I got the same issue. I try to call the dealer to figure it out but they told me they do not have any idea about it and will go asking the factory to find out and I need to wash the car by hand or no wash car before it. But I did it after serval trying. there are some steps
1. Make sure to disable the AUTO HOLD and auto start/stop
2. Disable the parking assistance
3. Use the N
4. DO NOT OPEN the car door after the car is on the rail. This means you or the car wash guy has to stay in the car until the end of processing. If the door was opened, the auto park system will lock the car and you have to do all of these again
it is just a personal experience. I will discuss it with the dealer later to make sure it is good or not.

 

Experienced that auto stop unbuckling seat belt first on wife’s Discovery. As I posted earlier if I use an auto car wash I turn off auto stop start feature and forward collision alert. Obviously neutral and wipers off. Yes it would be a problem with a hard press of brakes for a brake hold but mine is off in settings. I also turn off parking sense. All pretty quick once you have done it once or twice. Seems the book said to turn off forward collision alert when I first looked it up. Then I thought I noticed the book had changed their recommendation on automatic washes to a no. Yes just confirmed that. Probably because of these issues. I imagine there will be a magic car wash bottom in the future that disables all of these features.

That’s the issue with an online manual. Always up to date but we don’t get a notice when they have changed something we already read.

 

Silly to have this many hoops to jump through in automatic car washes these days with monthly wash subscriptions fast becoming the norm. IMO they do need a button or something if there's this many options to toggle. With my Q5 I put it in neutral when given the signal and turn off the wipers. I get beeping and what not from the parking sensors when going through, I can toggle that off right away, at the exit I have to tap on the brake while putting it into drive and that's that.

I'd hate to have to cancel my subscription when I get the Defender but if I need to screw around the infotainment system to toggle off options and eyeball a checklist just to get through the thing every few days, wow, it seems like a losing battle. I may need to see if there's a touch-less car wash drive thru subscription available somewhere.

 

The attendant at my car wash buckles the driver seatbelt before getting in the car and driving it to the conveyor, then he moves the transmission to Neutral and jumps out, leaving the seatbelt buckled. That seems to do the trick. Not sure if he disables auto stop/start as well, I only saw him doing the seatbelt trick.

 

I had my Discovery Sport lock me out at the car wash this morning. The attendant put the seat belt on and out the car in neutral. When the car came out at the other end it was locked. I tried using the app but it informed me that the car is running so all of the safety features of the app were disabled. I had a running car in neutral and my keys were in the cupholder. Landrover said it is for safety but locking the user out of the vehicle seems to defeat the purpose. They sent out a lock out tech to break into the car and open the windows with a rod. Seems a little disappointing they dont have a software update to solve this..

 

I used a new touchless wash near me at the weekend. Car was very muddy. It did a great job unfortunately. Much better job than I do myself at the DIY washes. It's cleaner than at any point since we drove it home 6+ months ago. The last step before drying was a ceramic coating. Really brings out the shine. It even has a high clearance so I was able to use it with ski's and recovery boards on the roof rack. (Free ski waxing FTW)

I'm far too lazy to wash my car any more often than the other half demands. A muddy Land Rover is a happy Land Rover.

Drive in, stuck it in park and turned it off. Car washes must be more complicated elsewhere I guess.

 

I've been posting this around but here's my list, since my first couple trips thru the car wash in my Defender were hilariously embarrassing.

DEFENDER CAR WASH CHECK LIST

Wipers off
Enhanced hill hold off (main settings screen w gear - on right)
Auto start/stop off (by climate controls)
Emergency braking off (vehicle settings)
(Rear traffic braking off)
Then - Neutral / don’t step on brake, & leave seat belt on / latched (or it will go into park)

FYI to "you shouldn't go thru the car wash" crowd -- I am one of you. really really. In theory I only HAND WASH my cars (all 5 of them) but it's impractical in the winter in Oregon on a daily driver vehicle to do so. I have a concours winning Porsche, that's been detailed & prepped and displayed at Monterey Car Week (an 80's car exhibit...). So I know what's up with automatic car washing, detailing, and how bad auto washes are.

But for a daily driver -- if you can find a touch free wash that isn't a crappy one, and live in a winter / gross climate, touch free is the way to go. I run my dailies thru a touchfree car wash in Lake Oswego that is very high end, modern... and doesn't do any damage. And it does good enough. It has a little moving conveyor belt on both sides, like a grocery store checkout lane, so the car wheels aren't turning, but the vehicle is moving. I drive 20 mins each way to get to this one specific touch free wash.

 

Great update, @nashvegas . I'm going to pin/save that one for the advice.

In my mind, I love the Defenders because it allows everyone to make it "their version" of a great Vehicle. For those who want a bad-***, unique truck/car with no thought of going "off-road" in any material sense, it's a gorgeous design. Ok, I too will bitch that it doesn't look like the Defender1's, but it does grow on you. In those cases, treat it with kid gloves, wash it with care, yada yada yada. For those of you who are off-road Houligans and have taken it off road, the trees, branches, and other debris that rub the sides and attempt to give you Kentucky pin-stripes will give you MUCH worse damage than any auto car wash. Defenders are no more or less susceptible to them than other cars/trucks. Do you. Take it thru or not. Use the Defender whatever way you jam.

 

I'm not hand washing my truck if I have to get an extension ladder out just to reach the windshield!

 

Ran my wife’s Defender through a newly opened automatic car wash. Made sure auto-wipers were off and the trans in neutral. No problems and a great wash. Zero problems.