Car Wash Leaves Windshield Loaded With Wax.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

For a dozen physical and logistical reasons I cannot wash my own car. It get the outside and inside done for $5

But all car washes use a commercial wax solution built into the water sprayer.

And it builds up on the wiper blades and smears.

Have you folks encountered this and found a simple solution to wash the windshield after a commercial car wash?

[Cummins12V98]

I NEVER use a auto car wash. I never use RainX for the same reasons you don't like the film left from a car wash.

Good ol 20/10 for me.

Many places will hand wash for a few more $$$.

[Airdaile]

Four-O steel wool

I've done this and then gave the windshield and the wiper blades a rain-X treatment.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

The stuff is awful. Alcohol does not touch it. Looks like it is pumped into the rinse water. Four different car washes, same crappo. All are wash by hand. No bristles or flapping towels. Slopping lacquer thinner against the windshield gasket does not seem to be especially intelligent. I told them to not use that shiny stuff on the inside of the car because when it is shut tight it leaves a vapor rainbow sheen on the inside of the glass. That junk attracts dust and grime, inside and out.

[RedRollingRoadb]

There is also a couple of different products that go under "Glass Stripper" or "Glass Polish" or similar names. I use it on a regular basis to cut the **** off. It does require a lot of rubbing which might be hard for you. I only use the wax option at a car wash rarely.

I did get talked into a "windshield treatment" which may have been okay for the $12 cost but it wasn't applied properly. Driving at night in rain was scary. Took me about three tries to remove it.

[StewB]

There is a washer fluid additive called 20/10 that you add to your washer tank or squirt on the windshield and wipe off. It cuts through any type of film. Up here in BC you get it at Lordco.

[Charlie_D_]

Use Bartenders. Slightly less abrasive than Ajax or other type cleaners. Saw a car show where they used it with fine steel wool.

[Bill_Satellite]

I have not seen similar results and I use auto washes on a regular basis. I even run a no touch auto car wash and use it often on my own car.
How is this something that should be in the Tech Issue topic?

[Johno02]

Ammonia usually works. Coke works just as good, but like said, wash it off with clean water.

[wa8yxm]

Things come off faster with Coca cola things go faster with Coke.

Seriously it's one serious cleaner.. But be sure to wash it off right away cause it will damage most anything except the glass.

or use a good grade of wax remover but be sure to wash it off.

[wanderingaimles]

When it comes out of the wash, they should be toweling the windshield and the wipers with a damp towel, not a dry one, but a damp one. The chemicals most carwashes call wax are actually drying agents that are designed to make the car easier and faster to dry off. It is supposed to change the surface tension of water slightly to make the water bead off. If they are putting something on in a tunnel with mechanized equipment that is leaving a residual wax, they are applying it way to thick or heavy of a concentration.