Windshield wiper over-extending?

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guinness10

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the rains in Southern California have given me my first real opportunity to run my windshield wipers for an extended period of time. I’ve noticed that when driving on the freeway, the driver-side wiper has a tendency to over-extend past it’s normal stopping point and contact the upright frame support. It’s not something that happens every time the wiper activates - I’d say it happens every 3rd or 4th swipe. I don’t particularly have time to take the car in to my dealer - is anyone aware of a potentially simple fix that could be performed at home? Barring that and I do need to take it in for service, has anyone else even had a similar problem?
Thanks
 
Was driving in a pouring rain on 405 a while ago, didn’t notice anything like that but will definitely keep an eye on that as we are expecting more rains in the days to come.


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guinness10 said:
the rains in Southern California have given me my first real opportunity to run my windshield wipers for an extended period of time. I’ve noticed that when driving on the freeway, the driver-side wiper has a tendency to over-extend past it’s normal stopping point and contact the upright frame support. It’s not something that happens every time the wiper activates - I’d say it happens every 3rd or 4th swipe. I don’t particularly have time to take the car in to my dealer - is anyone aware of a potentially simple fix that could be performed at home? Barring that and I do need to take it in for service, has anyone else even had a similar problem?
Thanks
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Hate to rain on your parade (I know; bad pun), but the wipers are not like regular ones. Each one has a motor and sensor that drives and senses each one independently. They are not interconnected. So you can’t just pull it off and reset the position like you can on all the cars I’ve had up to now. I think you’re stuck with the hassle and lost time of going in for warranty service, unless some one knows more about this than my trial and error experience.

I know this because I inadvertently put the wrong one on top when I moved them to clean and wax the car. On start up one moved by itself, stopped, and then the other one moved, and then they stored away in the proper order. Pretty impressive actually.
 
guinness10 said:
the rains in Southern California have given me my first real opportunity to run my windshield wipers for an extended period of time. I’ve noticed that when driving on the freeway, the driver-side wiper has a tendency to over-extend past it’s normal stopping point and contact the upright frame support. It’s not something that happens every time the wiper activates - I’d say it happens every 3rd or 4th swipe. I don’t particularly have time to take the car in to my dealer - is anyone aware of a potentially simple fix that could be performed at home? Barring that and I do need to take it in for service, has anyone else even had a similar problem?
Thanks
Click to expand...

Yes mine is doing the same thing. Except it happens almost every swipe. On or off the freeway. Very annoying knocking sound as a result. Seems like the wiper gets momentarily (fraction of a second) "caught" at the normal stopping point then snaps into the window frame. Guess its a trip to the dealer for me.
 
ernda said:
Yes mine is doing the same thing. Except it happens almost every swipe. On or off the freeway. Very annoying knocking sound as a result. Seems like the wiper gets momentarily (fraction of a second) "caught" at the normal stopping point then snaps into the window frame. Guess its a trip to the dealer for me.
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That seems to be the exact same thing that happens with my wiper as well - it goes to what appears would be a normal stopping point then quickly snaps past that and contacts the frame. It just seems to happen with less frequency for me. I took a video of it today to use when I get the opportunity to bring it in for service because this just smacks of the kind of thing that won’t show up when I actually get it to the dealer.
 
Has anyone, hopefully, found a solution for this? I’ve replaced the wipers with Bosch Icon, taken a razor to the claw just in case their was buildup, and it just clacks the h*** out of the sidebar. There has got to be a stopper missing or something.
 
turtleturtle said:
Has anyone, hopefully, found a solution for this? I’ve replaced the wipers with Bosch Icon, taken a razor to the claw just in case their was buildup, and it just clacks the h*** out of the sidebar. There has got to be a stopper missing or something.
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I had the same problem. Fixed it by changing the rubber, treating the windshield with Rain X and putting Rain X in the washer. The problem is caused by the rubber not sliding smoothly over the glass. I used Rain X about one year ago and have not had a recurrence.
 
Groves Cooke said:
I had the same problem. Fixed it by changing the rubber, treating the windshield with Rain X and putting Rain X in the washer. The problem is caused by the rubber not sliding smoothly over the glass. I used Rain X about one year ago and have not had a recurrence.
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Hmm.

I am using Rain X washer fluid, which supposedly contains the Rain X product? But it happens when it rains, even when raining hard, it binds up.
 
Most cars have linked wipers driven by one motor - Clarity has a motor for each wiper. I recall this over-swiping being a problem with some early cars and the solution was to replace the wiper motor as neither the wiper arm nor the swipe could be adjusted.
 
Kerbe said:
Most cars have linked wipers driven by one motor - Clarity has a motor for each wiper. I recall this over-swiping being a problem with some early cars and the solution was to replace the wiper motor as neither the wiper arm nor the swipe could be adjusted.
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Fudge cakes.

I’m pretty sure that’s not covered by warranty, but I’ll go read through the warranty packet.

That’s likely the solution as all the soft touches I’m trying aren’t fixing it.
 
craze1cars said:
https://www.insideevsforum.com/comm...ing-at-highway-speeds-and-drivers-wiper.5959/

This guy in link above fixed this problem with new wiper motor(s).

Most certainly if the car is still under 36k miles (if you are US) this would be a warranty repair.

Have you confirmed the OEM blades so or don’t do the same? Could it be the Bosch replacements are slightly different dimensionally or whatever?
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OEM blades were doing it, so replaced with Bosch Icon thinking that would fix it. Cleaned the windshield with IPA. Took a razor to it in case there was overspray or buildup. Using Rain X washer fluid.

It seems to bind almost at the apex, then the motor seems to give it a kick to overcome the resistance, overcomes static friction, and then WHAM it releases and hits the A pillar. Doesn’t happen at full speed; only low speed.
 
I had the same problem after a new windshield was installed. They didn't re-calibrate it after they installed the new windshield. I took it back to Safelite Auto Glass and they fixed it in less than 5 minutes. Don't know how they did it but apparently, it's a simple under the hood adjustment.
 
I have an appointment at the dealership. If a defect, covered under warranty, but they aren’t sure what might be wrong with it. If not, I have to pay the diagnostic fee...
 
Took it to the dealership today. The wiper assembly was very loose. They took it apart and reassembled it. Now to wait for the next rainstorm.
 
Driving from Arkansas to Texas yesterday in the wind and rain, and the wind seemed to be frequently yanking the wiper arm past the stopping point so it'd go past the glass and make the clicking noise. Scary in yesterday's weather as I didn't know if it'd eventually just break the mechanism and stop wiping.
 
petteyg359 said:
Driving from Arkansas to Texas yesterday in the wind and rain, and the wind seemed to be frequently yanking the wiper arm past the stopping point so it'd go past the glass and make the clicking noise. Scary in yesterday's weather as I didn't know if it'd eventually just break the mechanism and stop wiping.
Click to expand...

It’s definitely a design flaw.
 
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