The Humble Origins of a Car’s Windscreen
Car windscreens also play a crucial role in providing aerodynamics to a vehicle’s front, hence it has a slanted, slope-like design. While it protects the occupants from the elements of the outdoors, ironically, it endangers the passengers during a car crash when jagged shards of glass start flying in the cabin.
Nowadays, tempered glass has become the global standard for windshields in the automotive industry. The glass is made by treating regular glass panels through heat and chemical means to reinforce its strength. This puts the glass under stress and breaks it into smaller, round chunks rather than jagged and serrated shards when shattered.
Our vehicle windscreens tend to be the most overlooked part of vehicle maintenance. Fortunately, maintaining a car windshield is easier than you think. Many car owners roll with the pretense of “If there’s no crack on the glass, then it’s all good.” But mitigating visible damage on the windscreen is one thing as having a clear windscreen is also crucial in ensuring a safe driving experience on the road.
Hence, here are five tips for maintaining your car’s windscreen.
Read More: The Difference Between Windshield Glass & Regular Glass
1. Avoid Slamming Car Doors as it Affects Your Car’s Windscreen
Door slamming is one of the common issues overlooked by car owners. Anyone can relate to the times you received a mouthful from your parents or friends because you slammed the car door too hard. Slamming car doors can cause pre-existing chips and cracks to grow over time.
How does the motion of slamming doors affect the cracks? If you have come across videos of people attempting to shatter glass with vibrations, it’s more or less the same theory. Glass has a natural resonance and tends to vibrate with frequency. The motion of slamming doors over time will accelerate cracks on the windscreen over time or worse, dislodge the whole windscreen from the frame.
Watch Here: How Glass Shatters From Vibrations
2. Do Regular Cleaning & Proper Maintenance
Instead of using a regular cloth, try opting for a microfiber cloth for your car washes. Microfiber, as the name implies, is an ultrafine synthetic fiber. A single strand of microfiber is typically smaller than a strand of human hair and is denser in cloth fibers than a regular cloth. The end result leaves the surface streak-free with every wipe. It’s also free from lint. Cloth lint is the small fiber strands that get worn out of the cloth with use over time.
A regular cloth can retain more water and holds more contaminants invisible to the naked eye. The main culprits like sand and small stones can cause micro-scratches on your windshield -when a little light shines on it, it’ll be quite an irritating sight to see. After all, who likes scratches on their car?
Read More: Here Are the Things You Need to Know Before Choosing an Auto film for Your Car
3. Get Wax & Ceramic Coating Treatment
There are plenty of services out there where you can get your car waxed and ceramic coated in Malaysia. While it can be expensive, most automotive enthusiasts or people who want to keep their car’s value in tip-top condition would opt for these choices. Ceramic coatings don’t usually come in traces of ceramic in them per se. Instead, these coatings are made of graphene and liquid polymer to protect paint and car surfaces from scratches and dirt.
Getting a layer coated on your windscreen can prevent scratches from marring. In addition, it makes your car’s windscreen hydrophobic – watching those water droplets roll down the screen while getting a clear view of the road during downpours can be pretty satisfying.
4. Take Care of Your Wipers with Daily Maintenance
Windshield wipers are also essential too! The rubber padding on the wipers will wear out gradually with use over time. In extreme cases, excessively worn wipers can expose the metal parts of the wiper arm scratching your windscreen.
Read More: Tips on Maintaining Your Car’s Windshield Wipers
Without proper friction from the wipers, anything lodged in between the wipers can scratch your glass every time you engage them. Worn-out windshield wiper blades also have difficulties sweeping water off your windshield during heavy rain. If you park your car frequently under a tree, watch out for pollen, dead twigs, and leaves building up on the wipers! Neglecting to remove residue that nests on your wiper blades can scratch and damage your windscreen when you engage the wipers.
Simple windshield wiper maintenance can be done by checking for signs of damage on the wiper arms. Worn and improperly installed wipers can damage your windscreen when in use. It is recommended that you should change your wipers every 12 months of usage.
Read More: How Wipers Protect Our Windshield
5. Avoid Driving Hazards on the Road
Avoid driving behind or close to heavy trucks if possible. Most cracks and chips occur on the road when we drive behind loaded trucks. Depending on what they are carrying, small debris can turn loose during transport and fall off behind the truck. In fact, there are incidents that made news due to improperly fastened cargo from trucks. You may be needed to repair more than just the windscreen if it does happen.
So, try to keep at least one and a half car’s length behind a loaded truck if you have to stay in the same lane – the bigger the vehicle, the bigger the blind spot. These crawling monoliths have a ton of blind spots around them. Often, these drivers won’t even know what fell off their trailer during transport. Even cars need social distancing too.
Get a Clear View on the Road with CARSOME Certified Cars
Worry not about broken and damaged windscreens when you buy a CARSOME Certified today! Our CARSOME Certified cars go through a rigid 175-point inspection to ensure cars are free from major accidents or flood damage. In addition, we have our cars professionally refurbished at our Carsome Certified lab to ensure they have safety beyond standards, complete comfort, and refurbished aesthetics.
Additionally, all CARSOME Certified cars are listed with an all-inclusive price and no hidden fees. We also offer a five-day money-back guarantee where if you change your mind, you can return it to us with no questions asked. On top of that, we also give a one-year warranty to ensure you have complete peace of mind.
Check out CARSOME today to get the ride of your dreams!
