Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with windshield

I can see, I can see perfectly. I can see that van over there

twine42 — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 10:03:48 -0800

Why are windscreen wipers so, well, crap? Am I mistreating my wipers? Is there a better brand to use? The entire time I've been driving (I got my license in 94) I've been unimpressed with windscreen wipers.

Unless there's a good downpour, wipers always seem to leave multiple parallel streaks across the path of the blade. It's often bad enough that I consider it a risk to my view of the road.

It's always been the same on every car I've owned. I've used Bosch branded blades, motor factor own-brand blades, budget ones and OEM ones. They've all been awful. They work for maybe a week at most and then fail. This has been on everything from a 70s Austins to a 5 year old Skoda.

In fact, they're normally bad enough that I tend to put my cars in for their MOT test with spare blades in the boot, but the testers have never failed the car on them.

Presumably I'm being fussier than the testers.

Other than washing the car and using an all-over wax, I do no maintenance to the screen or blades. I used to try cleaning the blade itself, but I've given up on that as it seemed to make no difference.

So, what can I do to improve the performance of the blades? What blades (in the UK) could you recommend as being the best?

Please tell me how not to melt in my car.

luckyveronica — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 11:36:47 -0800

I'm driving around, it's not even 70 degrees outside, and the inside of my car feels like a greenhouse. The interior of my car seems to draw heat. Even on a pleasant day that doesn't require air conditioning, the inside can get stifling.

I'm not talking about the heat that comes after leaving my car parked in the sun--I mean that even when I'm driving and the A/C is running cool, sometimes it's hot in my car anyway. I'll feel the A/C wherever it's blowing directly on me, but otherwise I and my unhappy passengers are surrounded by heat.

My car has a black dashboard and no real tint on the windows. Could this be the cause? My car is 9 years old and in decent conidtion, but I will probably buy something new in the next year or so. Is there a solution that's not too expensive, so that I don't bake in the warm weather this year?

Also, could a windshield tint strip help--something like this, or should I get it done professionally? Assuming my un-tinted windshield is the source of my misery.

Thanks

Need a dispenser here.

Diskeater — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 14:42:04 -0800

Front windshield washer fluid dispenser doesn't dispense. This feels like an easy fix....is it? At the start of the year, my girlfriend and I bought a new 2009 Nissan Versa while visiting family up in Vermont (we live in the Boston area). The car had to be delivered from another dealer so she went up a week later to get it and discovered a crack in the windshield. We took it back to the dealer to be replaced at their expense and had some friends drive it down to us last weekend. They reported that the front windshield washer dispenser doesn’t work. Awesome.

When I try to dispense the windshield washer fluid, the wipers activate and it sounds like it’s trying to dispense the liquid but nothing happenes. The rear dispenser works just fine.

I’ve tried holding the lever down for a while to get out any air packets but that did not work. I doubt the nozzles are frozen because the temperature hasn’t been below freezing for quite a few days and they used the “good” fluid that won’t freeze ever.

Since everything sounds like it should be working fine, I’m assuming that the dealer didn’t hook everything up properly when they replaced the windshield and this should be an easy fix but I’m not mechanically inclined and I don’t know enough to trace which tubes go to where.

I’m assuming that this is an easy fix if all that needs to be done is hook up a tube to a nozzle but I don’t know where to look. I would like to attempt to fix this issue before calling the dealer because if I can get it done myself, all the better.

Can anyone offer any tips? Google / Nissan forums were no help. Thanks!

Are there differences between car ice scrapers?

wukkuan — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 12:03:14 -0800

Are there differences between car ice scrapers? The winter is fast approaching. I've already had to scrape frost off my car windows a couple of times. I am curious to know if anyone has found any ice scrapers which seem to be significantly better than others?

I live in the mountains of Western North Carolina. Snow isn't much of a problem, and ice isn't too common, but in the dead of winter there will be frost on my window almost every day. That is my prime target, frost.

Minneapolis/St. Paul Auto Glass Replacement Recommendations

hootch — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 11:38:33 -0800

Recommendations on an auto glass company in Minneapolis/St. Paul? I need to have the windshield replaced on my 2001 Toyota Corolla. Does anyone have recommendations on companies in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area that could do this cheaply? As I don't have glass coverage, that's my main requirement. I'd also like them to come to me to replace it, but I'll bring it to them if it ends up bringing the cost down.

Why replace a cracked windshield immediately?

sacre_bleu — Thu, 08 May 2008 15:01:03 -0800

Please help me decide whether a cracked auto windshield ought to be replaced quickly, and not simply endured. I have a 2000 Honda Accord whose windshield I've replaced twice because of cracks from pebbles spit up by trucks on the highway.
The latest pebble pit took six months to strerch from side to side across the top quarter of the windshield. (Impact crater near center.)

I have the money to replace it, but I'm dawdling. Part of me hesitates because I had a new winshield for less than a month between cracks last time. The cracked windshield currently in the car has withstood a couple of half-inch pebble assaults, so it's not super-fragile.

How far, or how long, have you driven with a cracked windshield without incident? Or, what happened to your cracked windshield that made you wish you'd swapped it out sooner?

Please contribute experiences or insights to help me decide whether I'm being a stingy fool.

So, on Monday I went to move my car only to discover that my front windshield is all cracked up and I have a lot of questions.

nooneyouknow — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 09:14:41 -0800

So, on Monday I went to move my car, after 4 days of being parked in the same place, only to discover that my front windshield is all cracked up and I have a lot of questions. From my cursory internet research it looks like the damage is too extensive to be repaired. How long does it take repair/replace a windshield? Ballpark, how much will it cost to get it replaced? My car is a 2004 Hyundai Elantra sedan. Do all of the glass repair people really come to your house to fix or replace the windshield?

My deductible is 500, since I assume the windshield will probably cost less than that to be replaced, should I file a claim with my insurance company, Progessive, anyway? Will my rates go up if I go through my Progressive? Progressive likes to use Safelite "or an affiliate in Progressive's network of approved glass shops". Anyone know anything about Safelite?

What about going to a Hyundai dealer to get it done? My car is still under warranty. Is the glass you get at the glass repair shop as good as the glass you get from the dealer? My windshield is tinted at the top, will the replacement be tinted?

Should I file a police report? I have no idea how it happened or who did it. It happened sometime between 7pm Thursday and 10am Monday.

Anything I should look out for in this process?

hardwater stains

Infernarl — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 11:29:39 -0800

I just bought a new car, and it was kept out on the lot. I live in Portland where it rains a lot. It seems to have hard water stains all over (they are like permanent little droplets). What are some good ways to get them off? Windex does nothing!!

Is there another method of placing bumper stickers?

shabazosu — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 11:22:44 -0800

For school, we are required to have this bumper sticker on either our back bumpers or back windshield. I am highly anti-bumper sticker, so I have not even considered placing the sticker on my bumper, thats out of the question. Is there an "easy" way or method or trick to place the sticker on the inside of my back windshield that can be easily removed?

How do I remove this parking-deck-drip stain from my car's paint and windshield?

Askr — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 09:57:24 -0800

How can I get this parking-deck-drip-residue off of my car's paint and windshield? Do you park in a parking deck regularly? Has it dripped on your car from its cement ceiling when it has rained? Has it left this faint whitish residue on your car? Have you found anything that will get it off of either glass or paint?

A guy at the carwash told me this stuff is not unusual for people in parking decks. He didn't know how to get it off though and didn't mention what it was, e.g. something leeching out of the cement, paint from the parking space stripes, etc. It's like it's some kind of mineral stain, faint and just a hair this side of transparent, just ever so slightly white, if anything.

I've tried all the normal kind of cleaners on it such as windex, car wash soap, even (if I remember) CLR (Calcium/Lime/Rust), at least on the windshield. I was afraid to try that on the paint.

WTF is this stuff and how can I get it off?

I am the viper. I come to vipe the vindows.

AngerBoy — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 19:33:34 -0800

When running the windshield wipers in my car, the center of the blades skid across the glass with an incredibly irritating sque-e-e-eking sound (sort of what it sounds like when you rub an inflated balloon with your hand). For some reason, the blades seem to be encountering friction on the glass, and they're skidding across rather than wiping smoothly (the amount of rain or wiper-fluid doesn't seem to make any difference). This results in a series of jaggy wet lines across the windshield, right across my field of view - not to mention the grating sound that is very nearly driving me insane. So what can I do about this? I've tried wiping off the blades and the glass by hand, but that rarely works for more than a day. Could I put WD-40 or some kind of lubricant on the blades, or would that just make things smudgier? What about something like Rain-X? If it matters, the car is a 2007 Honda.

How can I get this strange fog off the inside of my windshield?

eralclare — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 09:09:10 -0800

My old Toyota Camry gets a strange oily build up on the inside of the windshield every month and a half--traditional cleaning methods don't work. How do I clean it? Help me not crash and die. My '87 Toyota Camry has seen better days, but it has no leaks. Nevertheless, every month+ or so, a build-up accumulates on the inside of the windshield, making rain/nighttime driving scary as hell.

I've tried traditional glass cleaners--they simply move the fog around, creating even more annoying swirls. Someone suggested using alcohol, which works slightly better (but it still means I have to scrub the whole windshield several times in order to make my car driveable again).

What is this stuff and how can I get rid of it more easily? My month is up and I've got to clean again this weekend.

Chipped windshield: should I have it replaced? Or just have the chip filled in?

stilly — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 01:53:32 -0800

Chipped windshield: should I have it replaced? Or just have the chip filled in? I want my windshield to look as good as new... does that mean I need to get a new one? Driving home yesterday I had a rock hit my windshield... now I have a chip in it (maybe the size of a nickel). It looks like I have a couple of options: I can try to go to a repair shop and see if they can fill it in with some resin/goo stuff (not sure the technical name for this), or I can get the entire windshield replaced.

From what I've read, the repair will certainly be cheaper than the replacement, but I wonder if it will work as well. Does anyone know how well this resin stuff works (assuming I have it professionally done)? Will it still look a little funny? I'm kind of OCD, so if my windshield looks funky after the repair it will probably drive me crazy... should I just suck up the extra cash and have the windshield replaced? Also has anyone successfully gotten their insurance to pay for this sort of repair/replacement?

Any advice would be appreciated. It's an 06 Prius, and my insurance is GEICO, if either of those are at all relevant...

More Suction!!

briank — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 10:15:56 -0800

I bought a car GPS unit a couple of months ago and it came with a windshield mount that uses a suction cup. I have had a helluva time getting the suction cup to stay on the windshield. I've tried the trick I learned playing with rubber dart guns as a kid -- basically licking the cup so that the saliva helps hold the seal -- but even that doesn't keep the thing stuck on for long. Any ideas?

I don't think they'd be that distracting, honestly.

boo_radley — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 18:40:51 -0800

The back window of my car has little defrosting wires running through it to keep it clear in snowy weather. Why doesn't my windshield?

Insect Chemistry

dminor — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 11:59:22 -0800

a bug hit my car's windshield. it was a large bug so it left a pretty large smear. this happened five days ago.

last night was the first time it rained since then. when i came out to my car this morning on the spot where the bug smear had been there was now a large (at least 10x volume) blob of clear gelatinous (exactly like pure gelatin) material.

what is that about? any ideas?

Can I slow down the spreading of a windshield crack?

amro — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 07:38:31 -0800

Cracked Windshield Filter: Anyone ever successfully slowed down the spreading of a windshield crack? Mine's moving at about an inch a day and I'd really like to put off getting a new windshield for as long as possible.

Attach My EZ-Pass

XQUZYPHYR — Wed, 22 Sep 2004 19:44:56 -0800

When I replaced cars recently, I kept my EZ-Pass (toll paying thingie, for anyone living where it has a different name) device, but of course couldn't keep the velcro strips that went on the old car's windshield. I tried buying generic velcro stick-on tabs at Pep Boys, but they all proved too lightweight for a heavy bulky EZ-Pass unit. I need the extra-durable ones that come with the pass, but two e-mails and a phone message to EZ-Pass has left no response... is there anywhere I can buy the velcro strips on their own, without having to order an entire new device?