A dirty front windshield is very annoying to me. Because I am an obsessive psychopath. That is why every time I get into the car, I hit the washers to remove the previous day’s detritus off my field of view. It isn’t perfect, of course - only the sections covered by the wipers get cleaned, but it’s good enough.
The constant washing presents a problem: I go through washer fluid by the gallons. (I was amazed to read that some drivers use so little windshield fluid that their cars are still on the factory fill!) Throughout my car owning history, I have bought distilled water at the local grocery store. Distilled because it’s doubly free of minerals, so there’s no chance of leaving water spots on the paint. So far, so easy.
Modern cars have sensor in the washer fluid tank that notifies drivers via the dash when the levels get low. The sensor achieves this by utilizing the water as a conducting loop. When the fluid level is no longer high enough to complete the signal, it then trips the warning light. Pretty intuitive and easy.
On my Golf GTI, however, the warning light remains on even when I’ve just refilled the tank. Turns out, distilled water - lacking any sorts of minerals - isn’t conductive enough to complete the signal loop. Sure there’s water submerging the sensor points, but it’s effectively doing nothing.
The solution is simple: use proper windshield fluid. Therefore, for the first time in my 20 years of driving, I actually filled store-bought washer fluid into one of my cars. A bit of a hassle, since the auto parts store is further away from me than the grocery store. Also, a gallon of windshield fluid is some two dollars more expensive than a gallon of distilled water. Inflation continues…
You know the jingle.