Solar Reflective Coating on Windscreens

This Citroen C3 windscreen in Buckfastleigh had to be replaced when the solar reflective coating deteriorated making driving almost impossible.

A lot of the Renault, Peugeot and Citroen windscreens have a solar reflective coating, these screens reflect uv light from the sun’s rays which improves air conditioning efficiency, reduces the degradation of interior trims and upholstery and improves fuel efficiency.

Over a long period of time quite often these solar reflective coatings breakdown causing weird bubbles or blemishes in the glass, initially these may be isolated to a few spots or marks but gradually it will spread across the whole glass necessitating a new windscreen.

A solar reflective windscreen will have a blueish / purple hue when viewed from the kerbside at an angle, whereas the side windows will have a standard green hue.

If you enlarge the picture below the solar reflective blemishes are quite noticeable, looking almost like dried rain spots.