automatic car wash -- what happened?

:eyebrows:
OK i will say it.. cause these guys are too nice to say it
Your prii was protesting, cause you took it to an automatic car wash...

Technically speaking I haven't a clue!
So I will leave that to all these beautiful people here, who answer all my inane questions.
I am sure they will be along shortly

 

eve is correct, wash it yourself. it is your baby. would you send your baby thru a mechanized cleaning system. i live in s fl and i know it gets dirty, but , i wash it once a week and take pride in the results and no scratchs either.btw i'm almost 60 years old so no excuses.

 

I'm not sure what happened - but whatever the problem was, it was unrelated to the Prius being a hybrid. I'm glad that you quickly decided to exit under your own power.

 

This is exactly the basis for the stuff of NIGHTMARES.

ZC1

 

They do. On the other hand, I like to help out the "neighbor kids" and usually hire them to do the wash jobs around here. What's a few gallons of water vs. helping some budding young businesspeople....btw, my closest neighbor is half-mile away and closest neighbor kid is about a mile...so actually I usually convince my nephew or niece....

 

If you want to use an automatic car wash, try another to be sure it wasn't something to do with the track system that moves the car forward. Or, go to an auto wash where your car stays still and the boom moves over the car to dispense the soap and rinse water.. If you should try the auto car wash again (the type you tried before), I would be interested to know the outcome. Where I live in the Northeast, it snows and a car wash is usually the method of cleaning the car in the winter time. All other seasons it is washed in my driveway.. Best

 

I've turned my driveway into a 'raingarden'. Well, not really, but instead of the runoff going down the sewer it soaks into the ground of my driveway. No automatic carwash can wash your car like you can. You can even learn to detail it.

 

You might try a commercial do-it-yourself wash. Get some of the advantages of both.

 

Next time find one of the toucheless car washes. You simply pull in and put it in park. The machine moves around you (never touching the car) and a few minutes later you are done and you prius is clean.

Its not as clean as if you did it yourself, but its quick and easy and won't scratch your car or otherwise hurt it.

 

The automatic car wash may use less water, but the hand wash uses less sand blasting.

 

I've never had trouble at the local Octopus car wash and that the only commercial one I've ever used. Didn't notice where the OP is from. Around here its nearly impossible to wash your own unless you do it after dark or get up at 0:dark:30 in the morning. The water is so god-awful hard that if the sun is shining or its hot you will have calcium/arsenic spots that will still be there when you finally sell your baby. I tried that once... and had spots on the windshield for about 6 months, and that was using the Mr Clean gun with the soft water rinse cartridge. I think those cartridges last for half a wash here before they're overcome by the hard water. Now it's to the Octopus car wash where they do everything and costs less than $7. I never want those spots again...

 

I hear your pain, I lived in Arizona for 7 months and luckily i had a soft water loop put in at my house but my neighbor wasnt so lucky. I could wash it and then leave it with no water spots

 

This old crip of a guy uses a no touch commercial wash to clean the car. It works well and makes for a good start of a zaino polish. I get to park outside as the wife takes the garage first . My car still always looks better tho!

 

It sounds like the car was shifted from "neutral" to "park" during the wash, when in park the car will not move on the track. You may have, without thinking about or noticing it, done this - sort of on mental autopilot?

I did something like that once, the first time I took my Prius to an automatic car wash.

If that is not what happened, then there is no obvious explanation.

 

Bravo! I think you did precisely the right thing! :first:

What you described happened to me once in another car. The car behind me not only made contact, but when he did, it bumped my car up a few inches, and while my car re-bounded, he bumped again because that car was still getting pushed by the rollers, yet mine was still in place, just a few inches ahead.

Stuff like that just happens. Nothing to do with your Prius/hybrid.

I use automatic car washes all the time. The kind where you leave your car, and a bunch of people attack it, run it though the wash, and attack it again on the other end. Never had any issues, probably 1-200 washes like this over my entire life, with only that one incident.

 

Why would anyone forgo the pleasure of caressing the sensual curves of their Prius at car was time?