The best tips for keeping your car's windows sparkling clean

After a journey, your windscreen is left covered in the carnage caused by insects. And that is a serious problem. 90% of the information the driver receives comes through sight, and sight relies mainly on what is seen through the car’s windscreen, hence the crucial need to keep the glass surface of your vehicle as clean and clear as possible. This is now — and will be even more so in the future — more essential than ever, since much of the ADAS system’s sensors are located on the windscreen (and so will those that will collect the data for the various autonomous driving functions). Keeping it clean and well washed is therefore essential.

It is inevitable that, after the journey, the windscreen of our car ends up covered in insects splattered across it, whose remains — especially when they have dried in the sun — are really hard to clean off. The first tip is to clean the windscreen more often than at other times of the year or when we only use the car in town. When doing so, always use water or windscreen washer fluid, since otherwise all we will do is spread the stain across the glass and increase the area that impairs visibility, thereby creating more danger on the road.

If you operate the windscreen wipers with the car moving and have the sun in your eyes, your view of the road will be blurred for a few seconds. And the more worn your wiper blades are, the longer it will take you to regain a clear view of the road. The same happens when the typical summer storms fall on the car, which, besides water, deposit a great deal of dust on the windscreen. If we use the wipers then, all we will do is spread the dirt around.

In such cases, the best option is to stop and clean it properly, or wait until you get home to clean it thoroughly. There we can use soapy water or some household cleaning product to clean it. In these cases, take your time. Apply the product over the windscreen surface and let it work. After a while, removing insect remains or dust from the windscreen will be much easier. You will need to rub the residue on the surface far less and you won’t damage the glass. The best is to use a soft cloth and, if you use a brush, make sure it has soft bristles. Try not to apply too much pressure on the glass and always move them across its surface in circular motions. If insect remains or rain-borne dust won’t come off, mixing water with sodium bicarbonate on a microfibre cloth also gives good results.

Dust and sand from beaches or the countryside are other major enemies (also of the car’s paintwork) of your windscreen at this time of year. The dry air and high temperatures mean there is more sand in the air than usual, especially in coastal areas where the sea breeze considerably contributes to this. Suspended sand settles slowly on road asphalt and is then lifted again by cars as they pass. This is why that grit ends up on your windscreen, and why in summer the number of windscreens broken or damaged by stone chips increases noticeably. If you also park your car near a beach, the likelihood of finding the windscreen covered in dust increases considerably.

In such cases, the best approach would always be to clean the windscreen by lifting off the grit in the same way it got there: blowing. Of course, not all of us have sufficient lung capacity or a compressor to hand. The problem is that if you use the wipers you could damage the windscreen surface and scratch the glass. The same applies to the side windows if you operate the electric window to clean the glass. The best system is to use water to remove the largest amount of dirt from the glass surface. Carrying a water container in the boot can not only help, but is a particularly recommended practice in summer.

But undoubtedly, as in many other cases, the best way to protect the car’s glass is to act preventively. Specialist glass replacement and repair outlets offer special treatments that not only improve visibility in rain or snow by allowing water droplets or snowflakes to “slide” more easily over the glass surface, but also ensure that insect remains, dirt and dust do not adhere so readily to it, thus considerably simplifying its cleaning.

And remember to keep your windscreens in good condition during your holidays. For the first time, this summer the agents of the Traffic Group of the Guardia Civil have included checking and monitoring the condition of the windscreen in their campaigns. It is further evidence of the growing role given to this component in terms of safety.

Besides the greater number of cars on the roads in summer, this is when the largest number of windscreen breakages occur, not only from incidents on the road but also with the car parked. This is because the extreme temperatures reached and the thermal differences this causes create great stresses in car glass that make it more fragile in the event of an impact, or cause the windscreen to crack quickly.