Its been very cold these days on the east coast, the windchill was in the singe digits and with the little snow and rain been using the windshield fluid a lot. I realized that my windshield fluid was also frozen because of how cold its been and I have been running 32+ fluid. I need to drain it out and put a good one appropriate for the weather.

I used to buy rain X and most recently prestone..I think the rain-x damages the wiper rubber makes them too stiff then they make this streaking noise and prestone have been hard to find reently . (have OEM lexus wipers) change them every 15k..

so what do you guys use for the fluid OEM? ..maybe I am overthinking this too much

 

My answer is the cheapest blue crap I can find but I don't live in a cold climate and my car is always garaged. The answer to the freezing issue is a home made DIY, dump isoprophyl alcohol into the tank; the higher concentrated stuff like 91%. I use IPA to strip waxes prior to coating a car so there are some that may have issue with this given those properties, however at the dilution rate you shouldn't have issues with this, espeically if you are using it at speed so it doesn't sit on the paint. There are store bought "winter" washes available and these generally have methanol in them, obviously the higher concentration the more likely it is to resist freezing. I'm sure these brand name winter mixes will cost 2-3 times the cheapest blue bottle.

 

You are not overthinking it, I remember the cheap stuff freezing in the lines of my Acura a few years back & I'd never seen that happen. I think I bought some better fluid and drained the "colored water" as soon as the temperature went above freezing.

 

I use the RainX pink stuff. Never had an issue with it and seems to perform quite well.

 

I stopped at Costco this morning and picked up two boxes of rain X, all weather fluid. Seems this one is better that the blue one I had before. the lines are all clear no more frozen nonsense.

In hindsight I think I may have bought a cheap one from one of those service areas while I was going through VA few months ago.

 

That could potentially be it. Good fluid and the heated washer nozzles go a long way to making the stuff very effective again't snow/ice build up while driving.
The one interesting thing about the LS is that it has one of the largest washer fluid tanks I've ever encountered in a car. The thing takes a bottle and a half of washer fluid when the light comes on.

 

I use the Winter stuff (usually green) that has the highest freeze rating and has a claim that it melts windshield ice. I think it's the -37 celcius stuff

 

I read that some of these high rated fluids are harmful to paint; clear coat issue? i might have seen a thread somewhere about this

 

I've tried it all. In my experience, nothing works as well as the cheap blue stuff. Other stuff stains the paint, etc.

Bear in mind if you have windshield washers it literals sprays the washer fluid right onto the hood.

 

Whatever's the cheapest or on sale haha

 

I use the Super Tech De-Icer -25F from wally world. It is purple. If you were using +32 then you were using the summer fluid not the winter version. I did that once just walked in and grab a jug because I needed some for the house. Got home and when I looked at it closer it was the +32 version which I took back. I did not realize that wally world rotates from summer stock to winter stock. Anyway it works fine. To follow up on what SW17LS said in his post, if you push the headlight washer button it will cover your hood in windshield washer fluid and make a big mess. It won't do jack for your headlights but they will give your hood a nice spray.

Dennis

 

And at least my 15 and my 17, if you use the washers when the headlights are on it automatically sprays the headlights. No way to defeat it.

 

Same here. For several years.

 

I think Scotty Kilmer has a video praising the RainX washer fluid, he also mentioned that the walmart supertech fluid could mess up the windshield washer system.

 

SW17LS

I did not know that. I thought you had to push the HL washer button or that is how I think it is on 2010?

Texas008

I have been using the wally world windshield washer fluid for maybe 25-30 years with no problems?

Dennis