Since I went "off topic" in the wrong spot... (Imagine forcing a dinner party to JUST follow a certain prescribed topic?! It is not how life works, but hey ho...) ... here is a proper new thread about this.

So from that thread:

Just one small niggle, the water streaming from the windscreen distorted the view from the door mirrors and made driving in that traffic a little more difficult.

I had not noticed this on the Yeti. Grrrrrrr... It is one thing that really irritates me on the A2 as well. You wash wipe the windscreen and all the soap goes over the A-pillar onto the side windows. Really irritating if you have a just washed car.

Mercedes have had channels on their A-pillars since the 1970s. Yes, go and look at ANY Mercedes and you will see that you will NEVER get windscreen water on your side windows. Guess it is just one of the very few details VAG have not picked up upon. They started to copy the Mercedes indicators in the mirrors but alas not the A-pillar channels (yet).

Edit - repaired broken picture link

Edited 20 April, 201016 yr by 900000

Since I went "off topic" in the wrong spot... (Imagine forcing a dinner party to JUST follow a certain prescribed topic?! It is not how life works, but hey ho...) ... here is a proper new thread about this.

No hard feelings,

I have noticed this efffect on my Yeti, but only at speeds above 90km/h in heavy rain. Very annoying when you are about to change lanes on roads with much traffic.

No hard feelings,

Oh I have been chatting on forums for years don't you worry. By now I have a thick skin!

Now back to topic ( ):

I appreciate that to get the sunvisor look of the windscreen and the front door glass being "one" it is best for the A-pillars to be flat, but until you LOOK for them I bet none of you have ever noticed the channels on a Mercedes? They need not be huge gutters, just enough to get the water to not come around.

Oh I have been chatting on forums for years don't you worry. By now I have a thick skin!

Now back to topic ( ):

I appreciate that to get the sunvisor look of the windscreen and the front door glass being "one" it is best for the A-pillars to be flat, but until you LOOK for them I bet none of you have ever noticed the channels on a Mercedes? They need not be huge gutters, just enough to get the water to not come around.

The Yeti does have the gutter, only it is not too effective. I do not experience the slop getting in the view of the rear view mirror, but it does leave a slop curve at the top of the drivers side window.

Aerodynamics may have prevented an effective gutter - or ignorance.

First few wipes at slow speed are OK. Subsequent ones and ones at speed leave a high tide mark. They do not, as I see it, interfere with the vision to the rear view mirror.

Jimminycrickets, nothing is purrfect. I just get the biggest kick out of the Yeti superiority over the mundane vehicles on the road, and don't sweat the chicken**** details. If nobody else notices, so much the better. If they did, then every SOB would be buying one and we'd be COMMON!

its the same with the Fabia 2, when its raining heavyishly and you have the wipers on the runoff onto the drivers window makes it almost useless. Driving on the motorway with almost zero vision in the side window is a real pain.

The Yeti does have the gutter, only it is not too effective.

Ah well that is good then. That is at least something a bit better than the A2 which has NOTHING.

If you look at this pic in the original 1200x1600 I guess I can just about see the channels. But they are near nothing it seems.

http://www.netcarshow.com/skoda/2010-yeti/1600x1200/wallpaper_2c.htm

Edit: fixed picture link

Edited 20 April, 201016 yr by 900000

I have treated all the windows including the glass roof on my car with a "windscreen sealer" / rain repellant called NanoLotus and it really works well even on the side windows. You can see a video of it here:

I guess somthing like RainX would do the same job, but I doubt it lasts as long as the NanoLotus treatment.

I have treated all the windows including the glass roof on my car with a "windscreen sealer" / rain repellant called NanoLotus and it really works well even on the side windows. You can see a video of it here:

I guess somthing like RainX would do the same job, but I doubt it lasts as long as the NanoLotus treatment.

Do yo notice anything negative about it, strong sunshine or meeting xenons on dark roads?

Where did you buy it?

There is a slightly visible grayish layer on the windscreen in the dark when you are driving slow enough to have to use the vipers, other than that it works perfectly when applied the way it should. I bought my kit from this webshop in Norway: My link

Been using a RainX glass cleaner with added RainX repellent which appears to work OK. Getting a very occasional judder from the wiper blades is the only negative.

Also found the cleaning the glass with Autoglym glass polish before applying the RainX got rid of any distortion from lights etc.

Regards,

TP

My Galaxy used to literally fire the water off the side of the windscreen when at standstill, once caught the person serving at a McDonalds drive through with it. Hard to keep a straight face though.

I use Turtle Wax Clear View on the windscreen and it works very well. Above 40 mph you can pretty much turn the wipers off even in heavy rain. It will similarly disperse water on the side windows. As TP says, make sure that your windows are very clean before applying a rain repellant otherwise you will seal in those smears.

I've been using RainX Cleaner/Repellant on all my YETI side windows - works a treat at keeping the windows rain repelled and cleans them very nicely too!

Can anyone please tell me whether these wind and rain deflectors work in keeping the side windows clear? It is alarming to suddenly find you can't see in the mirrors when trapped in motorway traffic.

RainX or other water repellants pretty much completely cures the 'water on the side windows', try it and see!

I am afraid that I do not see the problem.

Water from the windshield runs around tha A-pillar, but then follows the apillar upwards, turns horizontal at the top of the driver's side window and follows the top of that window before it is left behind. This is in part aided by a channel in the leading edge of the A-pillar, which directs all of the water up and away, unless it rains a lot.

The view to the mirror is at the bottom of the driver's side window, so the water does not interfere with your view to the mirror.

I am afraid that I do not see the problem.

Water from the windshield runs around tha A-pillar, but then follows the apillar upwards, turns horizontal at the top of the driver's side window and follows the top of that window before it is left behind. This is in part aided by a channel in the leading edge of the A-pillar, which directs all of the water up and away, unless it rains a lot.

The view to the mirror is at the bottom of the driver's side window, so the water does not interfere with your view to the mirror.

Then you must have either a different A-pillar or, more likely, different water. With heavy rain, the water, brushed off by the wipers, runs straight across the lower part of my side window obscuring the view through the mirror. If there was a method to direct the airflow upwards then the problem would be removed.

Another "bad" design fault is the lack of gutters above the doors. After rain or washing the car, water always drips from the door edges back into the car.

Fortunately in the UK we have such a low rainfall that the problem is not too serious!

Very similar issues to the new Fabia. The wipers push the water on to the divers side window at mirror height, though the rain repellent on the side windows really does get rid of the problem and should do the same on the Yeti. The top of the door seals can be very annoying it waits to open the door to either flood on the seats or on you, sorted this a bit by rubbing the seals with some teflon/ water repelling coating which seems to stop it all collecting between the seals.

Then you must have either a different A-pillar or, more likely, different water. With heavy rain, the water, brushed off by the wipers, runs straight across the lower part of my side window obscuring the view through the mirror. If there was a method to direct the airflow upwards then the problem would be removed.

Another "bad" design fault is the lack of gutters above the doors. After rain or washing the car, water always drips from the door edges back into the car.

Fortunately in the UK we have such a low rainfall that the problem is not too serious!

There may be a diffeence between RH and LH drive vehicles. Mine is of course LH drive. The wiper on the driver's side ends up vertically close to the A-pillar. I am not sure if the attached pic is large enough to see the effect. It clearly directs the water from the pillar upwards, well above the mirror. As you can see, photographing the mirror from the driver's view is not easy while driving.

You can also see that the high velocity air passing between the moirror housing and the window effectively clears drops from this area. Incidentally, on the other side of the car, there is no upward lift of the water, but also nothing interfering with the view in the mirror.

Edited 15 May, 201016 yr by Agerbundsen

Right Hand side

I have been looking out for this problem since getting the car and on the few occasions that we have had heavy rain the only streaming water was around the left hand mirror and even then it didn't effect vision through it, there were no problems on the drivers side at all. Could this be due to some changes to the design in later cars?

Mark

Thank you everyone for your input. RainX is the business and it's good to solve such a problem for less than a fiver. The points made about the difference between right and left hand drive wiper setup may indeed be causing this British problem! When I asked about rain deflectors in my first posting, I was referring to the plastic fix-on jobs and their effect on rain dispersal. However, as long as this RainX lasts a while, it's a much cheaper wy of fixing things than spending £32 on an unknown quantity.