Car washes and poor gear shift design.
Thread Starter
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 2,616
Likes: 160
From: Southeastern USA
2010 E350 Luxury Sedan, Engine 272 (V6)
'71 Challenger
Had a '71 Dodge Challenger that began leaking water into passenger compartment. Part of HVAC unit hung under glove box and had a cheap seal in bottom center. The drain for collected water was 1 inch above the bottom of the unit. One of many Chrysler screw-ups back then.
Junior Member
Joined: Oct 2013
Posts: 31
Likes: 2
2012 E350 sport suspension; 2014 Lexus RX 350
The whole idea of turning my 2012 E350 over to a car wash is completely daunting after reading the owner's manual. As a consequence, I never used a commercial car wash for the first three years of ownership. I either washed it myself in good weather or I took it to my dealership, which washes the car for free. Only problem with the latter approach is that it sometimes takes an hour or more to retrieve my car, and they don't clean the inside of the car. Last week I took it to a commercial car wash out of desperation. It seemed to work fine. (I noticed that one of the workers posted a yellow sticky note on the inside window at the beginning of the wash, which was retrieved by one of the other washers at the end of the wash.) The only thing I remembered to do was to turn off the windshield wipers. I left the car in park when I turned the car over to the workers, with the engine off and the key in the ignition. Nonetheless, after reading this thread and rereading the manual, I'm terrified to take it back to the commercial car wash. There are just too many unknowns and too many ways for the car to be damaged.
