i suspect i need to remove the roof top antenna before entering automatic car wash. how can i remove it? i tried but could not. i didn't force it though.
I took it out once for the car wash (just unscrew it, may be you are turning it the wrong way), but all other times, I forgot to take it off. Touch-less or not, nothing happened to it.
Yeah my father has never taken his off and he's been fine. Me, I hand wash... Did use it maybe twice and it was fine as well.
If the antennae could be damaged, I think the car wash folks would take it off before it enters the wash. I don't take my car through the auto washes, but if I did, I would be okay just leaving it on. It seems very secure as far as the brushes are concerned.
Off topic, but: don't cars need to be in neutral to go through a carwash? And if so, for anyone using such carwashes: how do you manage this? Purely academic question, btw: I would never run ours through one, do not trust it to not cause damage, and know it would not wash the car properly. Basically: I want to wash it so I can do it thoroughly, and spot any chips or scratches.
You do know that if you pull the gear shift toward the steering wheel and hold it for a couple of seconds, the car goes into neutral, right? If the Blue Guac was some kind of show car, I would just wash it by hand all the time, but it's simply a daily driver. I'm willing to risk a chip or a swirl going through an auto carwash for the convenience of not having to spend 30 minutes of sweating to wash it. That's not to say I never wash it by hand...I just have other things I would rather do. Several years of automatic car washes, no issues. (knock on wood). I've always left the antenna on with all of my cars going through the car wash, except the cars that had an electric retractable antenna...those things will snap like twigs.
Yes, know that, but that's with the car running is isn't it? Do car wash stipulate engine off and transmission in Neutral? Or not anymore. I guess my attitude with car washes, or anytime someone other than myself handwashes it, is that any chips or dents that are there prior to washing will very likely not be tended to, ie: they will go on rusting until the next time I deal with the washing. Also, areas such as wheel wells and various other obscure corners will not get cleaned out.
My husband took mine off last year before taking mine through the wash and it got misplaced. $65 (I think) and several months later (while we looked for it), I finally have another antenna. I found it in the cupholder last week and swore I would check in here to see if anyone else thought removing the antenna is necessary. He bases the decision to remove it on one attendant offering once to remove it for him. Maybe if I didn't need a stepstool to replace it, I'd be more amenable to removing it, but having lost an antenna once and not being able to screw it back on myself easily, I am very resistant to routinely removing the antenna before the carwash. Any definitive words of wisdom? (Besides "better safe than sorry" which you might guess I've heard before!)
Mendel, I noticed you are from Canada. I don't know if the rules are different there or not. When I take my car through the car wash (automated), after unscrewing the antenna and driving to the point where I am signaled to stop, I just put the car in park. Not neutral. Don't turn it off. When it is finished and directing me towards the dryer, I just put the car in gear and drive forward. I am in Memphis, TN. I am not aware of any rules saying the car needs to be in neutral or powered off. At the car wash in my hometown in NJ one of the employees drives it through the wash while the customer gets out and pays the cashier inside. They do not turn the car off there either. I have never used neutral in a Prius, but at least after this thread I know how to do it.
If it is the type that requires the car to be in "N": 1. Turn off A/C auto and/or cooling. 2. Turn off headlamps (DRLs ok to leave on). 3. Place car in "N" but leave in "ready". If they object that you left the car "on" leave immediately. They are idiots.
Since this is my first car with an outside antenna in about 14 years, I played it safe and removed the antenna. That wasn't too hard to figure 'cause when the dealer delivered the car to me, the antenna was missing. Good job, prep department. Neutral wasn't too hard to figure out either.
When I get asked why the car is still on, I just tell them it's a Prius. They say "Oh, okay" and leave it alone.
We'll i just got a 2013 Prius and i went through an automated car wash. The attendant asked me if i knew how to put the car in neutral, i laughed and said yeah you just tap it over. Well when i got to the car wash it wouldn't go in neutral as i planned and the track just kept pushing my car up and down haha. Now i know to hold it for a couple seconds learned the hard way. Luckily no damage !
I had a similar experience the first or second time I went to an automated wash with a conveyor chain. I tried and failed to get it into neutral. Attendant quickly showed me the procedure. As to the original question, I always leave the antenna on. I have also noted that some washes will slip a bag over the rear wiper arm and a couple have used masking tape to tape it to the back window. Not sure what the reason is there but I am sure there is one.
