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Has your Tesla ever been in the rain?
- Thread starter Old Man Mike
- Start date
dhrivnak
Active Member
I have a Roadster and the carbon fiber held up very well I got caught on. 4 lane when a sudden storm came up one of the scariest 4 minutes of my life. There was no possible cover.
That reminds me of the line delivered by Julia Roberts in Nottingham Hill saying she was "just a girl". My S is "just a car" too so it has been in heavy rain numerous times, when A/P will not function and highway speeds slow to a crawl. Living in South Florida it's had to follow a "no rain" rule. Anyway I like driving it in the rain.
Lex
Member
Many of us use a potent product designed for commercial use called Aquapel.
From my understanding chattering is common for many anyway, and with Aquapel I barely have to use the wipers, so I'm not sure I'd agree with this bit of ownership advice from the manual. Especially in light of the crappy automatic settings (which may have since been fixed). Also helps keep the windshield clean.
Johan
Ex got M3 in the divorce, waiting for EU Model Y!
Thanks. I'm always glad if I've made at least one person laugh every day of my life!
My car has seen more rain in snow in soon 3 years of ownership than I think you could imagine from your Indiana point of view.
I should probably explain a bit more about why we pamper the Tesla. Anything becomes a bit routine and less special if you do it all the time. We want to maintain that fantastic driving experience with the Tesla as long as possible. For overnight trips we use our 2014 Audi A8 which is more like a luxury cruise ship (the P90D is a luxury speed boat). Funny that when we bought the A8 it felt so powerful. After one ride in the Tesla and experiencing a launch, we ordered one the next day. Now the A8 feels soooo sluggish. That said, the A8 is a smoother and more comfortable ride for a long trip. Tesla just made it a boring car.
I genuinely do not understand that point of view. After over 2 1/2 years of owning a Model S, every time I drive it I feel amazed that I am privileged to drive the future of transportation, today. And after over 1 1/2 years of owning my Roadster, I have the same feeling every time I drive it. It doesn't get old.
bonnie
I play a nice person on twitter.
Same. I was caught in a hailstorm in my Roadster, with no possibility of cover. It was awful & then realized that carbon fiber doesn't dent. Crush, yes. But hail lost the battle that day. My car still looks brand new.
FlatSix911
Porsche 918 Hybrid
You are indeed fortunate to feel that way. As the "Old" guy I also feel qualified to comment on what gets old to me. For example:
If every night is a date night, is it as special?
If every meal is a stake, is it as special?
If every day was a vacation day would vacations be as special? (Being retired for 11 years, I can say this is almost true)
We've never owned a car where people would come up and do selfies with it, or give thumbs up, or shout "nice car". It has been such a great experience that we just want to keep it going as long as possible. After all, we will not be buying another one until we get the first ding or scratch or .... rain on it.
SSD420
Member
You could try Permanon. Very easy to apply and makes all surfaces very rain repellent. I haven't tried it on my S yet, but I treated my Buick that I'm prepping to sell and all the surfaces treated feel like they are teflon coated. It's not teflon though, it's nano-particles of silica that bond with any hard surface it comes in contact with, making it more friction-less.
TaoJones
Beyond Driven
I use a mix of 14oz of distilled water and 2oz of ONR blue (Optimum No Rinse without wax) in a spray bottle.
When driving this past month mostly outside California (40+ states, ~12,000 miles), due to the wipers not cleaning the upper third of the windshield (a known issue) and due in particular to chitinous (TM @Bighorn) bug splatter, I would have to clean the windshield at least at every other SC stop. The ONR treatment proved particular helpful when it would rain in that there were hydrophobic qualities similar to RainX but without the glare/smearing often associated with RainX.
No wiper chatter or negative effects of any kind with the ONR preparation. Note they recommend 8:1 as a spot detailer in between washes, which is how I repurposed a spray bottle hat formerly held detailer spray in the first place. The fact that it cleans windshields particularly well was a bonus. Some SvCs use this mixture as well - amazing what you can learn by reading the label.
As far as rain and snow, yeah, been in both. Rain blew sideways last October through Tennesee and Georgia as whatever that storm was blew through, and this past month the dregs of that storm that hit Florida were interesting as they came with tornadic activity as I elected to head north from Hilton Head Island (South Carolina) with enthusiasm to get away from that. Then there was the freak 3" baseball-sized hail in South Dakota which fortunately missed the 59 cars at the 3rd annual Sound of Silence rally in Custer (an absolute Must-Do event at least once in your Tesla-owning life, btw).
In all cases, except the snow, the car handled admirably. And in fact, the all season OEM Michelins did very well at hill climbing in the snow. They just didn't grip worth a damn when attempting to stop for a T-junction at 5mph. Did a great impression of a drift car right through that intersection 90 degrees to the left at loooow speed. But hey, it made for fun dashcam footage.
About the only time the car didn't weather the storm, as it were, was when the crosswinds were so strong as to disengage Autosteer repeatedly - this was somewhere in that Idaho Nevada Oregon stretch near Twin Falls, where the word flat was invented. By the way, the unexpected view from the Twin Falls SC is beautiful in the rain. Bring an umbrella as it's worth standing in the rain for. There's an observation deck and everystuff.
When driving this past month mostly outside California (40+ states, ~12,000 miles), due to the wipers not cleaning the upper third of the windshield (a known issue) and due in particular to chitinous (TM @Bighorn) bug splatter, I would have to clean the windshield at least at every other SC stop. The ONR treatment proved particular helpful when it would rain in that there were hydrophobic qualities similar to RainX but without the glare/smearing often associated with RainX.
No wiper chatter or negative effects of any kind with the ONR preparation. Note they recommend 8:1 as a spot detailer in between washes, which is how I repurposed a spray bottle hat formerly held detailer spray in the first place. The fact that it cleans windshields particularly well was a bonus. Some SvCs use this mixture as well - amazing what you can learn by reading the label.
As far as rain and snow, yeah, been in both. Rain blew sideways last October through Tennesee and Georgia as whatever that storm was blew through, and this past month the dregs of that storm that hit Florida were interesting as they came with tornadic activity as I elected to head north from Hilton Head Island (South Carolina) with enthusiasm to get away from that. Then there was the freak 3" baseball-sized hail in South Dakota which fortunately missed the 59 cars at the 3rd annual Sound of Silence rally in Custer (an absolute Must-Do event at least once in your Tesla-owning life, btw).
In all cases, except the snow, the car handled admirably. And in fact, the all season OEM Michelins did very well at hill climbing in the snow. They just didn't grip worth a damn when attempting to stop for a T-junction at 5mph. Did a great impression of a drift car right through that intersection 90 degrees to the left at loooow speed. But hey, it made for fun dashcam footage.
About the only time the car didn't weather the storm, as it were, was when the crosswinds were so strong as to disengage Autosteer repeatedly - this was somewhere in that Idaho Nevada Oregon stretch near Twin Falls, where the word flat was invented. By the way, the unexpected view from the Twin Falls SC is beautiful in the rain. Bring an umbrella as it's worth standing in the rain for. There's an observation deck and everystuff.
dhrivnak
Active Member
How does this compare to rain?? Also my neighbor with a BMW was stranded at the bottom of one hill and watched with envy as I went right up. After 6+ years of use people are surprised to hear it is an 8 year od car and I constantly have photos taken and get a thumbs up, in other words the car is holding up very well
Is this the product you are referring to?
https://www.amazon.com/Optimum-NR20...1466393564&sr=1-1&keywords=onr+waterless+wash
@drivhnak, love that photo of your Roadster in the snow.
Sparky
Member
Being from Southern California, it was over nine months before my rain touched my Model S. It was a downpour, I was in traffic and clueless how to operate the windshield wipers.
Both of us survived.
Since then, taking a page out of Johan's manual, I practice operating the wipers once a month while a member of my personal staff sprays the windshield with Evian Brumisateur Mist.
TaoJones
Beyond Driven
Is this the product you are referring to?
https://www.amazon.com/Optimum-NR20...1466393564&sr=1-1&keywords=onr+waterless+wash
@drivhnak, love that photo of your Roadster in the snow.
That would be the one. If I didn't have Opti-Coat Pro on the car, I'd get the green ONR, the difference being that the green has wax in it.
Here's a link as well to the gallon size of ONR - at a wash every 2 weeks plus the interim spray, I go through about a quart a year (per car): Amazon.com: optimum no rinse 1 gallon
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