Smeary rain-x

[Cledus Snow]

Help! I have a horrible smeary mess on my windscreen. I applied rain-x and I’ve been left with streaks all over my windscreen.
I’ve used Bilt Hamber traceless glass cleaner and Autoglym glass polish to try to remove it and the screen appears spotless until driving in the dark and rain and oncoming vehicle head lights hit it and I have a foggy film that I can’t see through.

Any ideas?

[Stedman]

Give Bilt Hamber Re-View a go?

[gweaver]

Stedman said:

Give Bilt Hamber Re-View a go?

Agreed. In my experience Autoglym glass polish isn't very effective at removing the water marks that become evident in dark and wet conditions.

Rain repellants can cause "ghosting" when you use the wipers, and wiper judder too. I've found that a good glass polish and fresh wipers gives the best visibility.

[InitialDave]

Glaco glass cleaner/compound is very good.

[Ed Boon II]

I've just done my windscreen with Soft99 Glass Compound which was crap and also Meguier's glass compound which wasn't much better.

It took 3 attempts in the end with both products and it's 75% better.

I also changed wipers to the PIAA jobbies as I find the Bosch Aerotwins don't last much longer than 6 months.

I think my windscreen had some overspray from Gyeon Wetcoat which is epic on bodywork, not so good on windscreens.

[C5_Steve]

Ed Boon II said:

I've just done my windscreen with Soft99 Glass Compound which was crap and also Meguier's glass compound which wasn't much better.

It took 3 attempts in the end with both products and it's 75% better.

I also changed wipers to the PIAA jobbies as I find the Bosch Aerotwins don't last much longer than 6 months.

I think my windscreen had some overspray from Gyeon Wetcoat which is epic on bodywork, not so good on windscreens.

With the Glaco did you use the cleaner first to decontaminate the windscreen? Surprised to hear you don't rate the coating as I did mine 5 or so years ago and it's only just started to smear a bit and need redoing.

The key is using the right product (from Glaco) to clean the windscreen and strip any coating first, then applying the compound as per the instructions. 10x better than RainX.

[Robertb]

A good compound will get it off... or failing that something like Carpro Ceriglass.

[gweaver]

Bilt Hamber Re-View, Soft99 Glaco Compound & CarPro Ceriglass are all up to the job of deep cleaning a windscreen by hand, it just requires some physical effort and often a second pass to get the parts you missed with the first pass.

In my experience Autoglym Glass Polish, Barkeepers Friend and water spot remover sprays aren't effective against water marks.

[Ed Boon II]

C5_Steve said:

With the Glaco did you use the cleaner first to decontaminate the windscreen? Surprised to hear you don't rate the coating as I did mine 5 or so years ago and it's only just started to smear a bit and need redoing.

The key is using the right product (from Glaco) to clean the windscreen and strip any coating first, then applying the compound as per the instructions. 10x better than RainX.

It was the cleaner that I used, I wanted to clear whatever was on the glass first before I added any kind of treatment as my wipers were juddering and leaving smears.

I’ll try again now that I’ve got a few days off and it’s dry outside.

[InitialDave]

That's very odd, I've used it multiple times and it's always been excellent.

[Ed Boon II]

InitialDave said:

That's very odd, I've used it multiple times and it's always been excellent.

Might help it I RTFM, trying again tomorrow.

[C5_Steve]

Ed Boon II said:

InitialDave said:

That's very odd, I've used it multiple times and it's always been excellent.

Might help it I RTFM, trying again tomorrow.

Yeah, it's slightly more specific than Rain-X but the results are much better.

This stuff to clean the glass (after washing it, as per the instructions):

https://soft99store.co.uk/collections/maintenance/...

Then this to coat it:

https://soft99store.co.uk/collections/maintenance/...

Job done.