Late last week the car was parked outside and the clear cold overnight left a layer of frost on the front windshield. Couldn't hang around for the defrost to work so I just grabbed an ice scrapper from the trunk and clean just enough so I can drive.

No name, nothing out of the ordinary, hand scraper (not the long handled ones with a brush).

Well, now I noticed that there are scratch marks on the windshield. At first I thought it was just dirt, gunk or perhaps smearing on it so I use the windshield washer. No go. Then I tried with a clean rag. Still no go. Then I use my finger nail to check and low and behold, it catches on it! WTF? Scratch from a plastic scraper? I've had 4 other cars before and the windshield was harder than any scrapper I threw at it!

The scratch marks are definitely from the scraper as they matched the orientation of my movements. They appear worst when the sun is in front of you or at some key angles.

So, does any know if there are some special soft coatings on the outside of the windshield? Now I figure if I can scratch it easily with a plastic scraper then I can easily polish/buff them out. But when it gets warmer....I have some special industrial plastic polishling liquid.

 

I read somewhere that the TL windshield was plastic in order to decrease noise levels.

I have yet to scrape mine since it sleeps in the garage.
I do experience one heck of time getting water spots off all the glass and mirrors on the car for some reason

 

Hmmm...this sounds out of the ordinary. I thought Acura's windshields were just like all windshields.

 

Hmm...I would hope that the glazing (if that's what Steve is referring to) would be on the inside to prevent things like this. Take it to the dealer, that's not right.

 

I agree it's not right to have these scratches, however...

Our windshields are not plastic

They are triple laminated glass, which copies German brands for better sound insulation quality. Watch the Discovery Channel's "How it's Made" to learn more about how a windshield is made. Most standard windshields are two pieces of tempered glass that have a sticky, UV resistant vinyl sheet in the middle. Not only does this make both sheets of glass stick together, but it also doubles as making the glass "safety" glass. Ever notice on TV shows how stunt doubles get hit by a car and the windshield shatters where they hit, but does not bust into a thousand pieces? It is because of that vinyl layer in the middle.

The standard Acura TL windshield now has an extra layer of vinyl and glass to get rid of the notorious Honda/Acura cabin noise that comes from the A-pillar area. This, however, is just one more reason why new car's weights keep increasing.

 

The same thing happened to me on my 2001 TL about 3 months after I bought it. I could not believe it. I ended up getting a new windshield through insurance. Then the tape they used to hold it in overnight would not come off and I had scratches all over the roof near the top of the windshield. That car was cursed. Just one of many stories about the strange things that happened to me in that car. Sold it after 2 1/2 years.

 

I kind of "lived with it" and over time (since my initial post) the scratches appear to be less and less and now it's very hard to see them. So two things could have happened. Yes, there is a soft layer on the outside and over time the scratches "wore off" as the softer layer gets "polished" by the fine dirt that hits it when driving. The other thing is that the scratches are material from the ice scraper transferred to the windshield. But I doubt that is the issue as my finger nail catches them when I run it over back then. Though now, it barely catches at all. Weird!