8 Simple Ways To Remove Your Road Tax Sticker Without Ripping Your Hair Out
BONUS: How to stick 'em so you never have to scrape glue residue off your windscreen ever again.
Raise your hand if you have ever been personally victimised by one of these impossible-to-remove road tax stickers
It's especially frustrating when you manage to scrape off the decal... only to have these ugly glue marks stubbornly refusing to get off your windscreen!
In fact, some don't even bother removing their expired road tax stickers, preferring to leave a road tax trail on their windscreens instead
Removing road tax stickers is not a simple matter of tearing off the old and sticking on the new, it requires a specific set of tools as well as quite a bit of elbow grease and patience. Here are some tried and tested methods we gathered from our fellow motorists:
1. With a rag soaked in soap water and a plastic card
Expired credit cards are great for scraping things off surfaces, such as ice, glue, wax etc.
Image via SAYSUsing the rag soaked in soap water, rub against the glue marks until they soften. Then, scrape of the glue residue with a plastic card e.g. expired membership cards or credit cards.
2. Gently scraping it off with a razor cutter blade (typically for pen knives) or a glass scraper
Hold your tool firmly at a steady angle, scrape evenly starting from the edge until the end. Lightly scrape off any remaining remnants.
If necessary, wipe off residue with some paint thinner (sparingly, especially if you have tinted windows) and polish off with window cleaner or glass solution.
3. With WD-40 spray and a dry cloth or sponge
Gently peel off the sticker as usual, and don't worry about the adhesive and residue that is hard to remove. Then, spray some WD-40 onto a piece of dry cloth, and wipe them off from the windscreen.
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However, some motorists have noted that this method only works on fresh glue and not on glue that has been on the windscreen for a long time. WD-40 can also be quite corrosive on certain rubber and plastic materials.
Watch how it's done here:
4. Pour some Goo Gone citrus solvent (available in hardware stores) onto a rag and rub until the glue residue comes off
5. With a hairdryer, soap solution, and a rag or some tissues
WHAT YOU NEED:
Hair dryer or professional heat gun
Anti-rust solution
Soap solution
Rag or tissues
METHOD:
1. Using the hair dryer or heat gun, heat up the corner of the sticker that you would start peeling.
3. Pay special attention at areas where it is designed to tear. Once torn, it will take more effort to remove that torn section. Giving it another round of hair dryer treatment might help prevent this. carlist.my
5. Wipe the area with some soap solution and rinse it until its clean and dry. It is then ready for the new road tax sticker. carlist.my
6. With cooking oil. This method is said to be the most effective, removing glue residue in less than one minute.
WHAT YOU NEED:
Rags or kitchen cloths
Cooking oil
Soap water
METHOD:
1. Soak a small part of a kitchen cloth with cooking oil.
2. Rub against glue residue until it is wiped off.
3. Wipe the windscreen clean with a cloth soaked in soap water.
4. Rinse and dry off.
7. Pour some minyak cap kapak or medicated baby oil onto a piece of cloth and start rubbing until glue residue comes off
8. With any organic solvent such as nail polish remover, paint thinner, rubbing alcohol, petrol, kerosene, and acetone
Nail polish remover is quite a cleansing agent. It can even remove permanent marker from whiteboards and unfortunately, colour off of dyed material.
Image via Pop SugarIMPORTANT: The aforementioned materials and flammable and should be handled with care i.e. don't use it near any fire sources.
Also not recommended for tinted windows as they may damage the tint.
If you'd rather not spend even more time trying to remove road tax stickers and glue residue for the rest of your driving life, then you might want to take note of these hassle-free ways to replacing your road tax:
1. Get hold of some plain car stickers or one of those road tax sticker decals
These stickers should be available in car accessory shops and online via Mudah.my or Lelong.my. If you're lucky, you might get a free one courtesy of your car insurance agent when you renew your license.
2. To make sure your road tax sticker does not make any adhesive contact with your windscreen, you can choose to laminate your sticker...
5. ... And don't worry about glue residue when your remove it next year! Or the next and the next...
