Which Screen Wash is best?

[Ian S]

One that gets that waxy film off.

I cleaned the outer glass with Autoglym car glass polish. That did appear to get off all but some 'ground in' rubber.

The glass was see through once again :)

But, as we almost all know, after very little driving in the wet, those spots of waxy film began to re-deposit, and they just accumulate until I get out the glass polish again, which I can't be bothered to keep doing. I put nearly neat 'normal' screen wash in there this time. No effect.

I just ordered some Dr OK Wack wash additive to see if that's as good as they say.

It costs £9 + £6 post for 250ml but it is a concentrate and makes perhaps 50 litres. Plus antifreeze (or normal screen wash) is still needed in the water.

Autoglym wash additive costs about £2.50 for 500ml but makes 16 litres.

I've not tried the Autoglym.

I have tried Holtz Mixra. It's a foam in an aerosol. Does seem to cut through the wax. But not all that convenient as one has to stop the car and get out to apply it.

What are your recommendations to deal with this hard to remove residue please. :)

[JRP]

Ian at a stab does the (in the rain, wiper wipes and your left blinded for a second before screen clears syndrome get you?)

If so, if you find the answer please let me know i hate this. :)

[phase i 16 v turbo]

Vinegar and some old newspaper. Smells a little strong but works a treat.

[The new Bill J]

Vinegar and some old newspaper. Smells a little strong but works a treat.

Do you screw the paper up, and stick it in the reservoir with the vinegar? :D

[JRP]

Vinegar and some old newspaper. Smells a little strong but works a treat.

Im trying to loose weight, after every squirt of screen wash ile be found in a chip shop! any non tempting screen wash remodys

[Ian S]

Vinegar and some old newspaper. Smells a little strong but works a treat.

Thanks for that suggestion. :)

I think I tried that combination and found it to be an exersice in pointlessness. I'm not saying it doesn't work, I've heard that recommendation many times, just that I have a shortage of patience and gave up and went for other cleaners and purpose designed cloths and found those to be effective within my calmness span before vexation set in.

Autoglym Car glass cleaner being the best / easiest to use / quickest.

The word on the detailing sites and other places is that the throw away all purpose blue and white cloths from Wilkinson do the job well. So that's what I used. Cheap too. I actually cleaned the screen, IIRC, about 9 times, mostly using Bounty kitchen roll, with the cloth coming off black (all right, very dark grey!) nearly all of those times, then eventually clear.

To get that ground in rubber off, they say the best way is to machine mob with Autoglym glass polish.

On the not effective enough list are:
All the normal screen washes.
Fairy liquid.
Vinegar.
IMS (Industrial Methylated spirit).
IPA (Iso Propyl Alcohol)
Mr Muscle glass cleaner.
Windolene (the cream in the old fashioned mauve bottle. Cleaned as well as Autoglym but took longer more effort for the same result. Lower £ though.).


Anyway, back to the question.....

Screen washes

:)

[Ian S]

Do you screw the paper up, and stick it in the reservoir with the vinegar? :D

What he said :)

[scratcher]

Are we talkingabout stuff to put in the washer bottle?
If so, stay well clear of alcohol gel. My dad thought he'd be clever and put it in all the cars in the winter to stop it freezing. It did prevent the icing, but when it ran low it clogged the pipes up a treat :dearme: and made a nice smeary mess of the screen.

[Ian S]

Are we talkingabout stuff to put in the washer bottle?

Yes :)

[Sparkie]

i use the VAG stuff that GSF sell. - its a light turquoise colour and smells very strong! but cleans effectively. They say you are only supposed to use it for windscreen washer jets that spray in a fan pattern. - yeah right....

[Ian S]

i use the VAG stuff that GSF sell

I read about that on the Briskoda forum (a Google return). Many of them use it, but many others had discovered Lidl's one, the name was W5, and said it was better than the VAG stuff.

Found a link at Detailing world:

http://www.detailingworld.com/forum/showthread.php?t=107020

Ho hum, W5, Wack 5?? As in Dr Wack. But £1 per bottle instead of £9. I knew that was as bit of a rip off though, as it's about £7.50 in Germany, but I could find only one seller of it in the UK.

This W5 looks very similar too. It even called 1:100. The Dr Wack stuff is called CW1:100.

http://www.wackchem.com/cw1100-super-deutsch/cw1100-super.html

[Ian S]

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?p=1055675

Seems like the VAG stuff, Vauxhall stuff, Sonax stuff is all the same.

Good, but not as good as the Lidl / Wack stuff. (except these still need antifreeze)

[Sparkie]

i'd swear the VW OE stuff is a different colour to the sonax one.

although the lidl one sounds superb.

[ROB C2GTT]

My water injection tank is my washer bottle, i put methanol in it and the screen cleans up well!! I use turtle wax glass cleaner too which i must say is good.

[J$£5GTT]

i use rain x,seems to keep it not to shabby..find insects more annoying at
this time of year rather than oily crud.
:cool:

[Ian S]

The Dr Wack arrived this am and I got it into the car this pm.

Well it seemed to straight away clear the waxy spots. But I'll know more accurately when the screen is next with dew on one night, or in the wet.

Here's the instruction leaflet that Frost's sent me. It's entirely in German!

So can someone translate?

Seems that there are many similar cleaners in similar bottles. So the Aldi one may or may not be some other make.

http://www.rtoc.org/boards/album.php?albumid=2&pictureid=8524
http://www.rtoc.org/boards/album.php?albumid=2&pictureid=8523
http://www.rtoc.org/boards/album.php?albumid=2&pictureid=8522
http://www.rtoc.org/boards/album.php?albumid=2&pictureid=8521

[Ian S]

Was driving in the rain last night.

So, initially, before moving off or squirting some water washer loaded with the new cleaner, first few sweeps of the wipers wetted with just rain, bad coating of little waxy dots.

Squirt the stuff, screen goes see through with just one wipe! No waxy dots or smears. Just a clear screen :)

So drive off and on to the dual carriageway. Dots reappear after a mile or so. Another squirt and they're gone again.

Then they reappear again. Squirt, gone again. Repeat this all the 15 minute drive home.

Then I sat outside in the rain with the wipers on. Not now collecting any more road spray. The dots appear again! Then I leave it just being wiped for a minute of so and the dots turn into severe streaky smears.

One squirt and they're gone again. But then return again. Etc.

So,

It seems rather like the Dr Wack is not actually cleaning at all, just wetting and making the normally water repellent dots and smears water attracting, so they look like they're gone, but actually haven't.

This works OK provided you squirt more of it on every mile or few. Rapidly using it and needing to go and buy more! Call me a cynic if you like but that's good way to make money!

So the screen does still need to be cleaned with glass polish or something.

But, in between those cleans, while travelling on the motorway in a mist of waxy diesel fume residue, this stuff seems to keep the screen clearer than with just ordinary screen wash in the washer bottle.