So the first thing people will say is that I'm the moron for letting someone else wash/detail my car. I agree, so no arguments. I'm just expressing the pain of that consequence....

At a car wash a few days ago, as "good" as one is going to get (I thought) without you doing it yourself. I always get the mini-detail on a weekly basis, and doing the regular detail (about $140) every month, with twice annual (yet to be) full detail.

Had just come back from a scenic drive through route 2 Angeles National Forest in socal and had a ton of bugs to clean off so I went to my regular car wash.

The person waxing my car does a pretty decent job for an express detail - but I see from about 50 feet away that she is wiping down the hood area with hood open.

Just as my brain engages to start thinking I should walk over there to make sure she understands how to close a porsche hood, push on crest, don't push on crest debate aside - just don't slam the hood shut.

But in Matrix-like slow motion I see the horror start to happen. With the hood 3/4 raised high, she slams it down shut. Vocal cords contract, slow motion scream starts.

Ouch. I took a look and everything seems fine, although I'm paranoid now that my hood seems to rest a tiny bit lower below the groove than before but my SA says that is normal for porsches. So seems I got lucky or a few times closing like that isn't going to wreck anything but man, that was just painful to watch and hear.

 

when i first got my car i did it once, till i realized u gotta push it regardless how u shut... its fine tho..

glad to hear it didnt explode into a million pieces ;-)

 

I recently had this same thing happen when the guy who was doing my windshield replacement did the same thing. I about had a heart attack when I saw him going to slam the trunk closed. I tried to scream, but the words just did not come out. UGH.

 

funny story and not funny at the same time, seen it too glad your car is ok...carwash vs. Porsche =

 

It's normal. I bought my car used, and I noticed that the leading edge of the hood is a little lower than the trailing edge of the nose. So I went by the dealer after hours and ran my finger along the edges of a few cars and found that the P-cars can definitely have a height differential on the leading edge of the hood. Some cars had more than others.

I'm sure that no damage was done.

 

Highly frustrating. No one seems to use their brain: they are just caught into the routine of the task at hand. They'd have to care to pay attention and do the "right" thing. See it every day.

Did you say anything to her in the end?

 

It is always scary when other people touch my car. They will never care for it the way I do.

 

Exactly.

 

^^Exactly...try to avoid other people, not familiar with Porsche, touching your car.

I'm sure it's fine. Lesson learned. From the title, I thought it was going to be worse than this. Don't you hate those moments when you can see the future, but think to yourself that maybe it won't happen, but then before you can intervene, the very thing you knew was going to happen, happens! Ugh, I hate that and kick myself twice for not opening my mouth every time.

J

 

I pride myself on taking blame when I know really in the end it's my own fault. Taking it out on some minimum wage employee isn't my style when at the end of the day I was just stupid vs. she being simply ignorant. In my defense a car wash that bills itself as routinely washing "high end" cars should be counted on to know details like don't slam porsche hoods, and don't rub down NAV screens and scratch them. But in hindsight I was really dumb for not making sure they knew what to do.

So yes, I did offer some advice afterwards for not only Porsche, but any hood which has shocks on it should be closed. I like to think that even if I never read the manual, this board, or a service advisor - I would simply realize that when you hold the hood at 3/4 height, the shocks make the hood go UP if you release the hood, not down. So clearly, slamming the sucker down from that height is not the intended design.

But I also realize that nothing prevented me from taking a stupid 30seconds to walk over before anyone touched my car and just explain that. So my bad, just painful though to watch it happen.

 

glad to hear YOU didnt explode into a million pieces

 

OK, then to push on crest or not to push on crest?

 

I was told to push an inch lower than the crest, towards the front lip of the hood. The fella who did my ventureshield was told that either area was OK, but to push gently until you hear a "click"

 

Check the owner's manual - it tells you where to push.

 

Look at where the hook is on the inside of the hood and apply pressure on the outside of the hood at said location.

Guys, any of you has the manual in .pdf format?