osubuckeye98

Okay...so I can live without the heated mirrors, driver seat memory, and non-one-touch moonroof...but ice build up on my wiper edges?!?!? I had to keep getting out of my car today on the drive home to pick ice off of my wiper edges. Granted I still have the OEM wipers installed, would winter blades make that big of a difference?? Ice would build up after about four swipes and next time I needed to clear the windshield they would smear to the point that I couldn't see out the window!!

My Jeep had the wipers positioned right over the vents in the dash so the warm air would keep ice from forming on the wiper edges...

Does anyone else in a snowy climate experience this? Do you have a good solution to this??

Thanks,
SB

roverhater

I had to replace my TL-S 2 weeks after I bought it.

osubuckeye98

Because of ice build up on the wipers you got rid of your TL-S???

roverhater

Replaced the wipers smart ass.

osubuckeye98

Haha...sorry. Had to ask.

So what did you replace them with? Winter blades? Thanks for the info dude.

roverhater

I dint know. Just asked the guy at auto zone for the best he had.

YBA

Winter blades don't do a good job at highway speeds. They can even be dangerous. The best way to approach the situation is to always carry a rag and wipe the wipers before driving away. The original wipers do a good job in winter. Acura does not recommend using winter wipers (they actually lift off the windsheild on the highway).

You should not start driving around with 1 foot of snow on your car nor you should be driving around without cleaning your wipers from ice (de-ice the blade).

Also, make sure you use windshield washer formulated for winter, this helps a lot. And one more thing, like you mentionned, make sure the ventillation is set to the vents pushing air towards the windhield (pushing warm air), this will soften the blade a little by warming them up.

I live in ice rain and snow land (Montreal).

Warmest regards

Luc

bob shiftright

The car is Sears Roebuck, not Saks Fifth Avenue but so is the price....

I've deduced before that it must not get very cold in Saitama Japan. (In fact, I drew the line at a Honda snowthrower, mine is a Toro!) In addition to the wiper design, the blade material seems to be some formulation that loses it's flexibility when it's very cold. Also, on the Acura there's a snow/ice buildup over the washer nozzles which are "hidden" below the hood edge. My wife's Oddy wipers suck in the snow and cold weather too, although at least the washer nozzles are on the hood.

What I do is use the Rain-X winter fluid, Rain-X the windshield and clean the blades frequently with rubbing alcohol. The design still sucks in the snow and cold weather. I find I'm putting most of the miles on my "winter beater" Volvo. If I lived someplace it's always cold I'd buy another Volvo, but fortunately it will warm up here. I hope. This may end up as one of the coldest Januaries in history!

kagedude

Its wintertime and below 20 degrees. My washer fluid nozzles on my 04 TSX is so useless because it keeps freezing when you need it the most. I can't believe for a $26K car, the simplest thing fails. My other car, a $9K Hyundai Accent squirts the washer fluid reliably at any temp. I think Acura tried to go all classy with the "mist/spray" effect it didn't bother thinking about how temp would affect it. Ugh.

STC

iTrader: (1)

i find it funny youre talking about ice uild up when your name is sunnyboy. hahaha

majormojo

I've had good success with the Rain-X winter washer fluid and the stock wipers. Normally I switch to winter wipers but I wanted to give the stockers a chance to see how they'd do. So far so good. A few times I've had to turn the heat on full to the defroster to keep the ice from building up. No problems with the fluid freezing up, but I haven't had a chance to try it out in REAL cold yet, it's only been down around -35C here for the past week or so.

iamhomin

why am i laughing from this? hahahaha

gpsiir

I put winter blades on when driving around town in heavy snow, they don't ice up and the rubber compound stays softer, however, I keep the stock blades in the trunk (they don't take up that much room, after all) and will put them on if I'm driving at highway speeds and the winter blades aren't working very well (doesn't happen too often). I find that the stock 26 inch blade on the drivers side really builds up with ice and causes the blade to "lift" off of the window....I think the size of the blade is the main detriment in those conditions. I live in Colorado, so it's a toss up if we get rain, snow, sleet, hail, small frogs, cats-n-dogs, etc. in the summer or winter. (BTW, I'm *NOT* kidding, I've got a video tape taken out of my back porch showing a blizzard on June the 5th last year!)

tmalzahn

I agree about the heating system's lack of ability to properly keep ice off of the windshield and wipers. My '95 Legend has a winter position for the wipers which works very well by moving the wipers up about three inches on the glass.

I wish the TSX had that feature.

-Tim

osubuckeye98

Ya, life's full of little ironies. The name has more to do with my real name than my yearning for frost free winters.

DEVO

try buying a better windshield wiper fluid... instead of blaming the car. i would recommend rainx windshield wiper fluid (winter blend, it's orange).

rzee

Actually, kagedude is right. I have a corolla at home that uses the same fluid as the TSX, it worked just fine, but the TSX didn't. I mean, one would think that when the engine is hot it should at least keep your wiper fluid and nozzles warm right?

calbear2k1

My friend just got a subaru outback H6, and they come with some sort of winshield wiper de-icer (so do many other subaru's). I did a casual internet search for info on this feature and didn't find much info. Anyone know if this just a heater that warms the blades? Do other cars have something similar in their cold weather packages...such as a BMW IX or other lux brands? I have never heard of a wiper de-icer, but it sounds like as good of a winter accessory as heated mirrors (still pissed about no USA heated mirrors, i mean heated seats are nice, but they don't do anything for safety).

It just snowed six more inches here and my wipers don't exactly work well when the car is cold. Also, the fluid from the nozzles doesn't hit the enough of the windshield to de-ice without scraping. Once the car is warm, I never have a porblem though. I think the TSX warms up faster than any car I've been in, which is quite nice.

The car is a solid handler in the snow, as long as I take it easy. Stability control kicks in sometimes off a dead stop, which is a strange feeling. The threshold on the TCS seems a bit high as I can push the car out of control by punching the gas in a corner - then again, I don't see any situation where I'd pull that move unless I were just checking out what happens.

osubuckeye98

it would be nice to have defrost lines along the bottom part of the windshield where the wipers rest so when at rest the water on the rubber blade does not freeze and no slush build up to smear your windshield on the next wipe.

I asked my friend who works for Honda in marysville and he says the best solution is to keep the wipers going on low while driving in snowy conditions. I'll have to try that next time it snows hard (though i'm hoping it doesn't anymore)