Roof flex at carwash

My hood does that just driving the highway

 

Happened to me with the first wash. I heard a loud impact, which i had originally thought was the roof body panel inverting with the pressurized blower. I observed that it was truly the roof molding slapping out of its home. I check now after evry wash to make sure they are correctly seated.

I figure they are cheap insurance, even if they are not 100% effective. It's better than nothing, and easier than doing myself. Without a heated space and a floor drain, this would be a total PITA here in upstate NY. The one I use, is only 8$ if you buy them 5 at a time, and it gets things "mostly" clean, most of the time. I plan on gettting some sort undercoating soon, so I'm sure my washing habits will change based on how rugged the coating is.

 

My 19 year old Accord that has driven in Minnesota (lots of salt) for 14 of those 19 years and looks immaculate underneath would like like to disagree with this assertion.

 

I tape mine down on front and rear now, prior to going through. I probably should add some sort of adhesive to them for a more permeant solution but, I cant bring myself to doing that just yet. Ski

 

Oh yeah due to tinfoil shortage in the covid years, Toyota thinned the roof sheetmetal from 0.50mm to 0.35mm as part of the 2020 facelift. Toyota also changed from conventional to full synthetic blinker fluid for the factory fill on models with LED headlights.

 

I remove salt from my undercarriage daily during the summertime, having a removable shower head helps with that.

 

Well, I didn't really pay much attention but I think it actually did some damage. I can't image it looked like this before I brought it through. What is this going to cost me?

 

Fork! it might pop out, or need some serious work to bring back to new. I would start with the manager at the wash, and be prepared to take it up the proverbial chain.

GL

 

Best of luck most of these places have everything signed off as not liable for damages.
As someone that builds car washs my truck only going through self serve bays. Never an auto and definitely not a tunnel. They serve most of the public fine but they will never do the job you can especially if they have an in bay under carriage wand.

 

Wow, that will hold a big puddle of water. Harbor freight sells suction cups, heck a toilet plunger will also fix it! Trick will be getting over it to pull straight up. Else cover it with a Prinsu rack.

 

Wow. That's a lot.

 

Try a paintless dent repair (PDR) shop.

 

I was grabbing lunch by this car wash today. From the looks of their exit way, they don't blow dry any vehicle.

 

They actually blow dry every one, just not on a rotisserie..

 

totally agree, self wash with hand wand is the best

 

Water coming out of open truck boxes, and undercarrige areas holding water, mostly. The blowers do a pretty decent job on the exterior surfaces, not that much coming off them for sure. Understand that was probably close to one hundred vehicles worth of water, exiting the wash. Ski

 

You are probably correct. Just seeing all the water on the exit way made me think of the OP’s roof.

My truck has never been through a car wash, so I will admit I know nothing about how they clean.

 

On the topic of undercarriage cleaning... anyone ever use something like this? Thinking of running a hot water line outside and using this once a week.



Like others I use the automatics for the undercarriage "cleaning" since the salt here is oppressive. I'll have it and my wife's car undercoated in the spring but I figure it's better than nothing...

OP, that's a hell of a depression I recall my wife's ex-4runner would always seem like it was gonna get blown away and I always thought, "...is this gonna crumple?" Never did but certainly wouldn't have surprised me if it did

 

I have one, and have used it hooked up to my 3,300psi pressure washer and hot water line.
It works fine, but you'll quickly realize just how little 3,300 psi is when you split it four ways.

If you're talking about simply hooking it up to a hot water hose, I'm not sure it would be worth the effort.
Well, YMMV, but it wouldn't be for me..

 

Interesting, and yeah I have a gas PW but never would have thought it wouldn't be enough. Appreciate the feedback