Special electric car washer fluid. Must be non conductive.
- Thread starter Vercingetorix
- Start date
Tesla recommends the blue stuff, not the green bug stuff. Then I learned here that the green bug stuff has other issues.
Life's rough... What's a poor boy to do?
Life's rough... What's a poor boy to do?
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These cars still have too many issues for me to consider them ready for prime time. My hybrid Volt didn't require special fluid. This sounds like a scam.
I find it hard to get windshield washer fluid without methanol in it around here. Maybe I should be ordering it from online. It does freeze a lot here though so maybe they are averse to selling anything without it?
Kestas
Staff member
Your comment applies to every car that uses windshield washer fluid. Methanol has been used for many decades. It's only a problem if it contacts your skin too often. There is nothing about this fluid that makes it special to Teslas or EVs.
You can always buy denatured ethanol and make your own fluid.
For protection down to -20°F, the mixture with water is:
30% methanol, or
36% ethanol
I wouldn't be opposed to ethanol instead of methanol. Everything here has methanol it seems.
I doubt either hurts your hood - there both just alcohol. One is more toxic.
If I use ethanol washer fluid will they stop putting it in my gasoline?
I doubt either hurts your hood - there both just alcohol. One is more toxic.
If I use ethanol washer fluid will they stop putting it in my gasoline?
Well, I guess I musta got lucky because my 2 EVs have had zero issues, unlike my ICE cars...
This being a point I was wondering, is the ethanol undenatured in this "safe" washer fluid?
EtOH is toxic as well, it just happens to be the least toxic of the low molecular weight alcohols.
How many EVs have you logged 100K miles on? Which by today's standards is a walk in the park.
Owen Lucas
$100 Site Donor 2023
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How does this have 500 reviews.
Amazon not just allows, but pretty much encourages the falsifying of reviews. They make it super easy for sketchy sellers to disappear and reappear with a different name and all the bad reviews go away. Then they just come up with a bunch of new fake ones.
Both my wife and I have EVs and I usually buy pretty much the cheapest claptrap at the store for the windshield. I picked up some stuff for my Lightning the other day off an endcap at HEB (the main grocery store in Texas, for you non-Texans) because I remembered the low washer fluid light was on. It says it has Rain-X in the bottle, so I guess I splurged. Cost $3.39, IIRC. We live in Central Texas and I've never had issues with the regular stuff freezing up on us.
I can't believe this Amazon stuff. I guess there's a sucker born every day. I thought $3.39 was a little on the high side, but man $20? I'd as soon use plain tap water.
I can't believe this Amazon stuff. I guess there's a sucker born every day. I thought $3.39 was a little on the high side, but man $20? I'd as soon use plain tap water.
Do you mean to say that you DON'T need special windshield washer fluid, or am I missing something?
None. Bought the 1st one, an M3 Mid Range, in Dec 2018 and traded it in on the 2024 M3P in June 2024. Got maybe 23K on the current car. I do have 3 cars with 115K to 245K on the clock, but of course I've had them a lot longer.
The wiper fluid was a joke. Tesla recommends blue stuff, as do others. The car has a mixture of blue and green in it.
I never knew some manufacturers recommend blue over green until I saw it here, I think. Never understood why.
BrendanC
$100 site donor 2024
walmart green bug juice is all i buy, but im in texas and if it freezes, i just can’t spray my windshield for a few hours.
I have to admit, I didn't click on the "clickbait" link. If a car company can't build a car to use universally available washer fluid, they need to go back to the drawing board.
But in my opinion, there are still too many things that electric vehicle manufacturers need to get figured out before they will be universally accepted by the public. Well, in this country at least. It seems that Sweden, China, and a few others have actually put in the effort.