Door Panel Damage in Automatic Car Wash?

[dartman59]

Hi there folks. 2022 Model 3. Don’t tell anyone, but I run it through the automatic car wash from time to time. About a month ago, I was in the car wash, and when the vertical-shaft spinning fabric fingers went down the sides of the car, I remember it feeling rather “violent,” like they were pressing too hard against the car. It was loud inside and the car was jostled about. I also remember thinking, “I hope nothing is being damaged.” And then I was out of the car wash and carrying on with my day, not thinking any more about it. Two weeks later, I noticed that my front passenger door has a big dent in it, right on the horizontal crease thats about 1/3 of the way up from the bottom of the door. I could not understand how that could have happened, because I’m always either in the car or running sentry mode, and there were no incidents. I’ve been scratching my head for two weeks trying to understand how the dent happened—there are no scratches in the paint, and no sharp dents that would indicate an acute impact, like from a baseball or a 2x4 road debris. It almost looks like someone put their shoulder into it. Then, this morning, a light bulb went off, and I connected the car wash incident with the dent. Has anyone experienced similar damages? The sheet metal of the doors does seem rather flimsy… I’ve reviewed all my camera recordings for the last five weeks, and learned nothing. I’m left with the impression that the dent occurred in the car wash. Thoughts?? Thanks!

 

[ewoodrick]

Time to talk to the car wash

 

[DocHolliday]

Can you see the dent in the repeater camera view? If you can you may be able to better identify the time window when the damage occurred by reviewing sentry videos. It doesn't sound like something a carwash brush could do, but I would still never take a vehicle through one of those. Can you post a pic of the damage?

 

[dartman59]

I have reviewed the repeater files and the evidence is less than ideal. Sometimes I think I can see it and then a day later it doesn’t seem to be there. It seems to be juuust at the limits of the view. But I’m still re-reviewing. I’ll post a few pics—the white is reflection of my garage. The paint is not scratched or cracked at all. In my opinion, it looks worse in reality than the photos indicate.

 

[dartman59]

It wouldn’t take too much force right on that ridge to put a crimp in it like I now have.

 

[DocHolliday]

That doesn't look like anything a carwash brush could have done. Either a shopping cart or someone else's door hit your door. The cameras are not perfect and don't pick up every movement. IMHO.