I've gone to a touchless carwash at Shell twice now, and both times it fails to sense the width of my car. The foam wrapped arm smacks right into my drivers side mirror before correcting it's path. I don't park close to the wall. I'd say I'm 3-4 feet from the wall.

Anyone else have this happen?

 

I've been to two touchless auto-washes, both at Esso stations, and haven't had a problem. I'll pay a bit closer attention next time to see what the clearance is, but it seemed generous.

 

The one I go to out here always has a good 3 feet of clearance from the car.

 

Do those work without scratchin the paint??

 

Touchless washes won't scratch paint like traditional auto-washes, because no physical part ever touches the car (mis-adjusted foam-covered arms notwithstanding ).

The ones I've been to use use have a bar that rotates around my car several times, each time doing something different: initial soak; high-pressure water; cleaning foam; rinse; tricolour foam (don't know what it's for, but it comes with the under-body wash option I upgrade to, to wash away winter salt buildup); final rinse.

The only part that gives me pause is the drying fan; they're so intense they actually air-blast the wipers off the windshield and hatchback window!

It'll never compare to a good hand-wash, but I can't really do it myself when it's freezing outside...

 

So no brushes or strips, huh? I don't know as I've ever seen one of these "touchless" car washes...Why would their spray work better than the coin-op one (which doesn't get off the sticky dirt, just the top layer of dust)?

 

to my understanding: touchless washes replace dirty, scratching brushes with harsh chemicals/detergents to that may damage the paint and vehicle. a rule i live by is to always wax your car after using soaps/detergents.

 

I can never get my car clean unless I spend a lot of time doing it myself

 

I've never used a coin-op one, but the touchless automatic water jets can probably operate at much higher pressure.

I make no claims that these are good for my car's surfaces, but I suspect it's better than leaving salty residue on it, while parked in a fairly warm and humid (for winter) underground garage.

 

yea, I try go to a touchless once a month or 2 to hit the underbody n get the salt off. Other than that it's coin up ones in the winter. soap, rinse, wax, rinse = $4 and gives me enough time to spray out and break up the built up ice/snow in the front and rear lip/bumper and sideskirts which is quite a pain but o well. Usually that's when I go through my car n get some of the garbage out to being it's usually perty warm in them lol

 

i think your 'touchless' wash wants to start something...