BMW X3 Owners Manual: Automatic car washes

Hints

• Give preference to cloth car washes or those that use soft brushes in order to avoid paint damage.
• Make sure that the wheels and tires are not damaged by the transport mechanisms.
• Fold in the exterior mirrors; otherwise, they may be damaged, depending on the width of the vehicle.
• Deactivate the rain sensor, to avoid unintentional wiper activation.
• In some cases, an unintentional alarm can be triggered by the interior motion sensor of the alarm system. Follow the instructions on avoiding an unintentional alarm.

Guide rails in car washes

Avoid car washes with guide rails higher than 4 in/10 cm; otherwise, the vehicle body could be damaged.

Before driving into a car wash In order to ensure that the vehicle can roll in a car wash, take the following steps: Steptronic transmission:

1. Drive into the car wash.

2. Engage selector lever position N.

3. Deactivating Automatic Hold.

4. Release the parking brake.

5. Switch the engine off.

In this way, the ignition remains switched on, and a Check-Control message is displayed.

Do not turn off the ignition in the car wash

Do not turn off the ignition in the car wash; otherwise, selector lever position P is engaged and damages can result.

The vehicle cannot be locked from the outside when in selector lever position N. A signal sounds when an attempt is made to lock the vehicle.

To start the engine with Steptronic transmission:

1. Depress the brake pedal.

2. Press the Start/Stop button.

Pressing the Start/Stop button without stepping on the brake turns the ignition off.

Selector lever position Selector lever position P is engaged automatically:

• When the ignition is switched off.
• After approx. 15 minutes.