Frozen windows!

Rafy126

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Hi, I live in the countryside up in Scotland and this morning my car (CL 500) was iced over!

As we all know, the CL windows move up about 10mm? to seal when you close the door and move down again when opening the door, but as it was frozen this didn't work!

A mate of mine said he used to put vaseline on the tops of the windows on his coupe BMW to keep them working when frozen!

Any experience with this or any other clever ideas to beat the ice?

The car is kept outside so no smart ar5e answers like keep it i a garage please :)
 

television

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I would try PTFE it is not sticky,,and it will stay working on the door sealer rubbers,,form Screwfix and good tool shops
It is not messy,and contains non stick qualities
 

littlebrooklyn

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I hadn't even thought of that happening with a convertible. Our new car does the same with the windows, so good advice there, thanks Malcolm :)

As you are so clever Malcolm maybe you can explain why convertibles don't come with a rear screen wiper? Now I know the roof folding into the rear of the car creates a problem, but you would think someone would have invented something.
 
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television

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I hadn't even thought of that happening with a convertible. Our new car does the same with the windows, so good advice there, thanks Malcolm :)

I could try it down here,but it is still plus 25ºc here :rolleyes:
 

littlebrooklyn

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I could try it down here,but it is still plus 25ºc here :rolleyes:

I'm jealous ;)

It's 13c and sunny here, but you can really feel the cold when you go out at night now.

Time to get the Winter coats out of the wardrobe :p

Or better idea still, time to go shopping for a new Winter coat :) :) :)
 

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I'm jealous ;)

It's 13c and sunny here, but you can really feel the cold when you go out at night now.

Time to get the Winter coats out of the wardrobe :p

Or better idea still, time to go shopping for a new Winter coat :) :) :)

Yo be truthful it is only 13.2539º c down here today
 

rf065

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As we all know, the CL windows move up about 10mm? to seal when you close the door and move down again when opening the door, but as it was frozen this didn't work!

Mine are the same and is always parked outside too, all year round.
Even with frozen windows which don't move, opening or closing the doors has never been a problem for me.

The only advice I would give, is don't wash the car if you know the temperature is going to drop that night. :shock:

Russ
 

littlebrooklyn

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Mine are the same and is always parked outside too, all year round.
Even with frozen windows which don't move, opening or closing the doors has never been a problem for me.

The only advice I would give, is don't wash the car if you know the temperature is going to drop that night. :shock:

Russ

So that could mean not washing your car for weeks and weeks :shock:

We also have to leave ours parked outside. We have a nice empty garage that is big enough for our car, but the car won't fit down the space between our house and the fence :(
 

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I hadn't even thought of that happening with a convertible. Our new car does the same with the windows, so good advice there, thanks Malcolm :)

As you are so clever Malcolm maybe you can explain why convertibles don't come with a rear screen wiper? Now I know the roof folding into the rear of the car creates a problem, but you would think someone would have invented something.
If it is designed correctly then it shouldn't need a rear screen wiper as the air turbulence should keep the rear screen clear. Quite a few people coming from hatchbacks wonder why saloon cars don't have rear wipers until they realise they don't need them.
Saloons that I can remember with rear wipers would be a Ford Orion and some nondescript Japanese car from the late 80's early 90's. I cannot remember any others.
 

littlebrooklyn

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If it is designed correctly then it shouldn't need a rear screen wiper as the air turbulence should keep the rear screen clear. Quite a few people coming from hatchbacks wonder why saloon cars don't have rear wipers until they realise they don't need them.

Thanks Blob, it never occurred to me that air turbulence would keep it clear, I will have to keep an eye on that. I thought they might have used the same type of glass that the side windows are made of, the rain just runs off them, can't remember the technical name for it though :confused:

Back to the topic of the freezing windows, would you put that stuff Malcolm mentioned on the bottom of the windows too? It seems to me that when you try to open the car door that the glass slides down into the door space, so would putting stuff around the top of the glass be a waste of time if the bottom bit was also frozen :confused:
 

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Rain X is fine if you do not have auto wipers on the front screen,, certainly do the side and rear with it
 

rf065

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Rain X is fine if you do not have auto wipers on the front screen,, certainly do the side and rear with it

I used to use Rain X, but it leaves a greasy residue on the windows after a while which is worse than having untreated windows.

Russ
 

Alex M Grieve

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Saloons that I can remember with rear wipers would be a Ford Orion and some nondescript Japanese car from the late 80's early 90's. I cannot remember any others.

There have been one or two others where a rear wiper has been offered as an extra - SAAB 9000 was one - though you rarely see them.

As has been said, airflow clears the rear window but that is dependent on air flow. In static traffic the rain does build up on the rear window to a worrying extent, but once you get moving it soon clears.

Driving MB we tend to forget how much thought has gone into the design of the car. The windscreen pillars route any excess water up over the roof, so the front side windows are generally clear, and they have also solved the problem of turbulence around the door mirrors which on many cars leads to the mirrors becoming unusable, or the side window becoming filthy with water off the mirror, rendering the mirror unusable.

But you really don't realize how well off we are until you drive a car without these refinements at night and in the rain, on an unlit road with the dazzle from the lights of other cars.

And even smarter, once designed in, no servicing or maintenance is required on these points.
 

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There have been one or two others where a rear wiper has been offered as an extra - SAAB 9000 was one - though you rarely see them.

As has been said, airflow clears the rear window but that is dependent on air flow. In static traffic the rain does build up on the rear window to a worrying extent, but once you get moving it soon clears.

Driving MB we tend to forget how much thought has gone into the design of the car. The windscreen pillars route any excess water up over the roof, so the front side windows are generally clear, and they have also solved the problem of turbulence around the door mirrors which on many cars leads to the mirrors becoming unusable, or the side window becoming filthy with water off the mirror, rendering the mirror unusable.

But you really don't realize how well off we are until you drive a car without these refinements at night and in the rain, on an unlit road with the dazzle from the lights of other cars.

And even smarter, once designed in, no servicing or maintenance is required on these points.
That is why I love Mercedes, it is the small engineering bits that you don't even notice until you try something else.
I also like that when I use the headlight washers the spray doesn't hit the windscreen.
 

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There have been one or two others where a rear wiper has been offered as an extra - SAAB 9000 was one - though you rarely see them.


.

That is a rare observation young man, indeed they were fitted to the 9000 SE has it as standard, but not in Sweden,,and people used to stop me and ask if I had fitted it, as the cars sold there did not have the option.
 

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