Tesla 'Car Wash Mode' and Everything it Does

By Nuno Cristovao
Tesla has a Car Wash Mode
Tesla's Car Wash Mode
Not a Tesla App

One of Tesla’s latest features included in the 2021.24.4 release is Car Wash Mode. The feature was initially available for all Model 3 and Model Y vehicles and it has more recently been added to the redesigned Model S and Model X. Unfortunately, it’s not available for the older Model S or Model X models.

For the most part, this feature doesn't add anything new. You could already turn off most of these car wash related features manually, but using Car Wash Mode makes it much easier. It also provides a useful status of each feature that is relevant during a car wash so that you can use it as a checklist.

Car Wash Mode can help prevent damage to cars for many owners when using automatic car washes. For example, it’ll lock your charge port door to prevent it from opening when a brush pushes against it. It also disables your wipers, preventing them from coming on and getting tangled or caught in a car wash’s felt strips.

After arriving at a car wash, you can enable Car Wash Mode by going to Car Controls > Service > Car Wash Mode. The car will immediately perform a variety of things for you to get your car ready.

Your vehicle will automatically close your windows and other things to prevent water from getting into the car. This includes the charge port, windows and if your car is equipped with an automatic trunk, it’ll close the trunk for you as well.

It does quite a bit more than just close your windows for you though. It’ll disable your wipers, lock the charge port door, turn off Sentry Mode, disable walk-away door locking and even disable the parking sensor chimes to prevent unwanted beeping during the car wash.

For automatic car washes that use conveyor belts, you will need to put your Tesla into neutral. Now, if you’ve never done that before, it’s not very obvious how to do it in a Tesla.

It requires you to have your foot on the brake pedal while pushing the gear stalk up or down and holding it for a second. Car Wash Mode now makes it very easy to get your car into Neutral. There’s an “Enable Free Roll” button that you can easily tap in Car Wash Mode. You'll need to be in drive and have your foot on the brake pedal for the button to be enabled. No need to mess with the gear stalk anymore.

One of the nicest features of Car Wash Mode is the great overview it gives you of your car and all of its features that are relevant during an automatic car wash.

It’ll display a list of each feature and give you a red or green status light to alert you of any issues. For example, if you left your trunk open, it would show a red light and display “Trunk: Open.”

It’s sort of a car wash checklist with a live status for each feature. It’ll even show you the status of the climate system, which you likely want to turn off or set to recirculating while in the car wash.

On the Car Wash Mode screen, you also have easy access to Screen Clean Mode and the ability to fold your mirrors if needed.

You can exit Car Wash Mode by tapping the exit button or simply by putting your car into Drive and going above 10 MPH.

Car Wash Mode is a nice addition that certainly doesn’t do anything you couldn’t do before, but it sure makes it easier and more enjoyable.

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Tesla Referral Code - Get Up to $2,000 Off a New Tesla

By Not a Tesla App Staff
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If you’re planning to buy a new Tesla, consider using our referral code. Not only will you receive up to $2,000 off your vehicle, but you’ll help support our site.

Plus, if you take delivery by December 31st, you’ll also get 3 months of free Supercharging and Full Self-Driving (FSD).

Discount Per Model

  • Model Y - $1,000 off

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  • Model S, Model X or Cybertruck - $2,000 off

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Referral Codes

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Tesla Resolves 700k Vehicle Recall via OTA Update; NHTSA Now Highlights OTA Recalls

By Karan Singh
Not a Tesla App

Tesla has issued a recall for 700,000 vehicles in the US, which addresses a software bug that impacted Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) sensors. Of course, this recall was resolved with an over-the-air (OTA) update on Tesla update 2024.38.7. 

As the software bug could potentially pose a safety issue, a mandatory NHTSA recall was filed by Tesla. This bug impacted the Model Y, Model 3, and Cybertruck. As usual, mainstream news media has let loose on Tesla, issuing articles and headline reports on TV covering the recall - but of course, not mentioning it was fixed by an OTA update, even before the notice was released.

You can read NHTSA’s entire recall notice here.

The Bug

Update 2024.38.3 reset the TPMS warning indicator when the vehicle was powered down or put to sleep between drives. This could potentially leave a driver unaware of a persistent TPMS issue, wherein they could have too little or too much air pressure in a tire.

According to the NHTSA filing, Tesla identified the issue on November 6th, 2024, and then confirmed in a further investigation that there was indeed an issue. Shortly afterward, update 2024.38.7 began rolling out on November 12th, just under a week later.

Tesla also confirmed that there were no real-life impacts - so no collisions, injuries, or fatalities as a result of this bug while it was in the wild. They did note that 76 warranty claims were filed during the 6-day period, which helped to isolate the issue.

OTA Recalls Now Recognized by NHTSA 

Not a Tesla App

According to a post by DriveTeslaCA, the NHTSA has now added an icon to their website indicating whether a recall is fixed via an OTA software update. 

The message reads: “Software Update Repairs Recall”. 

That’s certainly a step forward, letting users know the issue will be addressed via a software update and they won’t need to bring their car into service. We’d like to see NHTSA next adopt some of the lessons learned by Transport Canada, which issues recalls solely by e-mail.

NHTSA will be using approximately 50 trees worth of paper to print and ship the recall notices, which will likely arrive sometime in January - months after the issue has already been resolved by Tesla.

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