rim rash. They are also are hand wash. Now we have "Car wash mode" and it gives you the option to be in neutral or park depending on car wash needs. (2021.24.4)

 

[Henryr01]

My last few DD's (daily driver) have been an Audi S5, Corvette C6 convertible, Audi A7. Waiting now on delivery of a 2021 M3LR.
I have run them ALL through automatic car washes. It's a car, period. I would much rather spend 45 min driving it than 45 min washing it.
It's going to get chips, road rash, swirl marks and door dings. The sooner you accept that, the faster you'll start enjoying the car.

If you are worried about chips on the hood, in addition to what was already mentioned about getting another layer of clear coat, I would recommend a clear 3M type wrap for the front cap. However, from a pure economics stand point, you can either pay the $700+ for a front cap wrap now or just wait till you can't stand the look anymore and pay $700+ to repaint the front cap. Trust me, when you go to trade it in, no one is going to say "Ew, you have lot of swirl marks!"

I truly hope the Tesla paint process isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be.

 

[alexgr]

My last few DD's (daily driver) have been an Audi S5, Corvette C6 convertible, Audi A7. Waiting now on delivery of a 2021 M3LR.
I have run them ALL through automatic car washes. It's a car, period. I would much rather spend 45 min driving it than 45 min washing it.
It's going to get chips, road rash, swirl marks and door dings. The sooner you accept that, the faster you'll start enjoying the car.

If you are worried about chips on the hood, in addition to what was already mentioned about getting another layer of clear coat, I would recommend a clear 3M type wrap for the front cap. However, from a pure economics stand point, you can either pay the $700+ for a front cap wrap now or just wait till you can't stand the look anymore and pay $700+ to repaint the front cap. Trust me, when you go to trade it in, no one is going to say "Ew, you have lot of swirl marks!"

I truly hope the Tesla paint process isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be.

We'll be looking forward for your future reports.
By far, Honda is the winner in the worst paint category, but Tesla still does a mediocre paint job.
Washing and detailing the car is like a hobby to me. No automatic car wash (and they can easily cost $20) can clean the car as I can clean it in 30 minutes with proper tools.

 

[TBrownTX]

We'll be looking forward for your future reports.
By far, Honda is the winner in the worst paint category, but Tesla still does a mediocre paint job.
Washing and detailing the car is like a hobby to me. No automatic car wash (and they can easily cost $20) can clean the car as I can clean it in 30 minutes with proper tools.

This. And many times its faster, too!

Tim

 

[Larry in TN]

Did anyone answer the question about why you'd turn off the AC before going through the car wash? If so, I missed the answer.

 

[rxlawdude]

And in Palo Alto there's a hand-washing place on El Camino for $16. Bunch of energetic brown-skinned people with towels and such. If you pay more you can elicit all sorts of makeovers and acrobatics. But the basic wash was fine.

I guess the color of the workers' skin is important to you enough to mention. SMH.

 

[Fernand]

And to you - whatever SMH means.