smeary windshield wipers

[Jason]

This is weird. My wife and I both drive fairly new Subarus. Mine is
about a year older, and since it was new I have never been happy with
the way the wipers leave a trailing hazy "glow" that disappates after a
few seconds, only to re-appear on the next swipe. My wife's car has no
such problems at all. I have tried various wiper blades, both Subaru and
OEM and the results are the same. I have tried all kinds of ways to
clean the windshield. Sometimes, after cleaning, the problem goes away
for a while, but after as little as a half hour it comes back. It's as
if there was a bit of oil on the windshield. I'm left wondering if the
car itself is "venting" something oily from under the hood that's
winding up on the windshield. Most recently, I tried a cleaning product,
"No Touch" recommended by the local parts dealer. It claims to remove
everything. It worked well...for a while. I've also tried RainX which
itself is pretty amazing, but the problem recurs after an hour or so.
Any ideas?

TIA

Jason

 

[Carl 1 Lucky Texan]

This is weird. My wife and I both drive fairly new Subarus. Mine is
about a year older, and since it was new I have never been happy with
the way the wipers leave a trailing hazy "glow" that disappates after a
few seconds, only to re-appear on the next swipe. My wife's car has no
such problems at all. I have tried various wiper blades, both Subaru and
OEM and the results are the same. I have tried all kinds of ways to
clean the windshield. Sometimes, after cleaning, the problem goes away
for a while, but after as little as a half hour it comes back. It's as
if there was a bit of oil on the windshield. I'm left wondering if the
car itself is "venting" something oily from under the hood that's
winding up on the windshield. Most recently, I tried a cleaning product,
"No Touch" recommended by the local parts dealer. It claims to remove
everything. It worked well...for a while. I've also tried RainX which
itself is pretty amazing, but the problem recurs after an hour or so.
Any ideas?

TIA

Jason

She drives a legacy and you drive an impreza right?

Carl

 

[Jason]

She drives a legacy and you drive an impreza right?

Carl

No Carl, both Outback Legacy models - here's is a wagon, mine's a sedan
(3.0R).

 

[Carl 1 Lucky Texan]

No Carl, both Outback Legacy models - here's is a wagon, mine's a sedan
(3.0R).

DANG! lol! I was gonna try, "Hers is assembled in the US and yours has
cosmolene on it from being shipped from Japan and it's still burning off"
Are you sure it isn't on the inside of the windshield? Do you ever
notice a sweet smell like toasted marshmallows or any type of oil smell?
Does an inspection under the hood look OK? Any low fluids?
How many miles/what year model is the offending vehicle?
Same parking situations at night and at work?

Carl

 

[QX]

This is weird. My wife and I both drive fairly new Subarus. Mine is
about a year older, and since it was new I have never been happy with
the way the wipers leave a trailing hazy "glow" that disappates after a
few seconds, only to re-appear on the next swipe. My wife's car has no
such problems at all. I have tried various wiper blades, both Subaru and
OEM and the results are the same. I have tried all kinds of ways to
clean the windshield. Sometimes, after cleaning, the problem goes away
for a while, but after as little as a half hour it comes back. It's as
if there was a bit of oil on the windshield. I'm left wondering if the
car itself is "venting" something oily from under the hood that's
winding up on the windshield. Most recently, I tried a cleaning product,
"No Touch" recommended by the local parts dealer. It claims to remove
everything. It worked well...for a while. I've also tried RainX which
itself is pretty amazing, but the problem recurs after an hour or so.
Any ideas?

TIA

Jason

Maybe it's environmental based on where the vehicles are driven,
parked, whatever.
Try trading vehicles for a week and see if the hazy glow follows the
vehicle ????????

 

[Bill Bradley]

This is crazy, I know, but, I have a 2006 Outback 3.0 VDC, and, my wife had
a 2001 Forester, now a 2007 Forester, and...my wipers smear and hers
didn't/don't...

 

[Jason]

Both cars are driven under the same conditions, spend their nights in
the same garage, etc etc... so I don't think there's something different
in that regard. Besides, they're not strictly "mine" and "hers," we
drive each about equally, depending on whether we need the extra space
in the wagon for hauling stuff.

 

[Jason]

This is crazy, I know, but, I have a 2006 Outback 3.0 VDC, and, my wife had
a 2001 Forester, now a 2007 Forester, and...my wipers smear and hers
didn't/don't...

Hmmm. Maybe this lends some support to my hypothesis that the car is
emitting something oily. I did notice, last time I checked, that the
brake fluid level was just very slightly low...


Jason

 

[k. ote]

I had smeary windshield wipers. Here's what works for my STi, and prior to
that, on my '02 WRX:

.. Cleaning the windshield:

Use pure, clean water with a touch (smidgen!) of soap for grime, and a
healthy dollop of either borox or vinegar. Buy a *new!* window
washer/squidgee with a straight edge on its rubber. When you store it,
store it rubber-side up and keep everything away from it to prevent any
bending or creasing in it. If you get a nasty crease in your squidgee
rubber, it's useless. Really.

Rub down the windshield with the washer side so all visible specks of dirt
dust and grime are loose. Spin the washer around, and carefully and with a
smooth motion, wipe it across the windshield in horizontal stripes.

Warnings:

i. If you hear ANY squeaking whatsoever, you need more liquid on the
windshield or you need to move your squidgee faster.

ii. You will need to overlap your squidgee strokes a good 1/4 to 1/3 of the
width of the squidgee because of the curve of Subaru windshields.

iii. After you're done with the squidgee, please wash off the washer side,
too.

iv. DO NOT use ANY cleaning product on the outside of your windshield!

v. DO NOT use ANY cleaning product harsher than a water+vinegar solution to
wipe your windshield wiper blades down.

Anyway, you may have to wash your windshield like this five or six times: in
the right light, you'll be able to see either rainbow colours behind your
wipes, or a clean windshield. Keep going until the rainbow colours are
completely gone. These are dried oil and petroleum products that have
likely ingrained themselves into any microscopic scratches in your
windshield over years of using your windshield wipers in nasty weather.

Then, keep going until water sheets on it and doesn't bead anymore.

Finally, wipe down your windshield wipers with a paper towel moistened with
the cleaning liquid you used.

On the inside, it's almost impossible to use a real window cleaning
technique. Luckily, you can get nearly as good results with Windex or Eagle
1 and some serious elbow grease.

Take two good-sized sheets of paper towel, times two. You'll need a wet and
a dry, follow-up wiper.

Apply the product to the inside of the windshield and wipe down the most
obvious dirt and make sure you don't let any of the drips get down to the
dashboard. That would suck. You do NOT have to wipe it dry with the first
rubdown.

Roll up your second, dry, follow-up wiper and dry-wipe the windshield.

Now comes the hard, annoying part. You'll need just the right light for
this: you'll need to be able to see the inevitable smudges left behind by
the less-than-perfect glass cleaner you used. Usually at night with a
bright off-centre light is best..

Over the entire window surface, you're going to need to polish with a
circular motion. The more fresh paper towel you use, the better you'll be
able to polish. Polish everywhere. Carefully, firmly go over the entire
inside surface. You'll never get it all, but with enough polishing you'll
be able to get it clean enough that the human eye will at least be happy.

It is *NOT POSSIBLE* to manually clean autoglass that's been exposed to
fingers or human skin oils and the crap sprayed up by other cars, to
perfection. The best you can do is sheeting water, a nearly-perfect
windshield wiper cycle, and better visibility than 99.999% of all the other
people out there on the road.

After all.. *they* just live with their nasty, dirty windshields and dump
windex all over them and wonder why their windows aren't as clean as the
t.v. tells them they should be.

 

[k. ote]

Oh yea.. I forgot one more thing.

There comes a point where it's just not possible to get non-smeary
windshield wipers. At that point, just replace your wipers *AND THEN GO
THROUGH THE WHOLE WINDSHIELD CLEANSING OPERATION AGAIN.*

Sometimes wipers are so dirty they screw up your windshield all by
themselves. After a wiper replacement, you SHOULD clean your windshield
again *BEFORE* you use the new wipers, or they'll need to be cleaned too.

 

[MD]

Try using some rainx, it really helps make the water bead off your
windshield. I found no smeary mess when I did that.

 

[k. ote]

Try using some rainx, it really helps make the water bead off your
windshield. I found no smeary mess when I did that.

Beading water == BAD. It means there's something there for the water to
catch on, which means there's something other than glass between your
wipers and your windshield, which means you don't have a clean windshield.

I would be very surprised if you have an invisible windshield wiper cycle on
a dark rainy night.

Water needs to sheet off your windshield without any resistance nor friction
at all--that's a true, clean windshield. Otherwise, you might as well be
waxing your glass..

 

[WRX UK]

This is weird. My wife and I both drive fairly new Subarus. Mine is
about a year older, and since it was new I have never been happy with
the way the wipers leave a trailing hazy "glow" that disappates after a
few seconds, only to re-appear on the next swipe. My wife's car has no
such problems at all. I have tried various wiper blades, both Subaru and
OEM and the results are the same. I have tried all kinds of ways to
clean the windshield. Sometimes, after cleaning, the problem goes away
for a while, but after as little as a half hour it comes back. It's as
if there was a bit of oil on the windshield. I'm left wondering if the
car itself is "venting" something oily from under the hood that's
winding up on the windshield. Most recently, I tried a cleaning product,
"No Touch" recommended by the local parts dealer. It claims to remove
everything. It worked well...for a while. I've also tried RainX which
itself is pretty amazing, but the problem recurs after an hour or so.
Any ideas?

TIA

Been there with the same problem.
I got Subaru to fit new blades.
and dumped the new Bosch blades just
fitted to cure the problem which had crept up.
No good.
I posted here looking for answers and tried most fixes
suggested.
I cleaned the screen with every solvent
I had in the garage...spent hours polishing
the screen with special glass cleaners...
tried every washer additive in the store.
Nothing worked, drove me mad.
Then I cracked it.
I bent the wiper arms forward a tad to increase
the blade pressure on the screen.
Bingo...problem solved.
In time the spring arm tensioners lose some tension
is my guess.
It worked and I'm happy!
4 yr old WRX BTW
SB

 

[Ron N.]

Beading water == BAD. It means there's something there for the water to
catch on, which means there's something other than glass between your
wipers and your windshield, which means you don't have a clean windshield.

Actually I find that a fresh coat of rainx over a clean
winshield causes the water beads to flow off faster, than do
sheets of water from a plain clean winshield, past a certain
driving speed. Seems like the surface friction of the glass
surface becomes lower or something. Thus I don't need to use
my wipers blades as much after a fresh rainx treatment, unless
in slow or stop&go traffic, or if it's really pouring rain.

The rainx does seem to need to be applied over a squeeky
clean winshield, and then buffed thoroughly several times,
in order not to smear.


IMHO. YMMV. (and I own no stock in the rainx company, AFAIK).

 

[Jason]

Then I cracked it.
I bent the wiper arms forward a tad to increase
the blade pressure on the screen.
Bingo...problem solved.

Thanks!

I've tried all the other cleaning suggestions with some success, but the
problem always returns. I will discuss with the dealer whether there's a
less drastic way to increase the tension (and will probably wind up
bending the arms...). My case is slightly different - the problem has
existed since the car was new. I guess it could be a design or
manufacturing flaw.

Jason
--

 

[Ron N.]

Thanks!

I've tried all the other cleaning suggestions with some success, but the
problem always returns. I will discuss with the dealer whether there's a
less drastic way to increase the tension (and will probably wind up
bending the arms...). My case is slightly different - the problem has
existed since the car was new. I guess it could be a design or
manufacturing flaw.

You might even be able to measure the force on the windshield
from the wipers that work, and adjust the wipers which don't to
match that pressure. Maybe something like a spring fishing scale
could be used to measure the downforce of the wiper blades?
That would at lease verify that there is a difference worth trying
to fix.


IMHO. YMMV.

 

[k. ote]

I cleaned the screen with every solvent

This is probably your problem. You shouldn't have used *any* solvents.
Anything people need to know about cleaning glass--they just have to call
professional glass cleaners and find out what they do for a perfect clean.

I had in the garage...spent hours polishing
the screen with special glass cleaners...
tried every washer additive in the store.

Argh!! Never use additives! Especially never mix additives! Now you don't
know what the hell kind of gunk is sitting on the microscopic scratches..

Then I cracked it.
I bent the wiper arms forward a tad to increase
the blade pressure on the screen.
Bingo...problem solved.
In time the spring arm tensioners lose some tension
is my guess.
It worked and I'm happy!
4 yr old WRX BTW
SB

.... and now your wipers, if you activate them when it's too dry, will last
significantly shorter than factory. Rubber's going to come off and you'll
have to replace them more often.

 

[k. ote]

I've tried all the other cleaning suggestions with some success, but the
problem always returns. I will discuss with the dealer whether there's a
less drastic way to increase the tension (and will probably wind up
bending the arms...). My case is slightly different - the problem has
existed since the car was new. I guess it could be a design or
manufacturing flaw.

Or you just live in a nasty dirty polluted area and there's nothing you can
do but clean your windows constantly.

Increasing tension isn't going to get you clean. It'll mask the problem with
brute force and your blades will last a fraction of their normal lifetime.

 

[Ron N.]

. Cleaning the windshield:

Use pure, clean water with a touch (smidgen!) of soap for grime, and
a healthy dollop of either borox or vinegar. Buy a *new!* window
washer/squidgee with a straight edge on its rubber.

I'm surprised you didn't also specify using distilled water, and
only cleaning the windshield in the shade or in the garage when
the temperature is moderate.

On the inside, it's almost impossible to use a real window cleaning
technique.

Why not? I bought a small squeegee and a misting bottle for inside
windows. Cover the dash or window sills with a big towel, mist the
interior glass, rub off any grime with a paper towel, mist again,
then squeegee dry. With a small enough squeegee, only the bottom
edge, and maybe the spot behind the rearview mirror, need to be
wiped dry. A squeegee'd interior windshield seems to fog up a
bit less than one which has been wiped dry.


IMHO. YMMV.

 

[Clive]

A year on...no problems and blades as new.
I get a perfect wipe with no smears or drag.
Think about it...the blade is held on the screen
by spring tension. Springs lose tension over time
and some (older) systems allowed tension adjustment.
Bending the arms 1mm or so towards the screen works.
WRX UK