Many Tesla owners are wary of taking their vehicle through a standard automatic car wash and for a good reason.
The Tesla owner’s manual warns against using a standard automatic car wash and explains that they can damage the vehicle in multiple ways.
With that said, there are several safe ways to wash your vehicle, and Tesla Car Wash Mode makes the task easier than ever.
Prepping Your Vehicle for Washing Using Tesla Car Wash Mode
Before washing your Tesla vehicle or having someone else wash it, it’s helpful to activate Tesla Car Wash Mode.
This special feature ensures your car is ready to be washed from different angles and adds an additional layer of protection to your car.
To activate the mode on compatible vehicles, open Car Controls, navigate to Services, and select Car Wash Mode.
Once you do this, the mode will activate, and several key changes will occur on your vehicle at the same time.
Once the mode is activated, it makes a series of changes to the vehicle that help prepare it for the upcoming car wash.
It’s easy to turn this special mode off as well by using the Exit button.
It’s important to note that driving the vehicle at more than 10 miles per hour will automatically disable Car Wash Mode as well.
What Tesla Car Wash Mode Does
The moment you activate Car Wash Mode, your vehicle locks the charging port and closes the windows and the automatic trunk if it has one.
The car also disables the automatic wipers to prevent them from activating, and it disables walk-away door locking to prevent accidental locking.
The car also turns off the parking sensor chimes to prevent any irritating beeps during the wash.
A little checklist shows up informing you of which features affect your car most when having it washed, and each is lit up in green or red, making it easy to see if your car is prepared to be washed.
Along with all these little changes, this special mode disables Sentry Mode, and it makes the Enable Free Roll and Screen Clean Mode buttons easily accessible.
Enable Free Roll is designed to quickly put your Tesla into neutral for conveyor-belt-style touchless car washes.
Screen Clean Mode darkens your car’s touchscreen display and deactivates the touch controls to allow you to easily wipe the touchscreen off.
Which Vehicles are Compatible with Car Wash Mode?
Not all Tesla models come with Car Wash mode. Anything older than the Model 3 and Model Y vehicles doesn’t come with this special feature.
That means that currently, you can use the feature on the Model 3, the Model Y, and the redesigned Model S and Model X models.
If you have one of the compatible vehicles, you can easily utilize Tesla Car Wash Mode to prepare your vehicle for a convenient scrub-down, but you still need to know how to safely wash your car.
There is a certain way a Tesla vehicle should be washed, and if you don’t wash the car properly, it can suffer real damage.
How to Safely Wash Your Tesla
There are a few ways you can safely wash your Tesla vehicle. To start things off, we want to highlight that you should never bring your Tesla vehicle through a standard automatic car wash.
This is an important point to remember because taking your Tesla through a car wash with brushes and other materials that will touch the surfaces of the car leads to scratches and additional possible damage to the surfaces of your car.
Even with Car Wash Mode activated, there is a chance your car could be damaged.
To keep your car in pristine condition, bring it through a touchless car wash, use a water-free washing service such as No-H20, or hand-wash the vehicle yourself at home.
Those are the options you have available that help keep your vehicle in excellent condition.
Using a Touchfree Car Wash
Modern automatic car wash equipment makes it possible to wash a car with technology without ever touching it with a brush, a squeegee, or another tool. Instead, high-power pressure blasters emit streams of water that wash down all the surfaces of your vehicle to leave it impressively clean.
These services waste large amounts of water and a high volume of chemical cleaners, but they won’t scratch the surface of your car, and they give you a rapid way to clean your Tesla without having to do any of the work yourself.
If you want to take your car through an Automatic car wash, make sure you locate a touchless service in your area and only use that provider to get an effective clean on your vehicle.
Water Free Washing Services
One of the most convenient ways to care for the finish of your Tesla is to utilize a waterless washing service, such as No-H20 for your car.
This service allows you to have your vehicle cleaned at home or while at work without having to travel to an outside location.
A service provider will carefully clean the vehicle using specialized spray chemicals and lint-free rags.
The service is good for any level of dirt and grime and leaves your Tesla looking fresh and clean.
A high-quality waterless car cleaning service offers exterior and interior cleaning services and can leave your vehicle looking fresh and clean with a protective coating to prevent future grime buildup.
Utilizing a waterless cleaning service reduces the amount of water wasted while having your vehicle cleaned and provides you with superior results to most automatic touchless car wash services.
A low-water cleaning provider is a more environmentally-friendly option that’s worth considering to help reduce your impact on the environment.
Hand Washing Your Tesla
If you have plenty of time available and you don’t mind doing the work yourself, you can completely hand-wash your Tesla vehicle using specialized chemical cleaners and lint-free microfiber towels.
Simply spray the right cleaner on each surface of your vehicle and wipe away any grime using a series of towels.
It’s important to avoid using the same towel to wipe down multiple parts of the vehicle because any accumulated dirt and debris could harm the finish of the car.
This technique only works properly when cleaning lightly soiled areas, and more specialized equipment is necessary to clean your car if it’s very dirty.
For more stubborn stains, you may have to rely on a pressure washer to blast away the grime.
If you can’t effectively hand-wash away stubborn grime, you may want to consider hiring a water-free washing service or taking your vehicle to a touch-free car wash for cleaning.
No-H20 makes cleaning and maintaining the interior and exterior finish on a Tesla simple and convenient.
This car dry cleaning service comes to your location and offers a variety of cleaning and protection options to keep your car looking good over time.
