[sploo]

I've got a bit of a head-scratcher of a problem, related to (I assume) traffic film remover.

A while back, I bought some Power Maxed traffic film remover (http://www.powermaxed.com/clean-your...c-film-remover) in a ready mixed spray bottle.

I also have some Ultra Finishing Polish (http://www.powermaxed.com/clean-your...e-glaze-polish).

The first time it rained (after I'd used the above) I had a huge problem with water smearing on the windscreen behind the blades. At night in the rain the car was basically undriveable (you could either look through rain on the windscreen, or a sheet of water being smeared on the screen by the blades). I tried various different ways of cleaning the screen and blades, and in the end had to resort to some new wiper blades.

The traffic film remover is listed as safe for rubber, so I assumed I must have gotten some windscreen contamination from another source.

In the intervening months I've washed the car a few times as normal, but last week I used the traffic film remover and polish again. It rained today, and... back to the same (sort of) problem.

I get a fogging/ghosting behind the blades as they move (which appears to "evaporate" very quickly). Though when the rain is heavier the mess behind the blades is near constant (so the whole screen is useless). In lighter rain I noticed that the wiper blades were "scudding" and skipping over the windscreen - I managed to get a short video of the smearing, evaporating and scudding here:

(note that the pause on the second wiper sweep is because the start-stop fired the engine back up - that's normal).

When I use the traffic film remover I rinse the car down afterwards, wash as normal (with Turtle Wax), rinse again, chamois, then polish. The polish doesn't leave any white powder, and I'm very careful to keep it off the glass.

So, I'm a bit stumped as to what might be wrong, but it looks as though I'm heading for yet another set of wiper blades.

If anyone has any ideas or suggestions as to exactly what's causing the problem (or how to fix it) I'd love to hear it!

[Aatish]

Hmmm, it's possible that the remover damaged the wipers...but I don't think that's the case.

Did you try claying the glass?

[sploo]

Originally Posted by Aatish

Hmmm, it's possible that the remover damaged the wipers...but I don't think that's the case.

Did you try claying the glass?

It does seem odd, but it's a heck of coincidence that's it's happened twice now. TBH I suspected it'd happen when it rained because in the days after using the traffic film remover this time I noticed some odd behaviour if I used the window washer jets.

Clay though is about the one thing I've not tried!

[sploo]

I've just given the screen a really good wipe with some meths (US: denatured alcohol) and changed the blades. Looks OK I think.

I called Power Maxed and spoke to one of their product development guys. I wash the car afterwards with Turtle Wax (http://www.turtlewax.co.uk/explorer/...-zip-wax-2.5ml) and he wondered if the combination of a bit of TFR residue (and the fact it cleans the windscreen so well) might mean that some of the claimed wax in the Turtle product is adhering to the windscreen. That apparently would explain the wiper scudding, and the strange reaction to water.

They're going to send me some of their car shampoo for free (at their suggestion - many thanks guys) and I'll give that a try.

If I did use Turtle Wax again I think it's probably a good idea to rub the screen with a bit of meths after finishing the wash (and obviously before I put the wiper blades back down)!

[sploo]

Well, the meths didn't do it, so the screen got attacked again (twice) with some of the TFR (with a pretty good rub with paper towel), then hosed down. Hopefully that's cleaned whatever it is off and it'll be OK next time it rains.

[Wires]

I've seen similar thing with wax in the auto car wash on my dad's car. Wipers would chatter across the window. Just needed to clean the glass, as the wax was sort of sticky.