Using my Accord for the first time in the rain, it was very hard to see - the windshield got blurry in the middle, but it looked clear at the bottom 2 inches. Any quick simple test I can do to tell if my refrigerant is too low or is it the wiper blades? If it is the blades, what brands do you like? I see that Michelin is making them now, under the Pylon brand. European car owners seem to like the Bosch. Are the any high quality Asian brands ? Denso?

 

What do you mean by the refrigerant being too low? Are you referring to your windshield washer fluid, aka ethylene glycol mix? If so there is a big plastic jug in the front of the drivers side fender. There is a fill cap there beside the power steering reservoir that you can easily fill up with washer fluid until it is full.

As for brands. I live in an area that runs the gamut of weather. It can do all types of precipitation in one afternoon. Therefor I usually go with a flex silicon wiper blade that does not have the long metal retainer. Right now I'm using the Reflex with wet tech blades. It basically has Rain-X impregnated into the blades. As far as I know they are only available @ Canadian Tire. The Armor All EDGE Silicone Wiper Blades maybe similar. I also use the RainX Windshield Washer Fluid in both mine and my wife's vehicles. Rain, snow and dirty road wash usually bead up and blow off the windshield without even using the wipers.

 

I am a fan of the Michelin blades, really good value for the price...
The best you can get would be PIAA or Bosch but not worth the extra I don't think..

What do you mean by refrigerant?

 

OP do you mean to ask if your defrost is working? How old is your car? is it the one in the sig? if so it might be time to have the system recharged and inspected for leaks using a florescent dye.....above 32F you should hear your A/C compressor cycle on and off as needed. The A/C system acts as a dehumidifier and removes the moisture from the air before blowing it on the window. this allows the air to pick up the moisture off of the windshield

 

in all honesty, I like Honda blades the best.

 

i like the michelin, or even anco blades. they get the job done for me. when i was in tennesee i was in a bind and had to get autozone blades, honestly they work fine. there is no blade out there that will last forever. its just a question as to how much you wanna spend how often.

 

Hey, thank you guys for all the answers. I need to edit my signature to reflect that is the Honda vehicle in question. I see that a few people asked what I meant by refrigerant. YeuEmMaiMai knew what I was referring to. It is standardized on today's vehicles [don't know when that became a standard, though. Many older vehicles did not have that feature]. Any time the defroster is turned on the air conditioner kicks in to assist in the drying of the moisture on the windshield. Not sure if anyone noticed, but unless my Accord is wired improperly, the AC kicks in when I turn on the defrost mode. I have another vehicle that I use for hauling stuff and it has a leaky heater core, so in the winter when the windshield gets all foggy, I turn on the AC until it clears up. There was a time before I was certified for AC work that I would not have ever made that connection, especially in the winter, when I would never want the AC on, but instead I'd want the heat only. Anyway, that is what I meant, by my refrigerant being too low.

I am seeing streaks on the windshield when the wipers run and there was also a blurry look, it really hampered my vision. I ducked down and looked at the bottom of the window and it was clear, so I was thinking the dry air provided by the AC system was not reaching the top of the window. I Know the charge for a R134-A system is more critical and I suspected the system is a bit low, based on the history of my working with this vehicle, so that is why I concluded the refrigerant level as a possible factor for the blurry windshield. However, I have some new information. So, that may only be part of the problem.

I put new wiper blades on since I started this thread. I had access to some new Anco blades so I tried them. I had a better chance to look at the windshield closer and did a mock test with water, and I saw that there are fine, curved-and-horizontal, parallel scratches in the glass, which is contributing to the streaks, if not the sole cause itself. I don't mean to deviate from the topic but this scratchy glass thing is also on the drivers and passenger's side windows. The difference is that on the side windows the scratches are vertical rather than curved-horizontal.

A relative of mine who works with a glass company, looked at the scratches on those side windows and told me that there is a substance that is used to remove them. He didn't tell me just what that substance was. Anyway, it probably involves using an abrasive anywhere from Toothpaste, or Arm & Hammer Baking Soda, or Borax, to Pumice, or a more abrasive compound of some type. I recall reading in a Haynes detailing manual that # 0000 Steel Wool is good for removing those scratches. I did try that with some mild solution of Simple Green. It did work on some of the scratches, but not all of them. So, that is where this is at now, I need to find out what you guys have used for this problem and what worked for you. However, I don't want to introduce anymore scratches, unless I need to start with a coarser one in order to get rid of the deeper scratches, so I can then proceed to the finer ones. You guys know the general process for scratch removal. I wonder if those abrasives for plastic would work well?

There are some body shop suppliers locally that I can call. My guess is that they have some sort of special compound for this type of glass problem. But if I have the stuff here in my garage why go spend more money for virtually the same thing.

Btw, as for this thread, I just searched the archives under "glass scratches" "window scratch" "windshield scratches" but did not find anything. I was aware of the side window scratches, but when I started this thread about wiper blades or refrigerant I did not know that my windshield was also scratched. So, it seems that this thread has also turned into a damaged glass issue -- NOT a detailing question.