When it comes to car maintenance, you need to ensure that you check everything. You can bring the vehicle to a mechanic for professional maintenance while taking in charge of regular auto care tasks. Apart from the engine, exterior paint, and leather seats, you shouldn’t forget that your windshield needs sufficient care as well.
While you can have it fixed anytime, wouldn’t it be better if you could avoid the trouble and keep it in excellent condition as much as possible? Don’t worry as there are plenty of ways to care for it, according to DiscountAutoGlass. Here are some maintenance and protection tips you can try for that particular part of your car:
1. Defend It From Sunlight
Sunlight won’t normally damage your windshield even if you often drive during the day. However, when you park in direct sunlight for too long, this might end up harming it and making it brittle over time. Furthermore, if it has any existing cracks, intense sunlight might make them a lot worse.
To defend the glass from sunlight, you should always try to park where there’s enough shade to cover the vehicle, ideally where shadows from trees or nearby buildings fall. However, if there’s no available shaded spot for you to park, you should have a cover for it and place it outside of your car to provide protection. Ideally, you should tuck it in properly to prevent it from coming loose it if it gets windy.
2. Practice Distant Driving
No matter what kind of road you’re driving on, you must practice distant driving to protect your front window. As a vehicle moves, there might be stones and bits of pavement flying in the air from the wheels’ movement. No matter how small they are, they could still scratch the glass and even weaken it.
With that said, as you drive, you should maintain a proper distance from the car in front of you. Ideally, you should stay farther away if you’re going on a rocky path where rocks and bigger objects might be present.
3. Avoid Slamming Doors
While you may want to ensure that the doors are perfectly sealed every time you step into and out of your vehicle, you should try to avoid slamming the doors intensely. Not only can this damage the windscreen, but it can harm the locks and other parts of your vehicle as well.
When you pull or push the doors close too hard, the excessive force might eventually cause the glass to shatter. This is why you need to ensure that you provide the proper care it deserves.
4. Do Not Wash Your Car Immediately
If you’ve just had a professional replace your windshield, you shouldn’t wash your vehicle for another 48 hours to ensure that the adhesive and molds are completely dry. While it might be tempting to wash your car, especially if you parked it in a dusty environment, immediately cleaning it isn’t advisable.
If you must clean your car, you should consider wiping it down with a microfiber cloth instead. It’s important that you don’t use water as this can harm the treatment around the glass.
5. Regularly Replace Your Wipers
While you need to take care of your car’s front window, you shouldn’t forget that looking after the wipers is equally important. If you allow them to be in poor condition, they can greatly damage the windscreen. To prevent that from happening, you should be aware of the state of your wipers and decide if they should be replaced.
Once you notice that they aren’t effectively scraping the water off the glass when it’s raining, this is a clear indication for you to replace them immediately.
Due to longevity, your wipers might also lose their shape, which may put unnecessary pressure on the front window when you use them. Intense pressure can severely damage it, resulting in cracks and scratches. However existing cracks may cause the entire thing to break, harming everyone inside the vehicle, especially those in the driver’s and front passenger’s seats.
6. Clean Your Windshield Regularly
What’s a better way of protecting your car than ensuring that you clean it regularly? For the windshield, regular glass cleaning is a must. To ensure the success of the process, you should use a glass cleaner specially made for automobiles. In this way, you can lessen the risk of damaging the front window.
If you have enough time on your hands, it would be ideal for you to clean it at the end of the week when you won’t be using your car and will have it in park. In this way, you can allow the cleaner to sink in and treat the surface effectively.
Moreover, if you notice any dead bugs on the windscreen, you should remove them immediately as they can cause deterioration given that most insects have entrails with high acidity.
7. Use The Right Cleaning Materials
While there are plenty of cleaners out there on the market, you must use the suitable glass cleaning materials for windshields. While some people might think that using regular house cleaners would do, they can cause more damage to that part of your car. Most household cleaning materials have ammonia, which can contribute to drying out plastic and vinyl, which can be found in your front window.
Ideally, you should look for a glass cleaner in an auto shop so you can guarantee that it’s safe for your vehicle. Or you can also look online for car wash and cleaning products from reputable websites like Repco, there are a lot of available brands of car care products you can choose from for your car maintenance. Moreover, you might want to consider going all-natural by creating your own solution. You can mix water and vinegar, and it should help you have a clean windscreen without using harmful chemicals. However, you need to ensure that you clean and rinse the surface thoroughly to eliminate any strong odor.
8. Apply Glass Treatment
To protect your windshield from any exterior damage, you might want to consider applying a glass treatment. In this way, you can maximize the front window’s defense and minimize the possibility of cracks and scratches.
With a glass treatment, all you have to do is to apply the wax onto the glass, similar to how you’ll wax your vehicle, and leave it on for a few hours to dry. This should provide adequate protection in the long run.
While a glass treatment may be an added expense, the benefits it provides are absolutely worth it. You can avoid damage from rocks and all kinds of debris that may hit your windscreen as you park or drive along a bumpy road.
9. Fix Chips And Cracks Immediately
Once you notice that there’s a chip, scratch, or crack in your windshield, you shouldn’t just ignore it but instead do something about it right away. No matter how small or minor the damage is, the earlier you can address it, the better it would be for your front window’s life span.
If you let chips and cracks stay on the windscreen for too long, they will eventually grow, which can cause severe damage. Apart from hindering your view, a chip may also make the glass weaker, which can be dangerous once you’re on the road. One small bump can cause your already fragile windshield to break, harming you as well as any passengers you have.
Ideally, you should bring your vehicle to a repair shop even with the smallest hint of a chip. They’ll be providing proper temporary treatment for your front window, or they might recommend replacing it as a whole. While it might be expensive, it’s something you can’t put off since your safety’s on the line.
10. Install A Bug Guard
If you frequently drive to areas with a lot of bugs flying around, you probably often get irritated at how many bugs are on your windshield at the end of the day. To prevent it from being a bug graveyard, you should consider installing a bug guard to keep the glass squeaky clean.
Whenever you drive fast, you don’t want bugs slamming on your windshield. It would be best for them to fly up over your roof instead. That’s what a bug guard does: it deflects bugs away from your vehicle hood and windshield.
11. Always Hire A professional
At some point, you’ll need to replace your windshield to ensure that it’s in its best shape whenever you take your car for a drive. Given that the price of the replacement itself is already high, you might opt to hire someone with cheaper fees. While that can help you save a few bucks, that individual might not be able to deliver quality services, which would only worsen the condition of your windscreen.
Ideally, for repairs and replacements, you should always hire a professional who can get the job done right the first time. In this way, you can be confident that you’ll avoid property damage and even personal injuries in the long term.
Conclusion
Taking care of your windshield is as important as taking care of your car. If you choose to leave it in poor condition, it might end up getting damaged and cause injuries should it break while you’re driving. To ensure the safety of everyone in the vehicle, you should maintain and protect the windscreen however you can. And while regular maintenance can be an added cost, it’s far cheaper than having the entire windscreen replaced.
