Edmonton - Windshield wipers
 

I live in edmonton... (now its western related).. I want advice from people who live somewhere where it gets below 0 :)

My wipers won't clean the window when its really cold.. I tried banging all the ice off.. got my car cleaned so there was no ice on it.. same problem.. it seems the wipers rest to far away from the air vents to stay melted..

So in order to see out of my car I have to keep the heat on defrost, which just leaves water all over the windshield that won't wipe off when I turn the wipers on.. but atleast I can sort of see...

In order to keep it melted.. I have to keep full heat just on the windshield.. which apparently means I have to have the air on recirculate.. which means I'm freezing my butt off in my own car..

And I know its not just me.. pulled up beside another p5 that was having the same problem today..

Any ideas what I can do? Different wipers maybe?

P.S. Having the same problem with the rear window. And I know this 'happens' in the winter.. but it's bad enough on my car that I have to frequently pull over because I can't see.

Re: Edmonton - Windshield wipers
 

It's not just you, I am having the exact same problem. The last few days have been a real pain in the ass. I never had this problem with my honda, so it must be related to the design of the P5.

I'm not really sure if there is anything that can be done. I've seen winter wiper blades and the teflon ones, but I haven't heard anything good about them.

Ya, this post was absolutely no help at all ;)

Jay

Re: Re: Edmonton - Windshield wipers
 

Actually its a lot of help.. now I know I'm not crazy :).. I told jason about it and hes all "happens to every car".. and I told him it doesnt! and he didn't seem to believe me *sticks tongue out at sandman*..

Re: Re: Re: Edmonton - Windshield wipers
 

That's what I'm all about...validating your sanity :)

Jay

Re: Re: Re: Re: Edmonton - Windshield wipers
 

Actually.. if I could get it in writting.. it'd really help me out with my parole officer :)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Edmonton - Windshield wipers
 

Done and done! :) But I don't know if anyone would consider me a really good judge or character.

Jay

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Edmonton - Windshield wipers
 

Got a point there!! I certainly don't! ;)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Edmonton - Windshield wipers
 

That hurts. :(

Well not really.

Jay

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Edmonton - Windshield wipers
 

Aaaah.. I just said that cuz u din't wish me a happy birthday.. Now it's saturday and you're too late! Boooooo

:P

Oh, and I don't have that problem with my wipers so it's NOT a design issue.. I think it's driver related... ;)

But now you know why they have heated wipers on Mercedes!

If only Mercedes were reliable :)

i tried the winter wipers. for about 2 minutes.

the driver's side one was fine. the passenger side and rear window ones didn't have enough flex to contact the window across their full lengths.

took em back.


thankfully, my car is garaged most of the time so it's not been a huge problem. but it's happened a couple of times on the highway and it was damn dangerous.

I think that Dawn is correct. Where the wipers sit in rest position they aren't getting any heat from defroster, and the passenger side is even worse since the defrost vent ends before the wiper does. Then all the melted snow ends up resting on the wipers. This winter so far has been a pain in the ass, I don't remember having the same difficulty last year.

And the rear wiper just sucks, plain and simple. The tension on the wiper arm is pretty weak.

What would be a cool solution would be a rear defrost style heating element at the bottom of the winshield, so that the wipers are always resting on a heated area. But what are you gonna do?

Jay

Maybe the tension on the wiper arm is better on the older car.:dunno:

Jay

Hey! Mercedes are reliable!! geez...my rents have one lol...
BTW havent you guys been watchin TV? You obviously need to go to Canadian Tire and buy their Teflon Wipers and Teflon Windshield washer fluid...hahah just jokes...

Wow. That's a big assed .sig you got goin' on there.

Jay

looks bigger cuz I photoshopped it...its actually smaller than my previous sig

Sorry to invade on the western party over here. Just thought I'd let you know it gets cold enough in Ontario to cause this crappy windshield wiper performance.
I replaced my wipers with the crappy tire teflon blades (no flames pls.) and they seemed okay in the fall. It got too cold before i could apply some rain-x and i have been very unsatisfied with the wipers abilities.
My wipers seem to miss where the two small bows are in the wiper blade, which leads my to think the spring tension on the wiper arm is not strong enough to hold the blades tightly to the windshield.
It is not only in the extreme cold when this happens either, as there has been days above zero that the wipers still perform poorly. In the warmer weather i think i'll tamper with the tensions a bit to see if this resolves it, but any suggestions on how to fix this problem would be greatly appreciated.

The Pistol.

I know I am a bit late on the topic, but I was looking for a single arm wiper blade conversion tips, and found this. So I think I can help you with your problem. In the winter, from what you said, it is a very common problem. Your lug nut, that connects the arm to the pivot point is loose. It always gets loose in the winter, because people let the wiper blades get frozen to the windshield and try to turn them on. That loosens the lug nut, and the more loose it gets, the less pressure it is going to apply on the windshield, thus clearing off less. It does not matter what kind of blade you use, as long as it is new, it should do its work just fine.

So I have this crappy wiper problem for the last two winters in my 2001 ES GT. This winter I finally decided to spend the extra ducats and give the Teflon blades from "Crappy Tire" a try. Well I gotta say I am pleasantly surprised. (I got the Teflon metal blades, not the winter Teflon solid plastic blades).

With my pitted windshield , minus 28C (Calgary, just over a week ago), and at 120 Km/hr they performed much better than the stock or the other winter blades I have tried.

I am not sure if it's the Teflon or the fact the blade arm is made of metal and seems to contour to the windshield a lot better. I am going to put a coating of RainX on my w/s to further improve wiper performance.

So was the extra money worth getting the Teflon? I am not sure. But I do know these wiper blades fit my car better than anything I have found yet, whether the teflon actually does anything or not.

Anyone try any other blades that work well?

Power to the Protégé people.