SL500 windshield wiper fluid

In message , Don writes

My slk requires the same.

I am told it is because both our models have plastic headlamp lenses and the blue stuff can frost / etch the lenses. Maybe we are both being duped, but it could be expensive to switch to the blue stuff.

owen

After using the concentrate for several years I switched over to using the plain stuff. I don't see any difference. I always thought that the reason they recommended the concentrate was because it contained detergents that prevent windshield streaking that MBs are notorious for.

MB windshields have for years been produced by a vendor who uses a process that causes the glass to leach out mold oils. This has got on for years. MB resists any and all calls to change suppliers. The problem is particularly acute with the single wiper configurations. MB sells little tubes of additive that are mixed with the washer fluid and help cut the stuff on the surface of the glass. A friend is an MB service rep, he claims the best thing to do is add a capful of Dawn dishwashing soap to each fill of washer fluid. (Naturally, this being a practical but non-technical solution, MB will not acknowledge it as a "fix".)

Thanks for the advice guys. To me the blue stuff for 99 cents a gallon makes more sense than blending some concoction. It looks like there is some heating element down in the reservoir that holds all this. But the blue stuff isn't flammable so who cares. The blue stuff it is.

Don

So a cap full of Dawn with the blue stuff or the MB mixture? This is a strange story about their windshields. My car has the single wiper.

Don

The windshield problems with MB are WELL KNOWN !!!!! In fact, some folks even suggest polishing your windshield with jewlers rouge to remove some of the endless pits that form. And of course you must never use liquid detergent as that will remove the paint that it drips down on. The realllllllly amazing thing is that when you take the kar in to Hanz und Franz for the several hundred dollar check ups, they can not afford to throw some of that stuff into the washer bottle!!!! For a while there, my windshield wipers woudl run out of fluid every time I picked it up after a visit to that little piece of the fatherland. Yeah it really makes you wonder about what they do with all that money they take in for routine check ups. Could it go to ... Jerkin Shrimps retirement plan??????

mcbrue softglassedly under the bridge in the trailer down by the river

Just use the cheap stuff. The MB crap is a rip and doesn't do any better than the blue stuff from the grocery store! Add a capful of Dawn and see forever!

particularly

McBrue, you know too much about these cars to be hangin' out in trailer all day. "Soft glass" is it, my '00 E Class has a million pits on the windshield after only 31k miles. 5 more months and I can give the thing back to MBNA, never to return. Actually, the car's been fine, but MB service SUCKS!

I buy the concentrate a couple of tubes at a time, then leave them in the glove compartment. I dilute one in a gallon of "the blue stuff" in the winter, or in a gallon of plain water in the summer.

The blue stuff sucks, it gunks up your washer bottle and turns everything blue.

MB screenwash is the best I have ever used, I think its well worth it.

I think the point is that the concentrate still has to be added to the blue stuff in winter in order to keep it from freezing (the blue stuff is antifreeze). In summer it can be mixed with water as this is not a problem. In either case the concentrate is designed as a detergent which the bkue stuff is not.

I think some ppl are talking about ready mixed, cheap as chips blue screenwash (this is the type of blue stuff I was referring to) and some ppl are talking about the MB screenwash antifreeze agent, which is also blue.

Never really had call to use the antifreeze agent, but I still stand by my original statement, the cheapo blue stuff sucks!

Here are the instructions from the owner's manual for my SLK:

"Use MB Windshield Washer Concentrate 'S' and water for temperatures above freezing or MB Windshield Washer Concentrate 'S' and commercially available premixed windshield washer solvent/antifreeze for temperatures below freezing...."

So it looks as if "that blue stuff," dirt-cheap though it may be, will satisfy the requirements.

I went to my MB dealer yesterday to buy some windshield washer concentrate and the service / parts counter guy said they weren't selling it anymore and that it's been discontinued.

I guess I'm just gonna use the blue stuff (maybe try a bit of Dawn in there...)

Cheers Keith

My understanding is that Dawn strips the wax from the paint.

Yeah right, Merc have discontinued screenwash....

MBUK keep about 55,000 bottles in stock last time I checked, must be one of their fastest moving product lines, a bottle is sold with every service. Can't see them kissing goodbye to that revenue!

Oh well, maybe just use good ol' blue stuff from Canadian Tire... (since I can't buy the MB concentrate anymore...)