Anyone had the nerve to take their car thru a softcloth automatic car wash?

If so, any scratches on the plastic?

Goober

When I get my "E", I think I will be inclined to find a touchless car wash.

Iskie

Car wash, so far so good. One trip thru and no marks. :D

i baby my cars, we have a nice detailing place that does everything by hand really nice.. soo that is where mine will go when it is ready for its first bath.. it just snowed yesterday soo it will be a couple days before i hit the wash!

RML, do you have a roof rack? Way too cold to wash my Element up here near Detroit this time of year. The automatic car washes are a must if I want to keep the salt of off. That roof rack seems pretty flimsy. Also, did you remove your antenna?

tigernumber6,

I read somewhere in the posts (another subject area) that they did take off the antenna in a carwash.

Yeah, ibutchman, I saw that too. I'm just fishing to see if someone has gone through without taking it off. I'm a pretty lazy guy and if I can get out of a little extra work, I want to know about it.

The roof rack thing concerns me because those overhead cloth washers can be pretty heavy when they beat down on cars.

Hi all,

I don't have a roof rack on my Element. The car wash people took the antenna off. I would have just left it, but they seemed to want to be extra careful. They even put a bit of tape on the edges of my air deflector.

you all have some nice and carful carwahes that is cool.. surprising for an autowash.. .. the autowashes here you drive up to a machine enter a code (which you paid for in advance) then enter the wash.. no human interaction at all..

we have a nice wash near by that we prefer, they do everything by hand inside & out.. that works for us! Otherwise we do it ourselves.

Huh?? Remove the antenna? That does not sound good....seems like a target for vandalism....does it just pop on and off?

Iskie

The antenna screws off easy, perhaps a bit too easy

Finally ran it through today. Only thing I removed was the bra.

All looked great afterwards. Attenna ok, roof rack ok, rear wiper ok and no noticable scratches.

It was noiser riding through than other cars I've taken through, which worried me, but it didn't hurt the car a bit. Just made it nice and shiny.

So, for those up hear in the cold, you don't have to freeze to keep that corrosive salt off your Element.

Antenna Broken Off![b]

The salesman at the dealership insisted on running my E thru their car wash while I was waiting to pick up a AWD sticker for my rear hatch. His good intentions resulted in my antenna being broken off by the machine. He forgot or didn't know to take off the antenna first. So they took one off a new S2000 and replaced it. Apparently it is a common part. Now you know why your Elements are sooooooooo fassssssssst! 8)

Elemental Tom,

That explains so much, the E is actually an S2000 with cargo space :lol:

sounds good to me! :D

That is a hoot guys.. love them interchangable (reliable) honda parts, smiles!

This is a popular no-touch wash system here is Florida. Does a great job for about $7. I wont use the hang-down curtain type wash anymore. It is an outdated system.

shaka 47AG107 8)

Yesterday was nice and warm here in NYC. Took the E out for a nice wash. There is a place by us that hand washes, and all.

Once of the nice things about the E, yes, it washes up great, cleans up easy, and all, but with it being so new, the guys at the car wash really want to check it out, so the ones doing the washing and all really want to spend a lot of time on it.

We waited while they took their time on our E. They finished so many other cars, we were lucky we were not in a rush :lol:

It was worth it, the Element came out super clean :!:

Living in the mud / dust zone

I've had to wash my car almost everyday. (Can't have it going out all mucked up - too many people already stare!)

My E cleans up really well - either if I wash it by hand at home or take it to a wand type wash, or a commercial wash. I do look the new touch free washes and won't go through an automatic wash that isn't fairly new. I have a roof rack mud flaps, and side rails and it all cleans up just dandy!

Hey there all. I'm fairly new here and am trying to find out whether the wax through an auto wash will mess up my panels. I know the answer is in here somewhere, but I have not been able to find it. Any info would be greatly appreciated. :?

I just took mine through a touchless carwash, with the side blasters hitting the plastic panneling i thought something was going to break, but no problems what so ever here either. Only precaution i took was folding in my mirrors.


And, Was it a Touchless carwash that broke the antena?!? i cant see how thats possable.

I have taken mine through 3 different car washes so far, all brushless, all with the antenna on and I havent had a problem. NO scratches or marks at all.

It is weird that some are suggesting taking the antenna off of the car before going thru the carwash. The owners manual makes a point of saying that removing the antenna is not neceassary.