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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To have an irrational fear of carwashes?

23 replies

Annoy · 31/01/2021 11:46

The automatic ones. I just think that if it all went wrong then it’d be a horrible way to die! Crushed and covered in soap suds.

At least I do understand that it is irrational! 🙈

OP posts:
nothingcanhurtmewithmyeyesshut · 31/01/2021 11:49

Lol Care Bears is responsible for that particular fear though I do use them now. Laziness has won out over my nervousness during lockdown.

Notamumonhere · 31/01/2021 11:51

I thought I was the only one. I don’t why but I’ve been terrified of them since I was a child

Mishna · 31/01/2021 11:51

I remember my friend telling me about some kind of wellness thing she wants to try. It's like a kind of pool pod where the lid gets closed and you're bathed in....something? Sounds fucking terrifying.

Shmithecat2 · 31/01/2021 11:53

YANBU. I don't use them. Apart from the fear that the brush bars won't raise and and will crush my car (I used to duck 😳), they ruin your paint work.

Prosperus · 31/01/2021 11:54

I have this exact fear ! My dad liked to have a giggle and open the car window as the big spinning brush was approaching my side and then close it at the last second, it terrified me ! Still to this day Iv never washed my own car Iv always had to ask someone else to do it.

Original poster
Annoy · 31/01/2021 14:49

I wonder if the carebear thing has caused it subconsciously as I used to watch it, but have no idea how it’s related to carwashes?!

OP posts:
RavenclawWriter · 31/01/2021 14:52

I work in a petrol station with an auto car wash. There are quite a few people who are afraid of them. They just set it going and get out. You usually have a minute before it starts where you can slip out.

cheekytree · 31/01/2021 15:02

I've NCd to share this as it could be outing (shared it with many friends as a warning).

A few years ago, DH took my car (estate) to an automatic car wash in a petrol station. As the brush bars were going full pelt washing up the back of the car, the thing malfunctioned somehow and the whole brush mechanism came smashing through the rear windscreen. The car filled with shattered glass and spraying water. The brushes kept spinning and started pushing the car forward until DH jumped out and hit the emergency stop button.

Luckily he was alone in the car and only escaped serious injury as he was in the front and able to get out as soon as he realised what was going on. We had both DC's car seats in the back; they were absolutely showered in water/soap and shards of glass from the windscreen.

Our insurance company sent an assessor to check the machine a few days later. The petrol station (well, the company that owned it) also sent an assessor and they then admitted that the car wash machine was faulty.

Still gives me chills thinking about it now. I also pay a tenner to get my car hand washed every time.

peak2021 · 31/01/2021 15:09

Are there not some where you can park the car and leave it whilst it is washed?

nothingcanhurtmewithmyeyesshut · 31/01/2021 15:09

Do you not remember that care bears film where they went through a car wash and the car filled up with bubbles? As a child I thought that was genuinely what happened and that I would drown.

hollyhope · 31/01/2021 15:35

Don't know about Care Bears: I was thinking Final Destination.

Justgorgeous · 31/01/2021 15:52

Don’t watch Final Destination then!

abstractzebra · 31/01/2021 16:09

They are pretty full on, so I don't think it's that irrational. I used to use one which was really long and pulled your car along, so you had to drive onto a small track and then leave your car in neutral with the handbrake off. At the end, there was a dryer which came closer and closer at the front and didn't start moving upwards until the very last minute!
I used to drive out and my heart would be thumping with the stress 😱
I'm also laughing because my phone was trying to change 'leave your car in neutral' to 'leave your car in Beirut' which would probably be quite stressful too!!! Grin

Tigerstripe20 · 31/01/2021 16:18

I regularly use one that has tracks which guide you in and admit that I really dont' like the dryer bar it's too close for my liking.
Even more so when the whole machine stopped with me and another car in it last summer and the guy starting it very breezily said " oh this seems to be happening a lot now" I haven't used it since then.

maddiemookins16mum · 31/01/2021 16:21

Hate them, and escalators.

mouse70 · 31/01/2021 16:26

I have to close my eyes while going through the wash. Otherwise I feel dizzy and sick as everything moves over the car along the track.

Sparklesocks · 31/01/2021 16:40

I don’t think it’s irrational - it links to claustrophobia, being in a confined space that you can’t easily escape. A lot of phobias people have are similar - like going in lifts etc.

There’s also a lot of noise and things happening very fast - it’s a bit of a sensory overload!

Original poster
Annoy · 31/01/2021 19:31

It is a huge sensory overload! I really don’t like them. Glad it’s not as irrational as I 1st thought 😀

I hate lifts too, and did well to keep it together kids on the London Eye

OP posts:
Original poster
Annoy · 31/01/2021 19:31

For the kids

OP posts:
StoneofDestiny · 31/01/2021 19:59

They aren't good for your car - avoid.

OloBo · 31/01/2021 20:23

I remember bailing out of one just before it started as a kid 😂 I’ve never been brave enough to do it as a grown up.

Elai1978 · 31/01/2021 20:27

They’re great if you really want to fuck up your paintwork.

APJ1 · 31/01/2021 21:05

I'm not too bothered by them now but I was scared of them as a child. The Care Bears thing doesn't ring any bells but it probably was to do with something I watched.

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