RE: [ihc] Wiper motor rate control, engine question

[Tom Harais <THarais@xxxxxxxxx>]

John:

I used Rain-X years ago on a Dodge Omni I had.  My neighbor's son, who was
driving trucks at the time, used it extensively and swore by it.  Since I
had heard about it before and been curious as to what all the excited buzz
was about, his prompting convinced me to try it.

I was fascinated by the results because as Ryan said, the raindrops would
just roll off the windshield without my even thinking about using the
wipers.  At freeway speeds the air flow just wisked beads of water away.
Watching the water beads streak away like that was kind of like watching
fish in an aquarium, sort of hypnotic.  And it was dangerous because you're
field of view was focused on the windshield instead of the road beyond.
Friends of mine that rode in that car with me during rainstorms would become
perplexed by the patterns with no indulgence in mind altering chemicals
involved. ;-)

I took that car on a Memorial Day trip to Oregon and it rained so hard that
while climbing a long grade on I5 in southern Oregon my tires were breaking
loose (front wheel drive) at 55 MPH or better.  (My Prelude has done this
going up I80 to Reno during hard rainfall since then.  I believe that FWD
has shortcomings in this situation.)  I'd see the speedometer (no tach) head
up towards 80 mph but the car was slowing down.  And, the water just kept
rolling off the windshield without my ever resorting to using the wipers.

What I found even more interesting is that bugs didn't stick as bad as they
normally do.  And, I was washing the windshield at every fill up on that
Oregon trip and even the soapy water didn't seem to remove the Rain-X or
deter it's effect.  I think I put some on the front of the hood to make it
easier to wash the bugs off!  I found that it took a few weeks and then you
had to renew it to keep the good effect.  I was sold on this stuff!

I've used it since on other cars of mine and, like you, I've been
disappointed.  It made the windshield "slicker" so the water did roll off
smoother than without it, but not like it did in that first car, and I still
had to resort to wiper use.  For a while, I thought I must be applying it
wrong or something.  So, I reread the instructions and tried some different
application techniques to no avail.  Sadly, I've never been able to achieve
the result I had with that first car I used it on.

Of course, they claim it's "the standard" for airplanes and such.

Tom H., '76 Traveler