A week ago I went to one of those touchless car washes and while going slowly over the undercarriage wash, my car stalled. DEAD. I began to think it was never going to start. When I finally got it going, I kept it going for fear it wouldn't start again.( I was 30 miles from home) Did I move too slowly over the wash and drown out the engine? Has anybody else had troubles like this? I cked on threads and didn't find any that related to my experience. I perfer to wash the Mini myself, but sometimes on the road, you have to visit a carwash...Missouri bugs...yeck! Since the Mini is so close to the ground, will this be a problem on heavy rain days?

 

but I wouldn't drive into anything that sprays water up under the car. Some Minis have hydrolocked from water injestion... Not from rain, but from deep puddles. It soulds like you missed a very expensive problem by just a hair!

Matt

 

Yea...what ^^^^ said. Just another reason to avoid automatic washes all together .

 

But don't you have to get an annual undercarriage wash to maintain the validity of the rust perforation warranty? Something like that?

 

I have used touchless washes on 2 different MCS for 2 years, usually 2x per week, purposely getting undercarriage wash most every time (Milwaukee salt) and have had no problem; none. The regular mobile spray unit (high pressure) passes over the front of the car, shooting water into the hood scoop. Many times with the motor running, then concerned about water problems, many times, motor off. Bottom line, no problem, ever, either way. Its built to ingest some water, just not significant puddles of water at (some) speed. I tend to go slow over the undercarriage jets. Again, no problems. Can't speak for your situation, just mine.

 

The word expensive scares me! When the engine stalled out from the wash, it wouldn't start for at least 4 trys on turning the ignition key, in fact...nothing happened! Kind of like my battery had just went dead!! I had went thru another car wash with no problems the week before. I was wondering if the spray was perhaps too powerful? The other wash wasn't so strong on their undercarriage spray.

 

There is no valididty to that statement, anyway driving in the rain does a better job cleaning every crevice, better than a car wash.

My 03 MCS never was through a car wash in 39 months. New one won't either.

regards,
Red

 

AT ALL COSTS STAY AWAY FROM AUTO CAR WASHES..
EVEN TOUCHLESS....WASH YOUR MINI YOURSELF..!!!

 

Sounds more like something elelctrical got wet, as opposed to injesting water into the motor...

Matt

 

Why isn't there?