Auto Hold?

[greerl]

It depends on the type car automatic car wash you use but the one I use is a conveyer type. The kind where you put the car in neutral, take your foot of the brake and rollers pop up and push your car along a track until the wash is completed. Think of that process with your emergency brake engaged. Your car would be held in place, the rollers would continue to try and push your car down the track, and slide under the wheels. And if there is a car behind you there's no telling what might happen. Or the track could sense what was happening to you and automatically shut down.

I found the note in the Owners Manual so I don't doubt that there may be a theoretical circunstance of needing the wheels to turn but something about your description doesnt work for me.

In 50 years of driving I don't think I've ever driven through a car wash so I can't say from personal experience how they work. But I appreciate this thread as a reminder that I need to remember to disengage auto hold before leaving the car at a wash for someone else (I have done that).

If on conveyor, that sounds to me like you would want brakes locked. Rollers, if propelling car by forcing the wheels to turn, yes, would need auto hold off. The design I would have expected through, is a conveyor comprised of rollers that support the car while the car moves through the wash but can turn so that if the engine is running and transmission n is engaged, the rollers turn but the car goes nowhere.

 

[jt1998]

I found the note in the Owners Manual so I don't doubt that there may be a theoretical circunstance of needing the wheels to turn but something about your description doesnt work for me.

In 50 years of driving I don't think I've ever driven through a car wash so I can't say from personal experience how they work. But I appreciate this thread as a reminder that I need to remember to disengage auto hold before leaving the car at a wash for someone else (I have done that).

If on conveyor, that sounds to me like you would want brakes locked. Rollers, if propelling car by forcing the wheels to turn, yes, would need auto hold off. The design I would have expected through, is a conveyor comprised of rollers that support the car while the car moves through the wash but can turn so that if the engine is running and transmission n is engaged, the rollers turn but the car goes nowhere.

You've never been through a car wash!? Amazing.....

 

[Black Label]

Just spitballing here, but I don't think car wash technology, in terms of how the car moves, has changed in decades.

 

[littleneil]

I found the note in the Owners Manual so I don't doubt that there may be a theoretical circunstance of needing the wheels to turn but something about your description doesnt work for me.

In 50 years of driving I don't think I've ever driven through a car wash so I can't say from personal experience how they work. But I appreciate this thread as a reminder that I need to remember to disengage auto hold before leaving the car at a wash for someone else (I have done that).

If on conveyor, that sounds to me like you would want brakes locked. Rollers, if propelling car by forcing the wheels to turn, yes, would need auto hold off. The design I would have expected through, is a conveyor comprised of rollers that support the car while the car moves through the wash but can turn so that if the engine is running and transmission n is engaged, the rollers turn but the car goes nowhere.

When you enter a conveyor type car wash you are instructed to put your car in neutral and take your foot of the brake. If you fail to follow those instructions (your wheels are not turning) the conveyor rollers keep moving on the chain and will slide underneath your rear tire and raise the back end of your car and harshly set it back down after the roller passes.