Okay, I've had this problem since 1994, when I got the car. I've thrown about 8 wiper blade sets (not just refills!) at it since, and the same problem occurs. The blades don't "flop". I hope most of you know what I mean, because it's going to be hell to describe:

When the wipers raise up, the blade is supposed to flop so the rubber points at the firewall. Then when the wipers lower back down on the return stroke, the blade is supposed to flop so the rubber points towards the sky.

My blades have never flip-flopped like that. They stay "stuck" in the "scrape the windshield position" of having the rubber always pointed towards the sky.

So when I first turn my wipers on, they "hop" across the windshield, and don't wipe anything. When they start their return stroke, that's when they squeegee all the rain off. Then when they move away from the firewall again, they "hop". It's annoying as hell, and it's taken me how many years to remember to ask this on thirdgen.org?

Anybody know what's causing this?? Do I need new wiper arms or something? I used to use Anco blades, the past three sets have been the expensive Bosch ones. I don't ever use refills, and I'm 99.9% sure I've always put the blades on correctly.

I think I'm the only car around with noisy wipers that hop across the windshield, and I don't think it's scoring me any points with chicks. So any help is appreciated!! Thanks!

 

You have worn-out wiper arms. The spring in them, that's supposed to hold the arm tight against the windshield, has lost its sproing. I don't know of any way to replace the spring, but when you can find the whole arm, it's pretty cheap.

 

Ive found that after about six months in good ol' NJ smog the wipers will 'volcanize' and harden and they wont flip back over on the return stroke because theyve frozen in the position that they sit on the windshield. Im sure the fact that the wipers never seem to make it to the seats on my car doesnt help much but besides getting new arms, there might not eb much you can do about having to replace them every so often. The rubber just doesnt do well in environments with alot of airborne polution. Just about every car ive owned has done that after awhile.

 

Pollution, heat, extreme cold, they all take their toll on the rubber in blades, especially the cheap ones. Have you tried the "teflon" blades yet?

 

yes, i have the same problem, and it is indeed worn out arms

 

I have found that by "tweking" the wiper arm slightly with an adjustable wrench I can make any old beat-up worn-out wiper arm work. The main thing to get correct is the ANGLE of the wiper blade attachment stud to the windshield. Over time the wiper arm gets kinda twisted so that the stud is no longer parallell to the windshield. Put an adjustable wrench on the wiper arm and GENTLY put a little twist to it. Usually doesn't take much. Not bending the arm, TWISTING it. You put the wrench out near where the wiper arm snaps on and pull up to put some twist in it. It helps to have the wipers at the top of their travel so you have good access all around the arm.

You will probably find that it helps even more if you twist it JUST A LITTLE BEYOND TRUE PARALLEL. In other words, so that's it's ever so slightly biased towards having the blade flop downward during it's initial upward stroke on the windshield.

Tryign to describe this in words is not easy, but once you have a wrench in your hands it's so obvious you'll kick yourself that you didn't think of it before.

5 minute fix, tops.

 

SWEET! Man I love thirdgen.org- thanks, guys! Glad to hear that I wasn't the only one with this problem. I'll try Damon's attack first, then if that doesn't work, I'll go after some new arms. Hey- does GM still sell our wiper arms? Or were they a one-arm-fits-50-cars kind of wiper arm?

And yeah, there's no way it can be the wiper blades- especially when my Bosch blades are $10/each, and even after putting brand new blades on, I still have the same problem immediately.

So this spring, RB, it keeps pressure against the windshield? I was figuring that I had too Much pressure.

Wiper Blade Longevity tip: Take a single-edged razor blade, and run the razor down the blade with a "dragging" motion- this scrapes off old hardened rubber, and might prevent skip. Although it's never worked for my car... other cars, yeah, not mine. But now I know why!