Do you let your Tesla service center wash your car?

[pgiralt]

I do every time. In fact, my son asked me recently when I needed to get something fixed on the car because it was time for a car wash.

 

[freeewilly]

wow, I love my car and I wash all my cars myself most of the time, but I never thought about NOT letting service center to wash the car.
To all the owner say NO to SC, how do you wash your MS?

 

[CatB]

how do you wash your MS?

Junkman's two-bucket wash (which I learned about from teslamotors forum), or my favorite detailer (thanks artsci!) makes a house call

Google

 

[mknox]

Tesla always hand washes my car when it's in, and they detail the interior too. In the winter, they remove all my rubber floor mats, clean them and vacuum the whole car out. One time, they even vacuumed the Tesla logo into my trunk carpet:

 

[tstafford]

Anyone who wants to clean my car for me for free is welcomed to do so.

 

[Gr8pursuit]

@clx, If your going to the Costa Mesa SC, tell them to clean the wheels/tires and windows only, IMO.

 

[BertL]

Once I take delivery, no machine or other person washes or details my rides except me. I can only remember three exceptions in the past 15+ years, including once when I forgot to tell the Lexus dealership to not wash it, and when driving both of my rides across country due to relocation and couldn't live with a filthy ride any more while waiting to close on my new home so I could do it myself.

As I've done with each of my new rides the past many years, after bringing my S90D home this past Monday, I spent the better part of Tuesday and Wednesday doing my own initial detail regime on my new MS... I have a couple more steps to do once products I ran out of arrive next week. For anyone that cares, there is more what I did to my MS on this page of my personal website under the "examples" tab.

 

[TaoJones]

Absolutely not. No paint, no glass. This ensures that I get a car back with copious quantities of fingerprints, but that's better than swirls and streaks.

I did ask once for glass cleaning and the result was surprisingly poor. Asked for vacuuming once and that turned out okay.

Didn't occur to me to ask them to clean the rims. Had the rims dipped to match body color so it's not as much of a necessity to constantly clean the rims. 303 Aerospace cleaner (I use that for black plastic and rubber) works well for the rims and tires. Seems to keep the rims cleaner longer.

It's also a good idea to give your car as rigorous an inspection during the checkout process as they give it during the checkin process. Things happen. The busier these service centers get, the more things will happen, despite everyone's best intentions day in and day out.

I prefer to avoid service centers of any kind - sadly, this car has been in pretty much monthly for one thing or another. Hey, you pays yer money and you takes yer chances. At least the vast majority of the people are nice, which is saying something, given the wall to wall workload that these folks face.

 

[freeewilly]

I was at Buena Park SC today, they asked me twice if I want my MS washed. I said yes twice. I would feel weird if I didn't read this treat first, because no other car dealer will ask, they will just wash my car automatically.

 

[MikeBur]

I always wash my car BEFORE taking it in for work. My wife thinks I'm nuts, though I find the techs appreciate working on a clean car more and it comes back with minimal fingerprints, etc.

 

[omarsultan]

I always wash my car BEFORE taking it in for work. My wife thinks I'm nuts, though I find the techs appreciate working on a clean car more and it comes back with minimal fingerprints, etc.

I am also of this mindset for all my cars and will wash the Tesla before taking it in if I have time. I used to have a standing no-wash order at Rocklin, but now its moot, with the drought restrictions, they no longer do car washes.

 

[clx]

Thanks everyone for chiming in! Some updates - I've done the service this week in Costa Mesa SC, went in and left in a hurry so I didn't ask how they wash their cars. On my way in though, I saw 2 red tents next to the service building and there are people there washing cars, so it looks like they do wash the cars by hand, no machine wash. When I got the car back, it's reasonably clean (some dirts still left on the gaps of the wheels), but overall not bad. Didn't had a chance to check for swirls yet. Even though I tried being as careful as I can be, I guess I've already left a few light swirls on the car when I washed it a couple times before. Will check soon during the day see if the swirls get any worse after SC's wash.

 

[Khatsalano]

Usually, my detailer works on my car. But when it's in for service, Tesla does a great job washing it and no swirl marks. They use a touchless type of tool to wash it.

K

 

[TKEbobby]

I was told they used a "water free" wash. Spray bottle of detailing wax and a rag. As a result I acquired horrible swirls and deep scratches. I have an earlier S with black paint. The plaint job is depressingly more durable and resistant to scratches today than in the earlier models. I had my tesla Opti-coated. It first needed a FULL paint restoration before application after owning the car for less than 6 months.

To answer you question, No they do not wash my car.

 

[Lex]

Well lesson learned here. I just wish they'd ask before assuming I'd be fine with their wash job, which for some I'm sure is more than fine, but for me it literally made me feel ill.

I have paint, interior and exterior glass treatments that I spent hours to apply and take great care to preserve. I enjoy taking care of my most treasured possession and dear robotic friend.

Today my buddy is covered with microfibres from a crappy or damaged cloth, there is damage to my paint coating (hopefully only the coating), and there are little scratches on the 17" screen.

But it's all "clean" to somebody. Just not me.

 

[tomp]

I definitely do. I'm sure it's not up to the standards of some folks here, but it's better than I would do.