speedking

A colleague scrapes his windscreen clear of snow. So far so good.

Then he fetches a kettle of tepid water and tips it on. When the water hits the screen the rain-sensing wipers kick in, but the blades are still frozen to the screen. Off they go, tearing the rubber from the arms.

The metal arms now scrape across the screen. They are not very effective at clearing the water so keep going, while he frantically tries to remember how to disable this feature

Lesson learnt

Hanley

Easy....Just don't turn on your ignition until you've cleaned your windscreen

dpb

Heated front screen - turn on the ignition leave for 5 minutes

john_s

iTrader: (1)

What's all this auto wipers business about? People who don't know when the wipers need to be on should stay off the roads

urban

iTrader: (1)

Yes, however I think its now a case of more and more cars have these as standard fit.

Trout

iTrader: (1)

Or buy a BMW - you have to set the rain sensing wipers every time you turn it on. I wondered why and now I know

Leslie

He was sensible enough to use tepid water and avoid cracking the screen though.

Les

dpb

only cos he couldnt find an extension

mj

My missus has got voice activated windscreen wipers in her car.

Basically we'll be driving down the road, and it will get to a point where I can't see a fkin sausage out of the passenger side of the windscreen..

That's usually when the VAWW kick in...

Bubba po

Why do you want to see out of the wimmins' side?

Oh, I get it - you're coming back from a party.

urban

iTrader: (1)

Used to drive wife's Bora many years ago and the automatic wipers just didn't work.
They'd either not start soon enough in that you couldn't really see anymore or run too quickly

I remember thinking to myself, **** me - Imagine its raining at night with automatic wipers and lights

Jer

Has anyone seen this happen on a modern laminate windscreen? I have seen loads of people use hot water on windscreens without problems. Is it quite easy to do or are you just unlucky if you crack your windscreen.

richie001

iTrader: (3)

Had Rain-sensing wipers on my E46 M3 and they were fooking useless.Spit of rain and they work,pouring down with rain and they don't work.

richieh

1-lift wipers off screen
2-pour on water to clean screen
3-once screen is clear put wipers back down
4-repeat as needed due to conditions
easy once you have been taught to think for yourself :d
cheers richie

mamoon2

I've always used boiling water to clear my cars. I swear by it! Never had a problem and never heard of it causing anyones screen to crack

austinwrx

I sweep the snow off. ignore ice if its there. kettle of very tepid water- walk around the car pouring on all windows and its sorted. never use de icers etc.

I'm always amazed my neighbours don't copy me- they seem to spend ages scrapping etc etc

paulg1979

iTrader: (1)

Had them on my E46 330ci and Z4M Coupe and were brilliant on both

Petem95

They also work bloody well too! Absolute god-send when there is changeable amounts of rain, or if you're on the motorway and come past a lorry and get covered with spray. Basically saves having to take a hand off the wheel to keep changing the wiper speed all the time.

moff1888

Last year after coming off a night shift one of the boys was about to head off home but not before pouring boiling hot water over his frozen windscreen.

Needless to say it cracked quite spectacularly, we did chuckle as we had been talking about the potential pitfalls of doing that.

+Doc+

I chuck a PU cover over the screen the night before, seems to be working up to yet, not been too windy though.

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

Hehehe, when I first started to read this thread I thought it was going to end differently. So I shall add in my own, erm, I mean someone else's experience

Really cold frosty morning, windscreen completely covered in half in thick solid ice that I just cannot shift. Its my brand new (then) company 306 XSi, so I shoot off to get a kettle full of water. There I am in my nice suit, late, pouring the water on the windscreen.

I was hoping for several things. One, the screen wont crack, two, it will budge the ice. I should have been considering the third option. Three, the sodding auto wipers will kick off as soon as the water hits the screen....flinging boiling hot water all over me, followed by all the crud and ice off the windscreen.

One change of clothes later I was ready to go

Pumpkin

I just put a 4l milk/cola bottle of water by the hall radiator the night before.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Auto wipers; Simple solution. Turn the wiper switch to "Off"

Bit like turning off the engine

Or switching off the TV.




However I'm still in talks with VW as why the auto wipers on my R32 are shyte despite new genuine blades, yet the wipers on a much cheaper Seat Altea that uses the very same control/sensing system works perfectly (same with the auto headlamps).

MattW

I just park mine in the garage, seems to do the trick

Leslie

It stems from the older toughened glass screens which were susceptible to shattering with very hot water on a freezing day. If you had had a stone hit the screen without apparent damage, there could well be a small stressed area due to that and the hot water could cause the stressed bit to shatter the screen. Also with laminated screens a very small crack on the edge of the screen could spread across the screen due to the unequal heat distribution in one of the lamiinations.

Most people think better safe than sorry.

Les

StickyMicky

I usually just put a bin bag over the windscreen and underneath the wiper arms the night before.

Kettles are toooooo slow for me
We get loads of problems with auto wipers at work, we used to lift peoples wipers and brush underneath them to clean the screen properly before putting them into the wash, but had to stop as we were close to losing a few eyeballs due to spaz drivers unable to control such a tricky device

One woman told us it was impossible to switch hers off because the dealer set it this way