Wiper Blade Woes :(

[JeffL]

i had the same issue with Bosch wiper blades. changed to rainx ones and its been fine.

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[Nibroc99]

i had the same issue with Bosch wiper blades. changed to rainx ones and its been fine.

I'm really glad I got it working with the bosch ones - I trust them a lot since they lasted me 5 years on my last vehicle without needing to be changed once. I bought them on my way home with the vehicle and they were on the vehicle right until it got crashed into and totalled.

 

[ChrisB351]

My experience has been the same. Always ran Bosch but my current set skips too. Best I can determine is with the adaptor mounts it changes the geometry of the arm and doesnt apply pressure like the OEM designed. I keep telling myself to get stock replacements but I keep forgetting. Its a minor incovenience that doesnt bother me enough.

Side note Im very anal about cleaning my blades and not overly using them, especially when theres bird poop or something heavy on the windshield. I clean those at the gas station with the squeegees.

 

[Nibroc99]

My experience has been the same. Always ran Bosch but my current set skips too. Best I can determine is with the adaptor mounts it changes the geometry of the arm and doesnt apply pressure like the OEM designed. I keep telling myself to get stock replacements but I keep forgetting. Its a minor incovenience that doesnt bother me enough.

Side note Im very anal about cleaning my blades and not overly using them, especially when theres bird poop or something heavy on the windshield. I clean those at the gas station with the squeegees.

I'm also anal about cleaning my windshield and wipers, and keep a microfiber towel and a can of invisible glass spray in my door pocket net thingy. Just like you, every gas station I stop at will see me cleaning my wipers. Keeps them wiping properly!

 

[GoHawks63]

The place that applied the PPF to my Bronco asked if I would be willing to test a film to protect the windshield from chips and cracks from stones. So, I had it applied, late last week. I only mention it here because it claims to be hydrophobic and this morning was the first time I drove with it in the rain. Fourteen-mile drive with a pretty steady rain and didn't have to turn on the wipers at all.

Can't comment yet on its ability to protect against chips and cracking.

 

[Nibroc99]

The place that applied the PPF to my Bronco asked if I would be willing to test a film to protect the windshield from chips and cracks from stones. So, I had it applied, late last week. I only mention it here because it claims to be hydrophobic and this morning was the first time I drove with it in the rain. Fourteen-mile drive with a pretty steady rain and didn't have to turn on the wipers at all.

Can't comment yet on its ability to protect against chips and cracking.

Very interesting, would love to hear more about this as you continue to use it! Typically films like that are very resistant to chips and cracks, but often they scratch easily and need to be replaced often. I'll take that over a new windshield though - although, in Massachusetts here, windshields are covered by insurance with no charge to you if the crack is big enough. Plenty of ways to make a chip turn into the right size crack though lol.

 

[GoHawks63]

Very interesting, would love to hear more about this as you continue to use it! Typically films like that are very resistant to chips and cracks, but often they scratch easily and need to be replaced often. I'll take that over a new windshield though - although, in Massachusetts here, windshields are covered by insurance with no charge to you if the crack is big enough. Plenty of ways to make a chip turn into the right size crack though lol.

Unfortunately, here in Michigan a windshield replacement counts as a claim and does impact your premium.


I did some research, and it is meant to be sacrificial, so it is inevitable that you'll see wiper marks, but then again, you see them on a glass windshield over time.

Here is the link to the product. It's the same manufacturer of the PPF on my Bronco. Interesting that they say not to use it on a daily driver given that you could see some distortion. I haven't noticed any. My shop (associated to the company I work for) suggested using a ceramic or graphene spray on the windshield and using RainX washer fluid. Not running the wipers on a dry windshield is obvious.

I fully expect that it will show some wear, but at some level I guess that's the point, it's supposed to be protecting the windshield. The best part is that it didn't cost me anything since I work for the company and they asked me to test the product.

 

[Nibroc99]

Unfortunate update... My wipers are skipping again like crazy, still just on the downward stroke. If I lift the driver side from the windshield, the passenger side skips worse, and if I lift the passenger side with the driver side on the windshield, the driver side doesn't skip too bad but does still skip a bit. I wonder if it's the spring tension, because the blades are definitely flipping left and right as they should. I took a slow-mo video to confirm that.
I took these wipers off of my car and put them on my mom's Honda CR-V and they don't skip on her car, and I swapped them onto my sister's Santa Fe as well and again, no skipping. They both have RainX on their windshields just like mine. Very strange. Makes me think that it's gotta be the tension on my wiper arms or something... Any ideas? I'm not sure how to relieve tension on them even temporarily to test my theory lol, maybe sticking a few dimes into the coils of the spring to spread it a bit?

 

[Nibroc99]

Small update: I've gotten it a bit better by bending the wiper arms every which way. I got the driver side to not chatter at all, but the passenger side still does, and as a result it causes them both to chatter and skip. I feel like my theory of too much pressure may be correct since bending the arm away from the windshield as far as possible seems to have helped it a bit.

 

[Boostedblues]

I put on Rain X Latitude blades a few weeks ago... they are by far the best i have had yet! I've had OEM Bosch Icons and Scrub blades. The Rain X had out Performed all of them. They have been though a few storms and i changed nothing else. No skipping at all. I'm very surprised. i was beginning to think it was just my bronco

 

[BroncocnorB]

Damn I still have the original wiper blades on my ‘21. No problems whatsoever. Nice and quiet and streak free.

 

[Nibroc99]

Update: I got a new windshield, and didn't replace my wipers (still rocking the same Bosch Envision wipers). I immediately cleaned the windshield thoroughly with Invisible Glass foaming glass cleaner and two microfibers for good measure. Applied RainX to the new windshield from the yellow spray bottle of pure RainX. And by golly. The "skipping" is gone! I think my old windshield may have just been so chewed up from micro chips and pits in the glass that it was causing the wipers to skip. This windshield is some third party one from Safelite. (Replaced my old OEM one that was original to the vehicle from 2022 mfg date due to a big ol crack)
Woohoo!! We'll see if it lasts now!

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