5 Easy Window Care Ideas For Clear Autumn Driving

You may have been able to ignore it for a bit, but at some point there’s no getting around it. The inside of the windshield is a hazy mess that needs to be cleaned. 

But where does that cloudy residue come from?  And what gets rid of it? 

The short answers are your interior and glass cleaners. 

The oily haze on the windshield comes from airborne contaminants wafting off plastics, vinyls, carpets and polymers inside your vehicle. 

A quality glass cleaner will do away with spots and film on the inside of your windshield. 

Use a streak-free glass cleaner, apply to a terry cloth towel and work in straight lines for best results. 

Rain repellents, applied to the windshield’s exterior, are hydrophobic compounds. This causes water to bead on the glass and can even slide off the glass at highway speeds. 

Haze can fog up a windshield in a couple of ways. 

One haze goes away when you use the defroster. The other exists as thin film that requires some elbow grease to banish.

A few minutes applying a rain repellant and a defogger go a long way toward keeping things clear when a downpour strikes this winter. 

Anti-fog products, used on the interior of the windshield, speed up evaporation and combat haze that may be related to temperature changes inside the car.

Apply an anti-fog product with a terry cloth or microfiber towel. Apply directly on the towel, rather than to the glass itself and make sure to wipe the surface dry so there’s no residual haze. 

Applying a defogging product to the inside of a clean windshield provides a barrier against the residue in the future. 

“Repellent products are easy to use and can be applied quickly,” said Ron Fausnight, group technical manager at Rain-X. “I apply them every time my car goes in for an oil change.” 

Fausnight had some advice for cleaning and treating the inside of your windshield:

• Use a glass cleaner designed specifically for automobile glass. They help prevent streaks. Streaks=glare.
• Clean interior and exterior glass surfaces thoroughly before applying window treatment products.
• Anti-fog products dissipate moisture, helping it evaporate. They are for use on the inside of a windshield.
• Apply window treatment products with a terry cloth or microfiber towel. Spray the towel rather than the surface and wipe it evenly across the glass. Remove excess fluid with a clean, dry cloth to eliminate haze.
• Avoid getting window treatment products on rubber surfaces. They contain alcohol and can cause rubber to dry or crack.