Car wash mishap

Going through auto car wash yesterday. They put my wheel on the track, put tranny in neutral, wheel straight with hands off. Starts messing with my phone while going through like I had many times. (This location recently remodeled with new equipment.)

About half way through I notice my truck had jumped the track and was very close to brushes on right. About the same time, the car behind me (still on track) kept bumping into me. Saying WTF loudly and could not see clearly due to soap, I put truck into drive and turned wheel left pressing on gas to try to avoid damage. About the time I straightened out, they shut down the wash. Guy came out, told him what happened. He put me back on the track then started wash up again. Almost immediately, truck wheel started turning right.... a full half turn. I grabbed the wheel, turned it straight and with no other cars still in front of me, drove the hell out of the wash.

Car behind me was a brand new $50k Highlander LTD. Minor damage to both vehicles. Reports were made and pics taken by attendant.

Can anybody venture a guess as to why my truck turned seemingly on its own? I did notice a couple of times driving it, if I nudged the wheel a little accidentally to the right while driving, it would tend to veer that way. Went straight to dealer to have alignment checked and was fine.

I am wondering if something wrong with front end from factory or was it the machinery at the wash. Hundreds of cars washed without incident (that I know of) there since remodel.

 

This happened to someone else on here, he had a GoPro or some other camera capture the incident.

 

Hand wash only.
You didn't read the tag??!!

 

While mine didn't (hasn't yet) actually jumped track...I did notice my steering wheel "slightly" move to the right the last time I went through. I've never noticed steering wheel movement in these washes before. Makes me want to never try my luck again.

 

Never use those things!!!! Especially where you live. All that salt and sand gets trapped in the brushes and will cause damage to your paint. I detail on the side and people who use those car washes are my best customers. Use the bushes bays and do it your self. At the least get a bucket, soap and 2 microfiber mitts. Fill the bucket with your soap. Wash the top 3/4 with one mitt then the lower 1/4 with the other. Since the lower 1/4 is nastier you won't get all that road grime, salt and sand mixed into the clean section. It may take you about 15 minutes but it's worth it. When I was stationed in Colorado and Rhode Island it would be cold out but I would still be out there washing. Save the paint!!

 

I worked at a car wash that had a track system like this throughout high school. I've seen plenty of trucks/cars, both new and old, act like this. I'm not sure what causes it, but I've seen it plenty of times where the roller seems to push the wheel a certain way. Especially since you have a vehicle that's being pulled by a single roller in the front left. It's like the tension in the chain effects vehicles a certain way. For those type of vehicles, we would have to have someone ride with it and hold the wheel the whole way through.

 

Agreed on the sand and salt being trapped thing. Even though we sprayed our brushes daily in the morning and in evening after closing, they were still nasty.

 

Is ABS active while the vehicle is in N?

 

If i am feeling lazy i usually go to the high pressure box one where it just goes around you in a box and sprays the shit out of it. it gets the mud and sand off from under neath without me doing any labor for $7. well worth it

 

holy paint swirls!

 

I have unlimited car washes at the local place for $20 a month. I'm washing my 15 year old 4runner (black) so I'm not as concerned with swirling since it already had swirls when I got it.

What my car wash does that I like, is spray down the car fairly good with a pressure washer BEFORE entering the inital sprayers. I feel like this helps reduce the amount of contaminants that make it to the brushes.

If/when I get a new vehicle though, I will probably adopt the hand wash method. Can't really do that right now as I live in an apartment, but I'll be in a house soon enough.

 

the touchless carwashes are pretty neat. I will go through those once in a while. No brushes touch paint, and it does a good job.

 

NEVER USE THOSE TYPES OF WASHES

they are ancient technology and ruin vehicles

if you mush autowash, use touchless, and the types where you park it
and the washing assembly moves around you.


now if it is 50 miles to the nearest 'good' wash and all you have
is this crazy break-my-truck wash locally....I'd let it stay dirty, and
get my own hose and rinse the underside often

 

First time this has happened to me in 39 years of driving.

I like those as well but I wonder what kind of chemicals they use that will ruin the paint/ clear coat.

 

I've only used those carwashes with my Tacoma, and never had an issue.

If this happened to me, I'd just use a different wash. Not all of them have tracks, some you drive into and the wash equipment moves around you (as opposed to you moving through it).

 

I ran mine through a touch less car wash Tuesday for the 1st time. I'll probably run it through several more times before springtime arrives. If it ruins the paint I won't have to pay the detail shop twice a year to wax it.

 

Those touchless carwashes don't have any chemicals that will damage your paint. Imagine the lawsuits that would arise if they did.

 

the carwash industry would be completely shutdown and inoperable if that was the case

there are chemists that are paid well to design soaps and goops that don't harm the finishes

the chemicals are designed specifically to loosen and remove dirt but not harm auto paints

auto detailers might argue oh they don't remove all the dirt, which is true. they remove most of the dirt but a little film is inevitable...mechanical action is the only thing for squeaky super-clean, but mechanical action also is what can start to wear the actual clearcoat layer. can't have best of both worlds all the time.

 

Yeah I know they don't. They will strip wax off though. I'm just getting my truck waxed in the spring and I'll use Wax As U-Dry up until winter. Then use the touch less car wash during the winter months.

 

Yes, the high pressure water can take off some wax each time you go thru them. I don't use them either. I wait for a day that's warm enough to hand wash... 40 degrees will do it for me, just have to make the water in the two buckets as hot as I can stand it.