Having a bit of a nightmare with the windscreen on my car.

It’s smearing badly which is making driving in the rain at night pretty uncomfortable.

I have tried the following:

brand new wiper blades (cleaned before being put on)
Autoglym Fast Glass
Halfords Glass Cutter
Autoglym Intensive Tar Remover
Isopropyl Alcohol
Vinegar + newspaper
Voodoo dancing and chanting

Despite all of the above, applied with lots of elbow grease (with that blue paper you find in workshops, or microfibre cloths), it’s still smearing.

I’ve also replaced all the washer fluid with some deionised pre-mixed stuff.

It looks like the previous owner may have been liberally applying that Rain X stuff all over the windscreen.

No accidental impact with brick suggestions please.

I’ve ordered a clay bar which should be here in a few days, but other than that I feel like the only option left is a mild abrasive with a buffer pad attached to a drill.

Anyone got any other suggestions?

are you parking under a tree at home or work?

smash it and claim a new one on the insurance.

There are huge trees close by andy, but none directly above the car.

smash it and claim a new one on the insurance.

🙂

No accidental impact with brick suggestions please.

brand new wiper blades (cleaned before being put on)

Try some new blades – I’m not sure cleaning new blades is a good idea.

If that fails try more Rain X – I use it without any problems.

is a mild abrasive with a buffer pad attached to a drill

you’ll get some interesting light patterns in low winter sunlight!

tbh what I would do is…

Clean with IPA you have using a non-scratch scourer and then a cotton rag.

You could also then try a bit of acetone BUT it will ruin your paintwork and rubber seals so you would have to be very careful putting it on some cloth away from the car and then making sure it’s not dripping clean just the glass. (edit: cover the bodywork with something)

New blades – I always use Bosch – GSF is the cheapest generally.

Check the springs in your wiper arms – they may have lost the tension so are not pressing hard enough.

If that fails try more Rain X – I use it without any problems.

Doesn’t it smear like crazy though when you do have to use your wipers?

you’ll get some interesting light patterns in low winter sunlight!

ha ha, indeed. I was going to take it to a detailers and get them to do it. Saw some pretty impressive results they did on a car which had bad wiper scratching

Clean with IPA you have using a non-scratch scourer and then a cotton rag.

You could also then try a bit of acetone BUT it will ruin your paintwork and rubber seals so you would have to be very careful putting it on some cloth away from the car and then making sure it’s not dripping clean just the glass. (edit: cover the bodywork with something)

New blades – I always use Bosch – GSF is the cheapest generally.

Check the springs in your wiper arms – they may have lost the tension so are not pressing hard enough.

cheers andy. The new blades are Bosch. I’ll check the springs. I’ve been a bit nervous about acetone, but may protect the area as far as possible and give it a go…

your going to laugh but

get a tin of coke – open it and pour it all over the window…..

then wash the car as normal.

Never fails for me.

Blade orientation. New windscreen won’t solve the problem. Use more rain-x anyway as it’ll bead the water and at least allow you to see for now.

I’ve never had any issues using Rain-X but it doesn’t last long once you start using windscreen wash so I can’t believe it’s the cause of your smearing.

I had a similar issue with a new car, turned out to be Wax (from factory) I ended up using a buffing compound on an electric polisher to sort it

Cheers guys.

I’ve just ordered some 303 Wiper Treatment to give the new blades a good lubrication (i’m wondering whether I’ve managed to clean the windscreen well, but also taken off some of the blades lubiricant too).

rain-x comes off readily with halfords glass cutter so I wouldn’t think it was that. IIRC it actually mentions that as one of its uses on the bottle.

Considering how much effort and chemical warfare i’ve applied to the windscreen, i’d actually be surprised if there is anything left…so perhaps it is more likely to be wiper/wiper alignment?

I’ll focus the next batch of efforts on the blades and see if that improves things.