Inside of Windows Sticky

[arwhite97]

I cleaned the insides of the windows of my wife's Jeep Compass last night with Meguiar's glass cleaner and supreme shine towels. For some reason, the insides of the windows were sticky after being cleaned. When I went to do a final wipe, the towels were clinging to the windows, to the point that it was leaving fibers behind and pulling out big enough fibers I could see them laying all over the dash. Any idea what might be causing this? I cleaned the windows on my Jeep Commander the same way and had no issues.

[Setec Astronomy]

Cleaning windows is all about technique and towels. Sometimes windows will have vinyl fog or cigarette smoke residue which changes things a bit.

Anyway, glass will tend to be draggy and pull micro fibers out of microfiber towels. One tip is to make your last pass more "wet"; if you try to get the glass too dry on the last pass it will usually be more grabby. So basically the glass (and the towel) need to be really clean already, then make your last wipe without trying to get it completely dry; the glass cleaner will "lube" the towel preventing the dry wipe which sheds the fibers.

This gets tricky depending on temperature, sun, etc. I tend to use different towels for different windows, inside and outsides, etc. Like there are some towels I will never use for glass, some only for the side and rear glass, special ones for the windshield. I'm sure you're going to get a lot of different answers.

[arwhite97]

Alright, that makes sense. I'll have to try doing my final pass wet then and see if that works out better. If not I'll probably get some different towels for it then

[BobbyG]

Hmmm, interesting.....

Was it all the windows or just the windshield?

Did you start with the inside of the windshield then move to the side windows?

The reason I'm asking all the questions is it's possible to transfer residue from one surface to another without realizing it.

If you have an AC leak or antifreeze leak in the dash area it's possible that some residue could make its way to the inside of the glass. Antifreeze does become sticky once it dries so do a but of investigating to determine the root cause...

[arwhite97]

I was just doing the rear window and the windshield, and it was this inside of both. I started with the rear and moved to the windshield. I even tried switching out to a clean towel.

[BobbyG]

Believe it or not, I've cleaned windows that made me feel like I was cleaning someones toilet they hadn't been cleaned in so long. PVC gas, cigarette smoke, cigar smoke, air fresheners etc, etc leave a film that does become sticky when trying to remove.

It is possible that the cleaning solution you used dissolved some of it and transferred it to the cloth you used. Using the same cloth it's very likely you transferred some of it to the windshield or the other way around.


Always use 2 towels
Use a quality glass cleaner
Wipe glass immediately after cleaning with dry towel
Don't over saturate the cloth otherwise it reaches it's maximum absorption and will redeposit dissolved contaminants back on the clean glass leaving streaks...


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