Be careful what you do with your car’s touch screen! Certain seemingly innocuous actions can have unexpected and very costly consequences.
If you own a fairly new car, its dashboard should probably include a touch screen that allows you to use many functions. In fact, it can be used as a radio or GPS, to activate the hands-free function of your phone, or to use applications on your smartphone. But although this navigation device is very useful, it gets dirty very quickly, notably leaving fingerprints. Enough to quickly tense up the most maniacs! Many motorists have gotten into the habit of wiping their screen with a cloth, sometimes soaked in a cleaning solution. A gesture that is not harmless for electronics…
Because, yes, poor cleaning can damage anti-reflective treatments, particularly if the right products are not used. In the worst cases, it can even render the car unusable. And this can cost you a lot of money, because only a few independent workshops specializing in the reconditioning of electronic products agree to take on the task of dismantling a car radio system to replace only its screen. Manufacturers generally simply replace the entire device, at a cost varying between several hundred and thousands of euros, depending on the complexity of the system.
But then, how to clean your screen without damaging it? Well, surprisingly, cleaning instructions differ from manufacturer to manufacturer. However, everyone agrees to recommend putting it in inactive mode, to prevent the static electricity charge from the cloth from being interpreted as a command and damaging the screen. In addition, this will prevent you to modify your settings inadvertently while better highlighting the fingerprints to clean. Speaking of cloth, definitely don’t use paper towels or old cotton rags, as they can scratch your screen. Prefer a microfiber cloth, perfect for LCD screens in cars, as it is non-abrasive.
As we told you, each manufacturer has its own cleaning instructions. The brands of the Volkswagen and Stellantis groups (Peugeot, Citroën, Opel, DS) encourage the use of a cleaning solution, while Renault and Tesla prohibit the direct sprinkling of any liquid, including with a microfiber cloth lightly soaked in soapy water. Overall, even within the same manufacturer, the instructions depend on the type of screen of the automobile and must therefore be seen on a case-by-case basis. So be sure to respect them.