Taking Mach-E through commercial car wash?

[wmaney]

Just curious if anyone has taken their Mach-e thru a commercial car wash - pulley types - and where employees clean the inside of the car too? Little afraid of marring the car either inside, outside or both?

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[ChasingCoral]

Just curious if anyone has taken their Mach-e thru a commercial car wash - pulley types - and where employees clean the inside of the car too? Little afraid of marring the car either inside, outside or both?

The recommendation is not to use any car wash with scrubbing unless you don't mind getting microscratches on your paint:
https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/mach-e-at-the-car-wash-best-practices.2491/
https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/touchless-car-wash-membership.1157/

 

[Ponypower50]

I personally don't go through automatic car washes. Last time on my new 2012 Ford Focus, the power wash was so powerful it blew off a chrome stripe on the rear vent. I am also concerned about the low clearance of the Mach e. I wash my cars by hand or use the car wash stalls and do it myself.

 

[wmaney]

I personally don't go through automatic car washes. Last time on my new 2012 Ford Focus, the power wash was so powerful it blew off a chrome stripe on the rear vent. I am also concerned about the low clearance of the Mach e. I wash my cars by hand or use the car wash stalls and do it myself.

Thanks for this - I was thinking about using a wash stall too and doing the inside myself. There is one about 5 miles from my house - others a lot farther away - I was thinking about going to the ones a lot farther away - so I can DRIVE there!

 

[JamieGeek]

I just took my Mach-E through a car wash (yeah I know :gasp: ).

Turns out you have to use the Neutral -> Low -> Press Ok procedure even if you're going to sit in the car. Putting the shifter in N doesn't really put it in neutral.

Funny thing is: the car wash attendant knew exactly what to do..!

 

[Plutoman15]

I just took my Mach-E through a car wash (yeah I know :gasp: ).

Turns out you have to use the Neutral -> Low -> Press Ok procedure even if you're going to sit in the car. Putting the shifter in N doesn't really put it in neutral.

Funny thing is: the car wash attendant knew exactly what to do..!

Curious, how did you know that N wasn't really neutral? Did it jump the track at first and then you did the Low procedure?

 

[JamieGeek]

Curious, how did you know that N wasn't really neutral? Did it jump the track at first and then you did the Low procedure?

Yup

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

I just took my Mach-E through a car wash (yeah I know :gasp: ).

Turns out you have to use the Neutral -> Low -> Press Ok procedure even if you're going to sit in the car. Putting the shifter in N doesn't really put it in neutral.

Funny thing is: the car wash attendant knew exactly what to do..!

Thanks for posting that @JamieGeek. Good to know information. And sometimes, particularly in places with an actual winter with nasty road conditions, car washes are the much lesser of two evils.

 

[benk016]

I just took my Mach-E through a car wash (yeah I know :gasp: ).

Turns out you have to use the Neutral -> Low -> Press Ok procedure even if you're going to sit in the car. Putting the shifter in N doesn't really put it in neutral.

Funny thing is: the car wash attendant knew exactly what to do..!

I've taken my car through a car wash 3 times now. I just put it in neutral every time. No issues.

 

[GregM]

Yes, put my through a car wash - once I realized it wasn't brushless, it was too late. Took it off one-pedal driving, shifted to N and I was good to go...I will never to that again - need to find a good brushless around...then again, I should probably just do it myself but I'm too lazy and would rather ride my bike than wash my car...oh well.

 

[eschuetz]

For what it's worth - if you are using a car wash where you stay in the vehicle, you can just use the standard "N" position and everything works as expected. Just took our MME through for the first time today with no issue. And yes - I know it creates micro-scratches, but guess I am less of a purist than many on this forum!

 

[DaMeatMan]

Just curious if anyone has taken their Mach-e thru a commercial car wash - pulley types - and where employees clean the inside of the car too? Little afraid of marring the car either inside, outside or both?

I have never ever used anything other than a "touchless" car wash on any of the vehicles I've owned, and that has served me very well. I just got rid of a 14 year old Mazda 3, prior to taking delivery of my MME, and the Mazda paint looked great with no micro scratches or anything like that.

Any time you touch the paint, I don't care if your hand washing with 100 different brand new micro fiber cloths, there is always potential for a small bit of debri or sand to get rubbed into the paint causing those micro scratches and paint swirls that are usually visible under bright light.

Mechanical car washes with those big rotating parts are the absolute worst, and you might us well wash your car with sand paper because that's what they do do your paint.

I see so many people spend thousands of dollars on products, like waxes, ceramics, graphene etc.. all of those products require you to rub the vehicle down and they they don't prevent scratches, they simply act as sacrificial layers that can be buffed out later. What's worse is they cause beading, that bakes under the sun and leaves water marks all over the car that you then need to rub out. Contrary to the advertisement it's not like you have wind that just blows the beads and dirt off the car everytime it gets wet.

I know this is long winded, but if you just commit to never touching the paint on your car and stick to touchless washing your car is going to look great for decades to come. Once your start screwing with the paint and rubbing it down with anything, you are highly likely to scratch it period the end.

The amount of money people spend to do things that eventually end up ruining the paint over time, is far greater than a brand new paint job, and it boggles my mind that people fall for this.

 

[shadowsjc]

I haven't used a pulley style carwash in years and don't intend to start with my MME. There's a nice brushless hand car wash about 25 mins away from me that I've gone to for years, but I've been trying to find something closer.

 

[Weapon X]

Hell no. They're called a blender for a reason. Those dirty cloth strips smacking dirt and scratching up everything. I just hand wash myself. Doesn't take more than 15 minutes. Big bucket, grit guard, ONR, big red sponge and some clean microfiber drying towels.

 

[balthisar]

Don't really care. It's just a car on the outside, and they don't do enough damage for me to have heartache about. I don't take my cars to car shows, so I'm not worried about a little haziness. On the other hand, I don't really both to wash my cars in the first place unless I've been down wet dirt roads, or it's winter.

I may hand-wash my MME, though, or find some place that still towel-dries. The "blender" I went to after an insect-laden road trip leaves the rear of the vehicle full of spots. While I'm not really vain about the car, I do want consistency!

I'm picky as heck about the interior, though, because I'm actually present in that environment!

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