Wiper marks on windshield

[apexi]

I think it's silicone or graphite residue from wiper blades. What kind of wiper blades do you use? Periodically I clean my wiper blades using alcohol prep pads, which I would try doing to remove any excess gunk from the blades. After that, I think you might just have to try various cleaners on the windshield. I'm reading about some people using wheel and tire cleaner, rain-x x-treme clean and permatex no touch auto glass stripper.

[OCDetails]

You could always reapply aquapel to that area and see if it solves the problem. Aquapel doesn't make the glass bulletproof and it doesn't last forever either. Depending on how often you need to use your wipers it can wear off in three or four months. Get some baking soda on a damp sponge and scrub your windshield. That will remove the aquapel and any possible residue causing the area you see. At that point if it is still showing something weird when the glass is wet and the wipers wipe then you'll know it is scratches. Reapply the aquapel and move forward until you decide to replace the glass. We can argue about whether it is residue or scratches for the next year if you want, but you could just try scrubbing the glass and reapplying the aquapel and find out for us.

[Brady]

We could argue for a year, but we now have three people who agree. The reason scratches do that is that they help break the surface tension of the water and cause the water to behave differently. They are still finer than the scratches you see in paint/clearcoat because glass is a harder material, and doesn't scratch as easily as the softer paint products. Again, if you want proof, go find a microscope you can use to view the surface of the windshield and you'll see what's going on. It's so bloody simple it hurts my brain that it's hard for someone to understand. By the way, my windshield does the EXACT same thing, which I readily observed on my drive to Breckenridge yesterday.

[apexi]

If you do research on this topic outside of legacygt.com, you will find this is a problem that people have even on newer cars, and on cars where the windshield is fairly new. In my mind, that eliminates the possibility of it being scratches. Though I will admit after doing a lot of research on this topic, there appears to be a pretty even split on the cause. Just like in this thread, on other message boards some people say scratches, some say residue.

[Brady]

It doesn't take many wipes for the scratches to begin. The reason for the effect isn't entirely severity of the scratches, but pattern. A brand spankin' new windshield won't have any effect. Once the micro-scratches are created, the pattern/effect seen is consistent, but not necessarily the same overall severity. Back in my company car days, I went through a windshield about every 8-9 months (was driving 60,000 miles a year). And I had about a total of 11-12 windshields in that car in the span of 3-1/2 years (lots of warped/defective replacements). I saw the same pattern over and over. It's unbelievably normal.

[OCDetails]

I just don't understand why people take to the interwebs to argue about what it may or may not be. Clean the surface and settle the debate. If the marks go away then it was residue. If they remain then it is scratched. There has been ten times more energy spent on debating what the marks are than would have been spent just getting some cleaner and settling the matter once and for all. Just sayin...