The first time it happened to me, I was totally stunned I tell you. There I was, driving happily when it started snowing, and when I used my wipers, the glass got all cloudy and so I used the windshield (or wiper) fluid, and guess what! The damn liquid froze on the windshield, despite my having the defroster on at full heat! I had to drive with partial visibility and luckily, since it was Christmas time, the roads weren’t all that busy! Anyway, last week, we went and bought a wiper fluid that stays liquid up to -45 degrees C! Man, the things you encounter when you move to a foreign climate are awesome!
Windshield fluid that freezes on the windshield!
I got lazy on winter prep this year (living in a desert, even high desert, will do that to ya…) and so forgot to switch to the sub-zero fluid. Remembered it when we had to drive through the mountains… By that time, the washer was frozen solid. So, with Em at the wheel, we’re driving I-70 through the Rockies, in falling snow, behind trucks and passing snowplows… while i leaned out the window with a bottle of washer fluid to try and keep some visibility.
I was *very* happy when it thawed the next morning – after a 600+ mile drive into Utah.
Leaning out the window when it’s snowing, that too when Em’s driving. That must have been fun. The only time I ever sat in a car with her in a freeway, she was doing 20 above speed limit.
haha, so true Nish. I was in Austria where one night it dropped to -18 and my fingers stuck to the sled I was carrying. Crazy stuff but so much fun.
Be it Toronto or Kerala Nish rocks 🙂
Funny story, Nish, but you car has windshield WIPERS and the fluid is WIPER fluid.
Oops! Thanks Stephen! 😳
I’ve fixed it now.
Dont tell me you did not change the Wiper fluid after the demonstration that I gave opening the car hood….
Hey Abhi
We thought we’d let the existing fluid finish first. Was a mistake. And then, when we added the new fluid, the old one wasn’t fully gone yet, so for a while we got a mixed version! Now it seems alright 🙂
What’s even more interesting is when -45C wiper fluid freezes on the wind shield.
This usually happens when it’s really cold out and you are on the highway – wind chill brings it down to freezing point.
>> What’s even more interesting is when -45C wiper fluid freezes on the wind shield.
This usually happens when it’s really cold out and you are on the highway – wind chill brings it down to freezing point. <<
Hmmm, I thought wind-chill was just for us humans. Do inanimate objects, like a windshield, feel wind chill too?
I have noticed this too.. My guess is that when sprayed on the windshield its thin enough to freeze. But in larger quantities it doesn’t.