New windshield has some time of oily film

emmjay

emmjay

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Hey guys, I recently had my windshield replaced with an original VW windshield due to a damaged windshield.

Before the car went in to get fixed my wipers were perfectly fine and would "wipe", while washing the car the water would bead and roll off or sheet off depending on if I was using a hose or my pressure washer.

Fast forward a week later: I got my car back and was cleaning it, noticed the water did not bead or sheet and just sat on the glass like a film...

A few days later we got a sandstorm with some rain and I had to turn on the wipers and holy S*** I was blind and could not see anything in front of me. The wipers did not wipe and just smeared the water all over the windshield, similar to the film when the car was being washed, the water did not bead or sheet either. It was like a standstill film of water.

Could someone help me out on how to fix this?? Wiper blades are new and the car is only 2 years old...

Thanks :)
 
A few more notes:

1. If i do use the wiper, it leaves a smeary mess, with some areas that are somewhat foggy.

2. Once the wiper work is done, most water remains on the windshield, and even driving down the road at 90kmph, does not budge the water and it just stays on the windshield.

Before however, if the wiper did not do its job, driving down would cause the wind to push the water off the glass with ease.
 
Have you tried anything yet?

In order I would try the following:

Glass cleaner with newspaper or paper towels (if it is greasy, I'm not going to get that in my nice glass towels!)

APC (Diluted to a paint safe dilution. Car safe APC only, don't use Simple Green or Zep)

Clay with Medium to Heavy Duty (in the chance that it's a bonded contaminant)

Paint cleaner

Polish/Compound

Cerium Oxide based glass polish. Maybe even the new glass polish (Wolfgang I think) would work but I have no experience of it yet so I won't endorse it.
 
conman1395 said:
Have you tried anything yet?

In order I would try the following:

Glass cleaner with newspaper or paper towels (if it is greasy, I'm not going to get that in my nice glass towels!)

APC (Diluted to a paint safe dilution. Car safe APC only, don't use Simple Green or Zep)

Clay with Medium to Heavy Duty (in the chance that it's a bonded contaminant)

Paint cleaner

Polish/Compound

Cerium Oxide based glass polish. Maybe even the new glass polish (Wolfgang I think) would work but I have no experience of it yet so I won't endorse it.
Click to expand...



Ditto.
 
I've tried all the above, except polishing the glass and APC.

APC 1:4?

Would m205 on white hybrids do the trick?

I also have UC, UP, Swirl X, Sonax Nano Polish - Orange, white and black hybrids.
 
I think with a sandstorm and rain everybody would have zero visability.Try using oooo fine steel wool and glass cleaner together,then apply some type of rain repellant on glass if that doesn't work go back to the glass guy who installed he may have some suggestions or see something wrong where you can't ,did you buy really good blades or moderate ones.
 
Refrain from using any wax or sealant not recommended for glass you will get chatter ,that is when you turn on wipers they will skip and stick to the glass.
 
And don't use apc on glass even with the weakest dilution use steel wool on glass only nothing is more penetrating than steelwool.unless you have some sort of stains.
 
I've never used steel wool on glass, so I can't say it does or doesn't work. However I tend to follow this guys advice.

Mike.Phillips@Autogeek said:
Count me on the "don't use steel wool on glass" gang...


I don't use steel wool on glass, never have and never recommend it.


I know there are a lot of guys and even detailers that recommend it but steel scratches glass. Just because you cannot visually see the scratches doesn't mean they are not there.

Plus there are a lot of glass polishes available that are safe, no risks at all.




:)
Click to expand...
 
I'm not a professional so I'll leave it to you to decide the merit, or lack thereof, of my method, but nonetheless, here's what I would do.

Start by scrubbing the windshield with a terry towel/rag saturated, but not dripping, with mineral spirits. Allow the mineral spirits to dwell for a few minutes then scrub again. Finish this step by wiping with a clean terry towel. If you want to, you can use 0000 steel wool during this step - That's your call.

Then repeat the process except use Isopropyl Alcohol for this step. The Isopropyl Alcohol will evaporate much quicker than the mineral spirits so adjust your process accordingly. Regardless of whether or not you used steel wool in the previous step, do not use it for this step or beyond.

Assess the results. You may be finished at this point. If not, then follow-up with clay and/or compound and re-assess.

Obviously, you want to clean any residues following each of these steps. Use whatever method you like. For the very final step, apply a glass treatment of your choice.

If the windshield isn't clean at this point then you can either repeat any, or all, of these steps until it is clean, you can just say F it and do your best to live with it, or go back to glass shop and see if they can fix or replace it.

Good Luck.
 
Alright guys thanks for all the replies.

To be honest steel wool on anything scares me. I don't think i've ever used it on anything my whole life.

Secondly, the windshield is brand new installed by the local vw dealer (we only have 1 in Dubai), even the wiper blades are genuine VW. I told them at the dealer that this problem is happening and they said they have no heard of such a thing before. Did not bother going back as its a waste of time.

I never had this problem for two years on my previous windshield and have never seen it on my previous VW nor on any other cars in the house.

I think, I will be trying one of the polishes on my glass - m205 with the orange hybrids as they are the most aggressive.

Would that work? Or should I go most aggressive with UC? I can only use what I have - I cannot order anything from AGO at this point.

Would need this done soon as its the start of winter here, which means more rain.



Thanks :)
 
0000 steel wool on glass...with glass cleaner...is exactly what is done at the local McLaren/Porsche dealer to clean windshields. sure, dealers can be home to some of the most treacherous detailing stuff ever seen, but these guys found a fine line between common volume detailing techniques and the overkill "boutique" detailing techniques we dwell on. they did it under my watch prior to Opti-Glass installation and no issues were detected under close scrutiny.

all glass is not created equal, i will admit that. and technique/product can be a very influential combo. still, 0000 steel wool is very commonly used for this purpose.

OP, if it were me and i encountered this, i would first clean with Power Clean at full strength because that would most likely dissolve/dilute/lift any oily contamination, making sure to keep the entire area wet the entire time (misting water is fine), wash it all off, rinse VERY well then assess, then if it's still an issue, Hyper polish on a no cut/low cut pad and go over the whole thing, wipe and assess. i would also clean the wiper blades extremely well, over and over with Power Clean and an old MF, until NO black comes off.
 
Guys you have been awesome but I must add, I can only use what I have at hand. These products are:

1. Meguiars APC (is this like powerclean?)
2. Meguairs m205, UP , Swirlx and UC
3. Sonax Nano Polish 3/6
4. Flex 3401 - hybrid pad range orange, white and black

Thats it...

I'm still new to all this - Would I have to saturate a towel in the APC and just wipe the glass by working it in?


I did use some straight up IPA 70% on my wiper blades last night and it removed extremely black stuff, and I tried the wipers again, it was definitely better but not great.

My windshield still has a film of water on it rather than sheeting/rolling off. So i feel it might just be a combination of the wiper blades AND something on the glass.
 
emmjaygti said:
Guys you have been awesome but I must add, I can only use what I have at hand. These products are:

1. Meguiars APC (is this like powerclean?)
2. Meguairs m205, UP , Swirlx and UC
3. Sonax Nano Polish 3/6
4. Flex 3401 - hybrid pad range orange, white and black

Thats it...

I'm still new to all this - Would I have to saturate a towel in the APC and just wipe the glass by working it in?


I did use some straight up IPA 70% on my wiper blades last night and it removed extremely black stuff, and I tried the wipers again, it was definitely better but not great.

My windshield still has a film of water on it rather than sheeting/rolling off. So i feel it might just be a combination of the wiper blades AND something on the glass.
Click to expand...

yeah i'm sure you can use that APC, i just don't know a dilution that's ideal. if i recall, it's somewhat more alkaline than Power Clean so you might want to try 1:1 with water, let it dwell but don't let it dry. someone with specific experience with that APC might want to chime in.

then for the polish part, white or even black pad with UP or M205 should do the trick - that's what i'd try if the APC thing didn't do the trick. glass is very hard so you won't hurt it with that, but it should be enough to remove whatever is leftover after the APC wash.
 
Alright a little update, I went out to the car, sprayed direct APC on to the glass with a terry cloth towel and scrubbed the glass. Rinsed the glass a few times and the film-ing was a lot worse. Now the water would not even move.

I also used direct apc on the wiper blades a few times, and also used ipa a few times. The result was still a little black residue.

View attachment 38493

View attachment 38494

View attachment 38496

I then sprayed the glass with a ipa solution and wiped clean and tried Ultimate compound with as much pressure as I could using the LC EZ grip blue cutting pads.

Tried a few passes each with max pressure applied, wiped off UC, sprayed a little IPA and wiped again to a clear glass.

I then sprayed with water to see what would happen.....still the same.... I used a glass blade wiper thing to show the difference.

Left side is wiped off, right side is a film of water...

View attachment 38497


After this I tried the wipers again, there was a slight chatter and the same result as yesterday with just smearing of water and the water being pushed around rather than wiping.


Maybe I need to try with the flex? That would be in a few days when I actually have the time. Currently everyone is asleep and the flex is bloody loud.
 
emmjaygti said:
Guys you have been awesome but I must add, I can only use what I have at hand. These products are:

1. Meguiars APC (is this like powerclean?)
2. Meguairs m205, UP , Swirlx and UC
3. Sonax Nano Polish 3/6
4. Flex 3401 - hybrid pad range orange, white and black

Thats it...

I'm still new to all this - Would I have to saturate a towel in the APC and just wipe the glass by working it in?


I did use some straight up IPA 70% on my wiper blades last night and it removed extremely black stuff, and I tried the wipers again, it was definitely better but not great.

My windshield still has a film of water on it rather than sheeting/rolling off. So i feel it might just be a combination of the wiper blades AND something on the glass.
Click to expand...
Meguiars APC at 10:1 first (that's the interior dilution) and if you must, then 4:1.
 
I went out for a drive as the streets are quite clear at this time.

I used the wiper and windshield washer fluid and it did seem a little better, with a little bit of chatter from the blades. It wiped off but still left some film on the glass but at least a 60% improvement from before.

The liquid being sprayed from the windshield nozzle jets is quite soapy, i was wondering could this be a problem? Maybe the dealer decided to put some crap in there that leaves behind a film too?


Before, I only used to add water to the washer jets and that would clean quite well.

After all this I wonder, maybe the wiper blades are just bad? We don't get bosch aerotwins here otherwise I would get those, we only get the oem vw ones from the dealer. Maybe I can try another set....a bit pricey but with rain coming up its not worth risking it.
 
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