On the UK side of the boards, one of the products we have found to be very good is actually made by BMW and is available from their dealerships and costs

 

I recently tried the Renevo Polish and it was amazing. It works similar/better than the mequires stuff but w/o the annoying smearing and the broken back from buffing.

 

I use Meguiars #10 and 17 every month or so and Plexus regularly. My rear window looks great during the day, but at night it's difficult to see out of. The light from cars behind me seem to illuminate fine scratches in the rear window.

Anyone else have this problem? Any ideas?

 

I know exactly what you're talking about. My window looks perfect during the day. I mean perfect! No visual blemishes can be seen anymore. However, come dusk/night it looks awful. The only solution I have come up with is to really really use elbow grease or pick up some Renovo Renovo Plastic Polish This stuff has worked great in making night driving better. What I did was look at night to make a mental note of where the trouble spots lie. Then hit them with the Renovo. One thing to remember is to leave your windows down after using this stuff though because the fumes are potent.

 

just plexus everyday!

 

Thanks for the tip. I'll give it a try.

I've cleaned and polished the bejeezus out of my rear window with Meg's #10 and #17, even using a PC, but I still have problems seeing out the rear window at night. This isn't a problem during the summer months obviously since the top is down, but during the winter, I want the rear window to be as clean as possible.

 

I have been very annoyed lately about this rear window, I have MY00. The rear window is totally opaque and brown, you can only see whether it is light or dark outside. This makes driving with the top up totally suck. I had a BMW 325i before and its rear window lasted 10+ years before cracking.

I have Honda Care, but like others here they refused to fix the problem, saying the top counted as "upholstery". They don't fix windshield problems either. I can understand why they wouldn't fix trim or something cosmetic, but windows are a safety issue!

However I did not know about all these fancy window cleaners. I will try them and see if it addresses the problem, from what I read here it sounds like it should at least get me decent day visibility. Looking around, the most bad-ass cleaner I could find was this kit.

Its $60, but it attaches to a cordless drill, and uses a series of 4 grades of compound and then 2 grades of foam pad. I'll post here about how well it works. And I'll wait until trying that out before I start complaining to the NHTSA and BBB, which I was about ready to do before finding these threads.

 

One thing to consider with that kit- most of the "funk" on your window may very well be on the inside. When cleaning the inside of the rear window you are very limited in the use of power tools. I do not think you could get a drill in there and I am sure you would not be able to get a drill at the angle of the window. I suggest trying to clean it by hand first. Start with Plexus. Clean each side 2-3 times and change out the clothes with each cleaning setion. Next, try some of Mequiar's PlastX. This is the only meguiars product that contains abrasives. The abrasives in this product are deminishing too so you do not have the risk of doing damage to your window. If those products do not work then try the more expensive stuff but chances are you will be satisfied with PlastX/Plexus. Good luck and remember that both products are useless w/o the use of elbow grease. With the PlastX, work a 1ft-1ft section for 2-3 minutes before moving on.
Hope this helps,
Alex

 

Actually... we just discovered that you can zip your rear window down.... its just a big PIA. Many believe that it wasn't made for us to be zipping it up and down all the time... but I think if you just do it once in a while to clean the insides... you should be fine.

How to find it: From the inside of your top: you will see a bunch of velcro peices near the window... unstick them and feel underneath... you should feel zipper teeth. run your hands along the teeth, and you should be able to locate the zipper.

Please do this at your own risk!

 

Wow! That would make life a lot easier! Have you done this before?