Waterdrops are driving me crazy!!!

The Prius is my fourth Toyota and the rear view mirrors always seems to hold a lot of water on all of them. On all my previous Toyotas I've had spiders move in and live in the rear view mirrors. Then, everytime I wash I try to flush the spiders out of there, making the water dropping even worse.

/Paj

 

Have you tried giving it a very good waxing with Malm's yet? I find that Malm's beads up so well that there are fewer drops that actually stick onto the surface.

It might be worth a try. The allternative would be to get on 280 and go to San Francisco at 100 MPH, then turn arouns and do the same on the way home. You might get rid of a few more drops that way.

 

I'm currently working on a rush contract but when its done I might be able to squeeze in some time to play with the cars. I have more than enough to share, if you want to get together to give it a try.

 

Thank you for raising this topic. I thought I was the only one. Your problem does not arise from water hardness. I live in Vancouver, BC where the water is extremely soft and I see a similar effect. It hasn't mattered what I do. I wash the car and for a day or so after I have marks down the side of the doors of drips from the rear view mirrors.

I spend hours applying Zaino a couple of times a year, yet every time I wash my Black Prius I end up with drip marks down the side of the doors.

Aside from the unsightliness of it, I can't help but think that having all that water stuck inside the electric mirrors can't be good for the mirrors.

 

I agree with all of you. The darker colors seem to be worst. My Salsa red look horrible with those bright white drops all over it. I've started to use that new ionized wash (Auto Dry from Mr Clean) with some improvement. Although I think I've been seeing some kind of film left using that. I think the harder water around here does make it worse too.

I usually drive it right afer washing and then wipe up the new drops immediately. Opening the hatch and doors and drying "everything in sight" also helps. I don't think I've ever had a red car this bad before. I'm glad we got the light tan Acura RSX because there's very little water spotting.

 

Water in the mirrors is probably not a problem. We have had the technology around in other cars long enough for it to be reliable now.

Question: Have you noticed if waters drops will stick to the Zaino on the doors? I know this seems obvious (they are sticking otherwise thee would be no marks), I am curious if you can see the drops sticking to the surface (before they dry off).

 

The Mr. Clean Auto Dry system is supposed to filter the water so it shouldn't matter if the water is a bit hard. It does leave a coating on the paint (they claim its some sort of polymer) to help the water roll off so it dries "spot free".

I have owned black cars (with and without clearcoat) for many years and have not had this problem. My Prius is Driftwood so i don't know if I'm doing something different or using different products, but I haven't seen any spotting. I do dry the car off very well, including opening the hatch and drying the left and right channels (I can't reach the top channel easily so I just ignore it).

The license plate and rear spoiler do hold on to several drops every time, but if I neglect to catch them later, they don't seem to leave any spots.

 

On the salsa red car....the spots are bright bright white! One of my outside faucets is soft water. I don't normally use it but I think I'm going to try it and see if it helps.

Fred

 

I haven't found an alternative to drying the car with a chamois.

 

I don't follow you . What is it you are going to try?

 

I'm just curious, why is it you are looking for an alternative? Is it to catch the errant drops? I think they are difficult to catch no matter what you do.

 

I'm going to hook my hose to the soft water faucet (that I said I don't normally use for anything), wash the car, and see if it reduces the number extreme white color of the water spots.

 

I don't get the white spots that others due, presumably due to the very soft water here.

The water drops don't stick to the Zaino. It appears that the water excretes slowly from the joint that it on the bottom surface of the piece of the mirror that joins the car. Rather than getting drop marks, I get dribble marks from about the joint location down. If I park the car after washing it, the dribble marks are pretty much vertical. If I drive after washing the car, they are an angle toward the back of the car.

 

i use the "absorber" its called a PVA drying skin.

it does good for drying and i fold it and shove it into the cracks of the mirrors to help dry them out.

but i dont have much problems with water drops. my problem seems to be that the rear bumper seems to get dirty almost immediately after i wash the car. it is always the first part of the car to become dirty.

in fact if we havent had rain recently, the bumper feels like it has a "pebble grain" finish or something.

anybody else notice this?

 

Laziness. If there were some magical coating that allowed all the water to slide off the finish it wouldn't need chamoising.

 

A wet/dry vac. with a crevise tool will remove most of the water from the mirrors. The crevise tool will not go in the crack but it will concentrate the suction in a smaller area.

 

Oh, I see. That's what the Mr Clean Auto Dry system is intended to do. Now if they could get it to reach into the mirrors and other crevices, you'd be all set