5 Ways the Winter Season Affects Your Windshield
Your windshield can easily get damaged due to many factors, and the risk increases during the winter season. Hence, it is essential to keep it maintained regardless of where you are living.
Read ahead to find out how the winter season affects your windshield and what you can do to prevent that from happening.
Windshield care is very crucial in the maintenance of your car, especially during the winters. Whether you live in Texas with mild winter weather or in New York with snow covering the ground in its peak winter season, your windshield is always affected in several ways.
1. Rapid Temperature Changes
Windshields are prone to damage during winters, no matter where you live.
The damage is not so much by the lower temperature, but the sudden fluctuations in temperature that cause the windshield to expand and contract rapidly, making it prone to cracks.
Precautions
Instead of immediately turning on the defroster to a high setting in your car, warm the windshield slowly so that there is no rapid temperature change.
Do not pour hot boiling water on the windshield in an attempt to melt the ice. It will only cause more damage due to the shift from one extreme temperature to another.
2. Ice and Hail Impact
Hail storms produce ice spheres of varying sizes that can not only dent other parts of the car but may also destroy windshields entirely.
Precautions
Stay inside! But if you can’t and your screen gets damaged as a result of it, make sure to get the small cracks repaired at your earliest. However, if you neglect them, they will ultimately get larger, eventually requiring replacement. A windshield replacement will be more costly, hectic, and time-consuming. Hence, it is better to take quick action!
3. Windshields Covered in Ice
For those of you living in areas that experience snowfall, it’s a common sight to wake up to your windshields covered in ice or snow. Now you may be running late to the office, and you will be tempted to use a knife or start scraping the ice so that you can just drive and get to your destination on time. However, using improper tools will not only give you unsatisfactory results but may also damage your windshield.
Precautions
Do not use a shovel or a knife as they will produce scratches. It is much wiser to use a proper ice removal tool like an ice-scraper. Always carry one in your car. In the winter season, you never know when you might need it!
4. Fogged Up Windshield
You might notice fog on the inside of the windshield when you sit in your car in the winter season. This is due to the colder air outside coming in contact with the windscreen. Inside it is warmer, and there is more humidity causing the windshield to get foggy.
Precautions
Driving in such conditions is dangerous as it may reduce visibility and clarity.
Do not try to clean the fog with your hands unless it is an emergency. It is better to open your car’s windows slightly so that cold, dry air can enter. We know it sounds very uncomfortable, but this will help regulate the temperature and humidity by lowering the moisture level inside.
Do not use the “recirculate” fan setting as it will only reuse the air in the vehicle, increasing the humidity.
5. Windshield Wiper Fluid
If you use plain water as your washer fluid liquid, it’ll end up freezing right on top of your windshield. This won’t help improve visibility, like it’s supposed to. Additionally, your car’s wiper blades can easily get worn out due to friction with the ice.
Precautions
Don’t use water as your windshield wiper fluid in the winters. Instead, buy a liquid that’s built to protect your windshield in inclement weather. Use fluids that contain antifreeze or those based on ethanol so that they do not freeze.
Also, ensure that your wipers are functioning properly and replace them as soon as they start getting old and worn out.
Key Takeaways
Windshields get seriously affected during the winter season, and most of us don’t take it too seriously. The maintenance of your windshield and its constant upkeep during the winter season should be of utmost importance. It is essential for the safety of the driver and passengers as well as those on the streets.
Drive safely and contact us if you want to keep your windshield maintained.
