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Cars not staying in Neutral!

V

villagecarwash

New member
Just wondering how this situation is being handled at other locations. I operate a full service car wash, where customers do not stay in their cars. We are having an increased problem getting cars to stay in neutral and sometimes cars going into park (or parking brake coming on) in the middle of the tunnel for no reason. Besides having someone ride through with the car, what is everyone doing about this problem? I recently found out that if you engage the seat belt, this will override these weird safety features for the most part. I'm worried about this problem getting worse and worse as technology advances. Any ideas out there????
 
The NoPileups by DRB Systems full-tunnel management system can help. It uses advanced computer technology to detect these incidents and stop the conveyor so it doesn't result in a collision. Let me know if you'd like more information.
 
how exactly can DRB help with the cars not staying in neutral?

The only issue I am aware of of when you put the car in neutral then open the door it automatically switches the parking brake on or puts it in park.

The door opening is what triggers it. Took me a bit to figure that one out
 
I'm not sure that any vendor can actually help them stay in neutral. I've heard a lot of people say that cars manufacturers need to create some type of "car wash mode" that would prevent these automated things from happening in a car wash situation. The issue we hear about more commonly is that there are autobraking issues that cause cars to hop the rollers.

So no, we can't help you keep them in neutral, but when it does happen NoPileups can prevent it from resulting in a crash. It can also help increase production because you can more safely load vehicles closer together. Let me know if you'd like more information.
 
I heard somewhere (that's one of the problems of growing old) that new cars would automatically go into park if left running in neutral and no one was in the car.
 
Yeah it is getting tough. Predictive braking, auto windshield wipers,etc... we are across the street from a volvo dealership so we see a lot of new ones. To get them in neutral it is a process. It is something like, shift into neutral, which automatically puts on the parking brake. Then to get the parking brake off you have to step on the brake pedal and hit a little button in the center console. That removes the parking brake, but it also shifts the car back to park. Then while still holdong the brake you reshift to neutral. I think if you remove your foot from the brake you have to start again.... lol

AND dont get me started on prius'........ lmao..... i see a prius come in and i know to just hit the emergency stop button until the customer gets it into neutral. I would say at least 40% of all prius i see through my tunnel drive through not in neutral and pop out the exit wnd wondering why it went so fast and they still have soap on the car...... 🙄🙄

The big thing that bothers me is when customers blame ME for this stuff. Like i built the car and forced them to NOT read the owners manual...lol

I had one customer while going through the tunnel started hitting buttons trying to get her auto mirrors to fold in and unbeknownst to her she hit not only the mirror button but also turned on her windshield wipers which caused them to get ripped off and she shut off her traction control. That caused a traction control off message to be displayed on her screen which made her think our wash somehow destroyed her car which led to her SCREAMING at me, at times in tears about it...... 24 hours later she called back and appologized, but jesus people, learn how to use your own car!
 
Sparkleclean said:
I had one customer while going through the tunnel started hitting buttons trying to get her auto mirrors to fold in and unbeknownst to her she hit not only the mirror button but also turned on her windshield wipers which caused them to get ripped off and she shut off her traction control. That caused a traction control off message to be displayed on her screen which made her think our wash somehow destroyed her car which led to her SCREAMING at me, at times in tears about it...... 24 hours later she called back and appologized, but jesus people, learn how to use your own car!
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I hear you, Put in drive or Park seems to be only two setting many people know about. My wife still cant cut on or off her fog lights!
 
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