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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

.. to ask how to use a car wash?

32 replies

FoofFighter · 07/08/2018 13:59

I know I know

Recently passed test and the car has dead bugs soldered onto it with the heat so badly that I don't really want to hand wash it myself. But I'm embarrassed to admit I've not a scooby on how to use a car wash of the likes at Esso and Shell

Is anyone willing to give me a losers idiots guide to using one please

OP posts:

Ollivander84 · 07/08/2018 14:03

You can hand wash it with the jet wash things, put money in and literally follow the steps, it has them shown on the machine

Or go to a hand car wash where they do it for you

Or do what I do and pay a guy who comes to my house, opens the car door, tuts and says "give me 3hrs". He does inside and out and charges me about £20

LartenCrepsley · 07/08/2018 14:07

OP, I didn’t know until recently either! And I’ve been driving over a decade!
So this is what you do: drive to your petrol station of choice and park up near the car wash entrance. Go to the kiosk and request your chosen level of wash (it sounds like you need the top wash). You pay and your receipt will have a code on it. Drive to the car wash entrance and type the code into the box. Then you drive slowly forward. They’ll be lights or arrows telling you how far to go. Stop, handbrake on, engine off. When the wash is finished the lights or arrows will tell you to drive out.

PiggeryPorcombe · 07/08/2018 14:07

Well the one I use - you go into shop and ask for whichever wash you want (bronze, silver or gold normally), pay and they give you a slip with a code on. Remove ariel from roof if your car has one. Drive car into car wash entry and enter code into machine thing which should be conveniently located by your drivers window. Drive in. Put handbrake on. Turn off engine. Wait while car gets washed and dried. Drive off. There are normally red and green lights that indicate when you can drive away.

ShinyMe · 07/08/2018 14:08

If you mean the drive through ones, go to the till and pay - they'll give you a code or a token. Then drive up to the machine, bung in your code and drive forward when it tells you to. There will be signs telling you when to stop. Then you just sit there til it's finished, and then drive off. But take your aerial off first.

sulflower · 07/08/2018 14:08

Definitely go to a hand car wash. Much easier!

EduCated · 07/08/2018 14:09

The sort you drive through, you go into the shop and ask for a car wash. They usually offer different combinations (wash, wash and soap, wash and soap and tyres, wash and soap and tyres and manicure while you’re at it). Pick which one you want. You pay and they will either give you a code or a token.

Go outside and unscrew aerial.

Drive round to the wash and there will be a little podium to put the code or token in.

Drive forwards - there will be some form of green light or flashing arrows telling you to keep inching forwards, then a stop light will flash. Park and turn the engine off.

Sit whilst it washes and reassure yourself that you have actually closed the windows.

Lights/arrows will flash again when it’s time to move off. Drive away and realise halfway down the road that you haven’t screwed the aerial back in. Listen to crackly radio for the rest of the journey.

PianoThirty · 07/08/2018 14:10

remove aerial first!

Just twist / unscrew it before driving into the car wash.

Original poster

FoofFighter · 07/08/2018 14:11

Thank you for not taking the piss!

I was thinking of a driving through type one yes

OP posts:

LartenCrepsley · 07/08/2018 14:12

Oh yeah, the ariel! I always forget to take mine off.

Original poster

FoofFighter · 07/08/2018 14:13

Things like this and putting petrol in should be part of lessons imo

OP posts:

EduCated · 07/08/2018 14:15

I ended up putting petrol in the car on one of my lessons, and it was bloody useful!

ShotsFired · 07/08/2018 14:17

Remove ariel from roof if your car has one

I have been inside a car when the aerial has been ripped off by the car wash! It got caught in a loop of cable that hung loosely beneath the big arm that goes up and over the car. Sounded like the car was being ripped open!!

(I got the entire aerial replacement cost refunded so I have a feeling the cable loop was not actually meant to be hanging loose like that!)

nikkylou · 07/08/2018 14:20

I'm too scared to take mine. I have been in one in my old car though was less precious about that one . Have to check I definitely I closed the windows, even if I never opened then!

viques · 07/08/2018 14:23

I think every time you buy a new car they should show you how to take the petrol cap,off. The first time I tried to fill up in my new car I couldn't open the damn thing and ended up asking another driver with the same make how to do it. Another time I actually slunk out of the garage without buying any petrol....

I felt a lot better when I googled and found that literally hundreds of people had exactly the same problem.

I go to a hand car wash, they Hoover and clean inside and wash the outside properly, sometimes they even put that oil on the tyres that makes them shiny for about 20 minutes. They used to give you a free air freshener too, but have stopped doing that now.

If you go to a drive through remember to check mirror placement and brakes before you drive off.

thatwouldbeanecumenicalmatter · 07/08/2018 14:25

I didn’t know either FoofFighter and I’ve been driving for over 13 years 🙈

Hoppinggreen · 07/08/2018 14:29

Hand car wash,automated ones are terrifying

Ollivander84 · 07/08/2018 14:31

The only reason I do the hand ones is I was told the auto ones aren't great long term for metallic paint. Not sure how true that is

ShirleyPhallus · 07/08/2018 14:31

Things like this and putting petrol in should be part of lessons imo

I agree! Really would have been useful to know when the petrol pump resets from the previous customer!

PiggeryPorcombe · 07/08/2018 14:32

The hand car wash in Tescos car parks are very good whenever I’ve used them.

toastedbeagle · 07/08/2018 15:29

I forgot to take the aerial off my VW polo... it's was fine going front to back but I realised would be ruined on the reverse... cue jumping out into a car wash at full pelt and unscrewing it whilst being sprayed all over.... not my finest moment!!

Original poster

FoofFighter · 07/08/2018 15:31

OP posts:

Upsy1981 · 07/08/2018 17:32

Putting petrol in was part of my lessons 20 years ago. Not a formal part obviously as not on test but instructor did used to go to petrol station and ask me to put the petrol in. Very useful. Didn't cover car washing sadly.

RollaCola84 · 07/08/2018 17:38

I think every time you buy a new car they should show you how to take the petrol cap,off.

^This^

I'd always been taught to lock the door when I was filling the car with petrol so someone couldn't sneak past, open the door and nick my handbag (happened to a friend of my mum's I think). When I bought my current car and took it the petrol station for the first time I got out, locked the door and could not open the flap for love nor money. I told the cashier I'd changed my mind and drove off. Googling told me that on my newer, fancier car the flap wouldn't pop open if the doors were locked. So embarrassing.

HopeAndJoy16 · 07/08/2018 17:47

Rolla I have also been in that situation when driving a hire car. Had to ask the guy using the other side of the pump what the hell i was doing wrong together we worked it out haha! If it had been my husbad he would have just driven off!

Whitecurrents · 07/08/2018 17:50

Hand car wash. I do remember being terrified the first time I had to put in petrol.

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