# Hitting brakes in car wash



## titleman (Sep 29, 2019)

When I enter a car wash I'm instructed to put car in neutral. At the end of the wash you wait for a green light, put car in drive and then exit. I cannot put the car in drive until I hit the brakes and this really makes me nervous as sometimes the car behind you is very close. 

Does anyone else have this problem or am I worrying needlessly?


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## gladdjo214 (May 13, 2013)

I have the same exact problem with my 2018. Definitely a little nerve racking when you have someone right behind you. I try to quickly tap my breaks to get it back into drive. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. 

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## D3Audi (Feb 18, 2016)

Just lightly tap them. If you press the brake pedal even 1cm it’ll allow you to shift. 


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## 2019TiguanSELPRLINE (Nov 24, 2019)

I don’t know what you are talking about but when my tig is running and I’m in neutral I can shift into park without using the brake. 


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## GTINC (Jan 28, 2005)

titleman said:


> When I enter a car wash I'm instructed to put car in neutral. At the end of the wash you wait for a green light, put car in drive and then exit. I cannot put the car in drive until I hit the brakes and this really makes me nervous as sometimes the car behind you is very close.
> 
> Does anyone else have this problem or am I worrying needlessly?


What exactly is the problem here? How does the brake lights coming on effect the driver behind other in a very safe way?


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## DCdubz111 (Mar 20, 2020)

A good car wash place should have at least a car length stagger before letting the other car go!!


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## gti_addict (Nov 22, 2000)

titleman said:


> I cannot put the car in drive until I hit the brakes



I'm sorry but isn't this expected behavior for an automatic that you cannot shift the car into Drive without pressing on the brake pedal?


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## Stonezulla (Feb 6, 2013)

gti_addict said:


> I'm sorry but isn't this expected behavior for an automatic that you cannot shift the car into Drive without pressing on the brake pedal?


Not if you are in neutral. If you are in N you can do to D without hitting the brake.


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## titleman (Sep 29, 2019)

First one for me that required brakes to go to from neutral to drive.


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## GTINC (Jan 28, 2005)

titleman said:


> First one for me that required brakes to go to from neutral to drive.


And how many keyless vehicles with auto have you owned?


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## JNabeel (Nov 28, 2012)

titleman said:


> When I enter a car wash I'm instructed to put car in neutral. At the end of the wash you wait for a green light, put car in drive and then exit. I cannot put the car in drive until I hit the brakes and this really makes me nervous as sometimes the car behind you is very close.
> 
> Does anyone else have this problem or am I worrying needlessly?


First of all, turn off the stop/start function (button his on center console right side of shift selector), secondly why would you ever take your car to a machine wash if you care about your car? 

Just wondering.


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## titleman (Sep 29, 2019)

JNabeel said:


> First of all, turn off the stop/start function (button his on center console right side of shift selector), secondly why would you ever take your car to a machine wash if you care about your car?
> 
> Just wondering.


I guess I've never cared about a car that much. I've probably owned 50 cars or more and never thought they were more than a vehicle to get you from point A to point B. The funny thing is I usually have a couple of people wanted to buy my cars when I get rid of them. I always thought the reason was that my cars always look nice and the people know I do my maintenance. Noone has every asked me if I use a machine wash


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## schagaphonic (Aug 24, 2008)

Just as you can creep a car along at a stop light with brakes ON, you can creep it at the end of the car wash.

You're just enabling the lockout switch to shift into drive, that's it. I use these machine washes all the time, no issues.


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## GTINC (Jan 28, 2005)

titleman said:


> I guess I've never cared about a car that much. I've probably owned 50 cars or more and never thought they were more than a vehicle to get you from point A to point B. The funny thing is I usually have a couple of people wanted to buy my cars when I get rid of them. I always thought the reason was that my cars always look nice and the people know I do my maintenance. Noone has every asked me if I use a machine wash


Well, I would never buy one of your vehicles due to the damaged paint surfaces.


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## ice4life (Nov 6, 2017)

2019TiguanSELPRLINE said:


> I don’t know what you are talking about but when my tig is running and I’m in neutral I can shift into park without using the brake.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Yeah but you can't shift from N to D without brake on any VW which is the issue. And I'm not sure why. Seems dumb. You can slap it from R to D without a brake, so why not N to D?


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## GTINC (Jan 28, 2005)

ice4life said:


> Yeah but you can't shift from N to D without brake on any VW which is the issue. And I'm not sure why. Seems dumb. You can slap it from R to D without a brake, so why not N to D?


Are you kidding/ You don't see the difference? :screwy:


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## Volkswagens-for-life (Jun 24, 2013)

I must be missing something, this is super simple. Rest your foot on the brake the slightest amount and then shift back into gear 😕


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## lschw1 (Apr 21, 2003)

Since 1983 my cars have been/are 4 GTIs, a Corrado, and a Golf Sportwagen. I hand washed those cars many many times. I took those vehicles to the car wash zero times because they aren't good enough and can scratch your car.


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## tcoradeschi (Jul 12, 2016)

titleman said:


> When I enter a car wash I'm instructed to put car in neutral. At the end of the wash you wait for a green light, put car in drive and then exit. I cannot put the car in drive until I hit the brakes and this really makes me nervous as sometimes the car behind you is very close.
> 
> Does anyone else have this problem or am I worrying needlessly?


You're worrying needlessly. The car behind you isn't really that close.


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## socialD (Sep 19, 2011)

They have to monitor those in case someone stalls out at the end or else it just turns into a big fender bender machine. Having to tap your brakes briefly isn't a problem at all.

Like this: 





Recommendation? Don't use them. Use a touchless car wash that is an automated bay with no tracks if you can't hand wash.

Though I would particularly avoid automated washes in general if you've got a sunroof.


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## CTPriceless (Jan 8, 2011)

Easy fix, buy a manual


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## titleman (Sep 29, 2019)

CTPriceless said:


> Easy fix, buy a manual


Geez thanks, I run out tomorrow morning early and trade. I always wanted to go back to what I drove in the 60s. With a little luck maybe I can get one without power windows and AC also.


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## GTINC (Jan 28, 2005)

titleman said:


> Geez thanks, I run out tomorrow morning early and trade. I always wanted to go back to what I drove in the 60s. With a little luck maybe I can get one without power windows and AC also.


So, you choose to not shift yourself because that is more "modern"?


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## CTPriceless (Jan 8, 2011)

Thats the spirit! All joking aside, I believe someone already mentioned pushing the brake just enough to disengage the switch but not stop the car, pretty sure thats all I did last time I was in an AT.


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## phlegm (Apr 24, 2019)

ice4life said:


> Yeah but you can't shift from N to D without brake on any VW which is the issue. And I'm not sure why. Seems dumb. You can slap it from R to D without a brake, so why not N to D?


I just tested this myself, and I can go from N to D, back to N without touching the brake. I've done this at speed, and when at a stop light without issue, so unsure why you'd need to. (?)

By any chance is the brake required when the sensors indicate something in range? That would explain the car wash scenario.


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## Loophole64 (Nov 20, 2007)

ice4life said:


> Yeah but you can't shift from N to D without brake on any VW which is the issue. And I'm not sure why. Seems dumb. You can slap it from R to D without a brake, so why not N to D?


Every automatic I've ever owned allows you to shift from D to N and back to D no problem. I do it at speed all the time. My GTI and my wife's GTI are no exception. Both are DSGs. Someone in this thread already said their Tig is the same. Something else is going on here.


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## gti_addict (Nov 22, 2000)

I just went out to my Tiguan to test this out and I'm pretty sure some information was left out without realizing. I tried out two scenarios for shifting from Neutral to Drive both with different outcomes and most likely both are expected behavior.

Scenario 1) Car is stopped and electronic parking brake *IS NOT* engaged. Car is in Neutral, shift into Drive *DOES* function without pressing the brake.

Scenario 2) Car is stopped and electronic parking brake *IS* engaged. Car is in Neutral, shift into Drive *DOES NOT* function without pressing the brake.

I think this comes down to was electronic parking brake engaged or not? Reading about the electronic parking brake this sounds like it's by design but this is only my opinion. Please keep in mind that I am not the engineer that designed this feature. 

So please before all the keyboard warriors start bashing me about how stupid I am, I'm only pointing out that there are different scenarios and behaviors to shifting and obviously not one specific to all possible scenarios.


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## phlegm (Apr 24, 2019)

gti_addict said:


> I just went out to my Tiguan to test this out and I'm pretty sure some information was left out without realizing. I tried out two scenarios for shifting from Neutral to Drive both with different outcomes and most likely both are expected behavior.
> 
> Scenario 1) Car is stopped and electronic parking brake *IS NOT* engaged. Car is in Neutral, shift into Drive *DOES* function without pressing the brake.
> 
> ...


I don't think anyone is bashing you here - we're just trying to sort this out.

Re the electronic parking brake, I take your point, but this shouldn't be relevant in the OP's car wash scenario. If the wash is the type where you have to be in Neutral, then one must be off the brakes, and the parking brake must be disengaged.

I'm thinking that the parking sensors are at play here. It might make sense for them to force a pedal press is something is within range. This is probably the case in a car wash, with tons of devices within "accident range". I wanted to test this, but didn't want to get too close to the car ahead. I may be able to test with a cardboard box or something.


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## titleman (Sep 29, 2019)

Thanks for helping to figure this out. I just came in from the garage after trying different senerios. Let me say first my Subaru Forester has no problem. I tried different senerios and came in to post the results and realized I jumped in the wrong car :laugh: Forgive me I'm old.

Now to the Tiguan. I tried a number of times and each time N to D worked fine. I then thought about the car wash and I was always at the exit when I have the problem so I backed in the garage and tried a number of times to exit. The results were somewhere arount 50/50. Sometime no probem at all and the next time I had to tap the brake. I'm really unfamiliar with the electronic paring brake but I've never set it myself but it does come on sometimes. I'm not sure what sets it.


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## GTINC (Jan 28, 2005)

titleman said:


> ....really unfamiliar with the electronic paring brake but I've never set it myself but it does come on sometimes. I'm not sure what sets it.


Gee, why not read that section of the OM? :screwy:


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## Volkswagens-for-life (Jun 24, 2013)

titleman said:


> Thanks for helping to figure this out. I just came in from the garage after trying different senerios. Let me say first my Subaru Forester has no problem. I tried different senerios and came in to post the results and realized I jumped in the wrong car :laugh: Forgive me I'm old.
> 
> Now to the Tiguan. I tried a number of times and each time N to D worked fine. I then thought about the car wash and I was always at the exit when I have the problem so I backed in the garage and tried a number of times to exit. The results were somewhere arount 50/50. Sometime no probem at all and the next time I had to tap the brake. I'm really unfamiliar with the electronic paring brake but I've never set it myself but it does come on sometimes. I'm not sure what sets it.


Every 'x' amount of miles of not using the parking brake it will auto-engage when you shut your car off as a form of a systems check


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## Sopey15 (Mar 12, 2019)

I saw this thread the other day and forgot to respond. I noticed a while back that my 2019 Tig requires the brake to be pressed when shifting from N to D and eventually looked it up in the manual.

This is what the manual states in regard to shifting from N to D and the function of the shift lock, relevant info has been bolded:


Automatic Shift Lock (ASL)
The Automatic Shift Lock (ASL) in Park (P) and Neutral (N) prevents drive positions from being engaged inadvertently, which would cause the vehicle to move.

To release the ASL, you must switch on the ignition, depress the brake pedal and hold it down while pressing the release button on the selector lever handle in the direction of the arrow ⇒ Fig. 116  to move the selector lever out of park (P) and into a drive gear.

The ASL is not engaged if the selector lever is moved quickly through Neutral (N) (e.g., when shifting from Reverse (R) to Drive (D/S)). This makes it possible to rock the vehicle backwards and forwards if it is stuck in snow or mud. *The ASL engages automatically if the brake pedal is not depressed, and the lever is in Neutral (N) for more than about 1 second, and the vehicle is traveling no faster than about 3 mph (5 km/h).*


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## robbery85 (Dec 10, 2016)

Experienced this today w/ my new Tig. Busy day at the car wash. I got a little nervous at the end of the wash (but probably not as nervous as the car behind me lol). Glad I found this post tho...now I know.


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