Washing car

If it's rainbowed, it sounds to me like there really is oil somewhere - in your sponge? On the wipers? In the gutters? I've *always* (25 years mate!) used these "shampoo stuffs" - cheap ones too - but never seen rainbows.

To clean the glass properly you need (people will say) AutoGlym glass cleaner. On recommendations in this group, I did buy some of this (just avoided losing the arm and leg) ... but you still need perseverance and elbow grease. Good stuff though, like everything from AutoGlym.

Probably. And weather. People will say you need to use peanut butter (sic) to re-black it; I've also seen black shoe polish recommended (buy it and your brushes in Everything's A Pound). That "Back to Black" stuff seemed a con to me: even if you just spit on your bumper it will look black again for a while ... and that's what Back to Black seems to do (*and* it's in an ecologically unacceptable spray can).

There's my 2p. I may know bugger-all about car maintenance, but I know my car cleaning!

John

I've always found the best way to be some normal cheap car window cleaning spray rubbed with newspaper. All the oil and grime picked up on your travels gets nicely absorbed by the paper and its a satisfying way to get rid of those free newspapers people keep chucking through my letterbox...

I haven't found anything which gives a better shine....

Don't take the car through the car wash. Ever. They leave shit all over the windscreen. Another problem is that wipers that look perfectly fine don't wipe as well as new ones. My advice is to clean the windscreen with screenwash, rinse it off, then get a little bit of toothpaste on a cloth (I'm not joking) and polish that lightly on the damp windscreen. Wash all that off and put on some new wipers so that you know these are clean (if your wipers are 12 months old they'll be done for anyway). The toothpaste helps take out any little scratches or anything like RainX or Silicone that's gotten on the glass and buggers up your wiping. I've used autoglym glass polish, and it's pretty good, but it does leave some crap on your windscreen IME.

The oily layer you're seeing might be because of the soap. I don't really pay that much attention to what the windscreen looks like when I'm washing it, but FWIW I use Autoglym's shampoo and it always leaves the glass clear without spots, and the wipers work fine.

Autoglym's green gel bumper black is the best stuff I've used. I've also heard people rave about those black quick shoe polish things with a foam brush on the end.

Get hold of a fair sized potato

Cut it in half

Give the windscreen a good scrubbing with the exposed bit of potato. You need a bit of elbow grease but it does work. Something to do with enzymes or amino acids or some such.

Obviously as the potato gets grubby, you can peel a bit off and carry on.

vinegar is pretty good for cleanign glass. Dilute it, and give it a go. Stinks a bit mind

Just slice it on a mandolin ( the cookery variety of course )

Stuart

Is it a wash and wax product? If so, it's the wax from that getting on the screen that causes the problem. Just use plain water for the windscreen.

:-( I always clean my wiper blades when I clean the car, for this reason mainly. It can't be the cleaning sponge etc because the windows aren't oily, only the windscreen. I'm about to clean the car so, I'll give it some elbow grease.

I've never used a car wash, but maybe the previous owner did. Maybe I should get some new wipers, my wipers were recently inspected in a service a few weeks ago though and they passed an MOT a few months ago.

If you had oil on your windscreen you'd know when you used the wipers.