[Guy Fleegman]

Yes, I know. Many of you only hand wash your babies. I can't do that, so it goes through a car wash. I've never had a problem in my lifetime, BUT....

I have a 45e. The sensors go crazy, with flashing lights and proximity alarms. I put it in car wash mode, fold in the mirrors, turn off auto wipers, and switch off the intelligent safety features. The car's in Neutral and default hybrid mode. I don't press the start/stop button, as that would automatically shift into Park (wouldn't it?).

I still get warnings.

What am I missing? I've scoured the manual and this forum. I can handle it for the 3-4 minutes but it drives my wife bonkers.

[Spencer518]

When you get close to objects the parking sensors automatically turn on if you have that as your default setting. For example when I pull into my garage the parking sensors activate. The same thing is happening at the car wash. You can hit the button in the center console for the Parking features. That will deactivate the sensors.

[walketed]

Originally Posted by Guy Fleegman

Yes, I know. Many of you only hand wash your babies. I can't do that, so it goes through a car wash. I've never had a problem in my lifetime, BUT....

I have a 45e. The sensors go crazy, with flashing lights and proximity alarms. I put it in car wash mode, fold in the mirrors, turn off auto wipers, and switch off the intelligent safety features. The car's in Neutral and default hybrid mode. I don't press the start/stop button, as that would automatically shift into Park (wouldn't it?).

I still get warnings.

What am I missing? I've scoured the manual and this forum. I can handle it for the 3-4 minutes but it drives my wife bonkers.

So funny!, the car actually doesn't have a car wash mode, that's only for the cameras and to drive through a car wash. BMW didn't think about it. They should buy a Tesla and copy some of the functions that actually make sense and hire someone who knows how to code and start pushing OTA's to the cars. This is really draining my patience.

[Qsilver7]

You don’t say what warnings you get…but if you are getting the parking sensor beeps…all is required is one press of the PDC button to manually turn the system off (as mentioned in the 2nd reply in this thread).

Maybe check your owners manual to see if there’s a section that covers car washes. There’s a digital version of the owners manual built into iDrive that has multiple search features.

[Bolt1949]

I likewise regularly use a drive thru car wash and find doing two things helps: turning off the PDC as described in the response above and putting climate control on Recirculate, as often there are some nasty odors in those car wash bays. Using masking tape to secure the rear wiper blade and to cover the joint near the roof on the two upper windshield trim pieces if it's not a "touchless" car wash is also a good idea. All of this will be anathema to the two-bucket, hand wash folks.

[Blu-Byou]

Originally Posted by walketed

So funny!, the car actually doesn't have a car wash mode, that's only for the cameras and to drive through a car wash. BMW didn't think about it. They should buy a Tesla and copy some of the functions that actually make sense and hire someone who knows how to code and start pushing OTA's to the cars. This is really draining my patience.

Kind of waste if you dont go through dirty recycled car washes isn't it?
Its just as easy to press the P/A button on the console but its not labeled "carwash". I guess tesla is so far advanced they give 2 seperate buttons, 1 for car wash mode and 1 for garages or other tight spaces

[nZtiZia]

Originally Posted by Guy Fleegman

Yes, I know. Many of you only hand wash your babies. I can't do that, so it goes through a car wash. I've never had a problem in my lifetime, BUT....

I have a 45e. The sensors go crazy, with flashing lights and proximity alarms. I put it in car wash mode, fold in the mirrors, turn off auto wipers, and switch off the intelligent safety features. The car's in Neutral and default hybrid mode. I don't press the start/stop button, as that would automatically shift into Park (wouldn't it?).

I still get warnings.

What am I missing? I've scoured the manual and this forum. I can handle it for the 3-4 minutes but it drives my wife bonkers.

when I go through a rolling brush car wash on my 2021 45e and if the PDC sensor activates (it doesn’t always), I simply press its button to turn it off, and it doesn’t alarm any further.

as mentioned, car wash ‘mode’ is simply a camera view to help you align your vehicle with the car wash wheel track. it doesn’t deactivate proximity sensors, etc

[Guy Fleegman]

Thanks everyone. The "car wash" setting as mentioned above really just activates the down-facing cameras that help you line up the wheels entering the car wash. It doesn't appear to do anything else.

Ironically, that car wash setting is part of the parking assistant, so PDC has to be on to use it. But since lining up the wheels isn't really much of a problem, I'll try turning off PA as suggested.

[Qsilver7]

Or you can line up the car using the carwash camera feature because you don’t need that view once aligned correctly on the track…then press the PA button if/when the sensors start alarming. You can do both…you’re not stuck using one or the other.