I just replaced all the wipers on my 98 Explorer Sport. New fronts are fine. The old rear wiper missed most of the center of its sweep, cleaning only a small area near the wiper tips. The new one is doing exactly the same thing. I've never had this problem on any of my other vehicles with rear wipers. This is the only one on which the wiper arm stores off the glass in the off position (so you can lift the rear glass) Any tips on how to bend/tweak it back to functioning? Thanks! Red
Did you replace the rubber or the whole wiper arm? If you replaced the whole thing, rather than try to tweak it, I would take it back to the store and maybe try a different brand. If you just replaced the rubber, maybe the arm needs replacing too.
Never let those quick oil change people touch your wipers. Part of their job is to bend your wiper blades so you will need new ones. Mark McCoy
"Red" wrote in news:1104768530.726449.15560 @z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com:
On my 97 Sport (which had similar behavior) the hinge on the wiper arm corroded/stopped functioning. A little penetrating oil and a lot of forced hinge motion got the blade back to full function. I try to remember to lube the hinge after every car wash now...
I do all the routine maintenance and repairs myself, except exhaust work ( I hate doing that!) I NEVER let low-wage chain store monkeys near my vehicles. I'll check the hinge action tonight. Thanks for the tip!
My '96 occasionally has that problem, too. The last time it happened, I removed the wiper blade, turned it upside down, and snapped it back into the arm. That did the trick.
Ok I followed Clark's advice and used penetrating oil followed by some lubricating spray and now it clears about half the wiper's path. Both ends of the sweep are cleaned, the patch in the center still isn't touched. Looks like I'm on the right path, just not at the finish line yet.
Oops! Originally posted this back to just Red. For the rest of you...
I had the same problem on my '96. Dealer replaced the arm twice under warranty. I finally switched from the OE blade to an Anco blade (the whole thing, both the metal blade/holder and the rubber wiper insert). The Anco blade seems to do a better job of keeping more even pressure along the whole length of the wiper. But IMHO the most important thing is to keep the pivot point in the wiper arm loosened up. I think the metal the arm is made of tends to corrode down in the pivot point area, preventing the arm from flexing like it should while sweeping the window. I just make sure to lube the pivot whenever I change the wiper insert (at least annually), working the pivot point back and forth until it's good and loose again. I also use something called STP Vision Blade on the rear window (actually, on all the windows). It's a Rain-X type of glass treatment, only with a different chemical composition (fluorocarbon vs. silicone?) and seems to work better and last a lot longer than Rain-X, usually 6 months or more. I bought as much of it as I could find at the area salvage stores (Big Lots, Odd Lots) but I haven't seen any for the last year or two. The local Ziebart dealer also applies it under the name "Aqua-Pel", and it's made by PPG (the "glass" people,
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I don't know if it'seven sold retail, but you might be able to get some from an auto glasscompany - that's where I'll be checking when I run out. Using this tripleplay combination has pretty much solved my rear wiper problems - my wiperarm is going on 7 years old now and still works like a champ. Steve '96 XLT
"Red" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
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