wiper arms

I don't often suggest products but have you tried RainX?

I was very sceptical about it from the ads but it does do what it says on the tin. Put it on the old Discos screen and any water just beaded up and wiped cleanly away. Above 40mph the beads just ran up the screen, you hardly needed wipers at all.

It's a bit of slog to wash the screen, dry it, use the RainX cleaner, then apply the RainX and polish that but it's well worth doing and doing it properly IMHO.

I have used RainX for years, and it is one of those rare products that does do exactly what it says on the tin. Fantastic stuff.

And for cleaning the window before the RainX, I have yet to find a better cleaner than the Autoglym Glass Cleaner - rellay cuts through the traffic flim.

Alex

Aust>>

Yes, but how long does it last? I found it didn't last long at all on the car.

In message , Austin Shackles writes

Have you tried wiping them with a cloth soaked in vinegar>

Austin, I think the windscreen on the D2 is about 50mm deeper than the D1's but you can probably overcome that by fitting slightly longer blades.

I could be totally wrong, of course ;-)

On or around Sat, 17 Oct 2009 23:07:59 GMT, SteveG enlightened us thusly:

It's the arms I was on about, though. And yes, I can try it, just was wondering if anyone had done so and could tell me the answer to save me effort :-)

The corollary is has anyone come across screenwash that actually *works*. I've been using Halfrauds pink "premium" one, which ain't bad for getting stuff off the screen, but doesn't solve the smearyness problem, except for a very brief period after applying it.

The screen needs replacing anyway, mind. damn-near collected a red ex-post-office LDV the other day, which had the sun exactly behind it, so right in my face, and all the scratches and pits on the screen make it bloody-nigh opaque. I can only assume it's been used in a desert somewhere.

Which reminds me. Heated front screen - how noticerable are the heater elements, when for example the sun's in front of you in the winter? It'd be kind of nice to have one, but not atcually essential, and if the wires are visible they'd annoy the heck out of me.

Holts blue concentrated stuff (from Costco) made up to a decent winter concentration which IIRC is 4:1 water:stuff and protects down to -10C seems to work pretty well. I use that concentration all year not the pathetic summer concentration. Bit daft having two concentrations, you need a strong one in the summer to shift the bug splat and a strong one in the winter to stop the stuff freezing.

Hardly noticeable. They are fine wiggly wires running vertically you get some speculars from them but due to the wiggle but the double curvature of the screen it's normally only a patch about 6" round that has the worst effect. It's damn good in the winter when you have frost inside or out or just light condensation inside. Mind you the "defrost" setting of the aircon is one of the best I've ever had as well. I'd not be keen on having a car without a heated screen now but then at 1400' on the North Pennines we do still get snow measured in feet and ground frosts into double figures fairly often. Had the first of this winters ground frost here last week or was it the week before, the gritter is out fairly often...

You can see them when you first sit in the drivers seat but as with a lot of things your brain filters them out after a while. Either that or they as so fine and relatively close that they go out of focus and disappear when looking at where you should be.

Try the vinegar trick that does work. Though it sounds more as if your screen is shagged. RainX might be worth a go the polymer (or what ever it is) may "fill" the fine scratches and make them less noticeable. Certainly cheaper than a new heated screen...

On the old Disco it lasted at least a couple of years and the re-application isn't quite as hard work as the first one.

I had one in a Ford and the wires were really annoying.

Mike

On or around Sun, 18 Oct 2009 10:20:01 +0100 (BST), "Dave Liquorice" enlightened us thusly:

migth try rain-x. latest thing I tried is cleaning the screen with degreaser, ditto the wipers, will see what happens next time it's raining.

Screen is indeed shagged. If it comes to replacing it, chances are the council will strew chippings all over the road soon, and it'll get broken anyway, so the insurance will pay for it. Might try for a deal with autoglass or whomever to get a heated one on the sly - though it shouldn't need it here, the motor gets warm enough on 5 or 10 minutes idling to melt the frost anyway.

does having ineffectual aircon (needs re-gassing) affect it's drying/demisting ability?

The vinegar trick works as well, donno how or why mind.

You know what sods law says, you'll wait a year for the redressing, give up replace the screen yourself, then they'll redress the road, the new screen will get broken and the replacement will leak like a sieve cause of all the buggering about with the glue layer that holds it in.

Ha, I sat in mine one frosty morning waiting for the heater to get warm on idle after a few minutes drive. The chill was off the air but that was about all, warm it was not and it didn't get any warmer in the 10 mins I waited...

I was going to say that demisting with cooled air probably will be better as the cooling will make the air drier (assuming no air frost). But I'm pretty sure it blows heated air in demist mode, of course it could chill the air to dry it then warm it back up, that would be very dry air and be very effective at demisting. I don't know if it does do that though.

On or around Wed, 21 Oct 2009 08:06:50 +0100 (BST), "Dave Liquorice" enlightened us thusly:

I know it's been said that aircon makes for better demisting, I assume that's because of the drying aspect.

question is, does inept aircon with no gas still dry the air?

No because the drying effect is achieved by dropping the air temperature below the dew point of moisture in it, this condenses over the AC cold bits (the evaporator) and runs onto the road and the now cold but drier air is then re heated by the engine coolant and possibly the condenser though I doubt this in an auto application where there is lots of waste heat available.

AJH

On or around Sun, 25 Oct 2009 22:11:12 +0000, andrew enlightened us thusly:

ah.

bugger. I may have to get it fixed before next summer, then...