Reply With QuoteSqueaking against the windscreen? If so, clean the windscreen with some detailing spray and pop some in the washer bottle. Or perhaps treat the screen with RainX or similar.
Sent from my calculator using a lawnmower.
For some inexplicable reason, the wipers on my daily driver have started to squeak and it's slowly driving me insane. The wipers (Bosch) are only a thousand miles old and the car is four years old.
The wipers and windscreen are as clean as humanly possible.
Any ideas?
Squeaking against the windscreen? If so, clean the windscreen with some detailing spray and pop some in the washer bottle. Or perhaps treat the screen with RainX or similar.
Sent from my calculator using a lawnmower.
Get some lighter fuel, put some on the windscreen and clean, do the same on the wiper blades and that should remove any rubber residue that is causing the problem.
A number of factors will cause this:Originally Posted by rico
Cleanliness.
Give the blades a clean with an alcohol based wipe, try and find a car wiper specific one rather than a soap based one like you often get with KFC.
Screen - use a cerium oxide based polish to properly clean the screen. Workshop instructions in most dealers is to do this step to a customer's car before replacing the blades.
Personally, I'd avoid RainX. It's great for side windows but on a front screen, in the wrong conditions, it can smear so badly you can't see.
Consider how long the car has been standing and the temperature. Wiper blades have a "hinge" point and flip one way and the other to wipe. If your car has been sat a while, or it's been very cold, the "hinge" may have take what's known as a permanent set. Easy fix, park the car with the wiper arms/blades hinged up off the screen (as if you were changing the blades). Tricky on some cars as the arms park under the trailing edge of the bonnet, but those usually have a feature to move the arms to a "service" position e.g. stop engine, short press on the wiper stalk will move them to service position.
Don’t drive in the rain.
Check for trapped mice.
Drive in reverse all the time.
Play loud music so you can’t hear it.
Sell the car.
I use 3M Glass Polishing Compound on wiper windows and highly reccomend it for swirls, marks and wiper noise.
By coincidence I used it on a neighbours car last week as he was getting frustrated by the noise from his rear wiper, despite him having fitted a brand new Bosch blade he was still having the problem. The 3M product immediately cured the issue.
It takes a bit of time rubbing it on by hand but if using a hand buffing machine it's done in two minutes.
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
Wipe the wiper blades with vinegar. Sorted.
"A man of little significance"
Buy some new ones...?
M
Breitling Cosmonaute 809 - What's not to like?
Meguiars do a similar product to the 3M called Perfect Clarity Glass Polishing Compound which is more readily available and in places like Halfords
I would use isopropyl alcohol to clean the wipers and the windscreen.
I usually clean with cotton wool make up pads.
Despite the low mileage are the wipers 4 years old? Manufacturers advise changing blades every 6 months but I’m happy to do so annually, Valleo blades have stickers on the frame that change colour to recommend change, the rubber is affected by uv light, £20 ish for silence seems cheap.
Ah, but does it have cerium oxide in it? ;-)
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
Buy new ones. A different make. Sorted.
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
Just done mine, clean with white vinegar, then apply Rainex.
Aldi have Rainex on offer imminently.
Didn't sort it for my neighbour.
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
Pour it on your chips?
"A man of little significance"
If the squeak happens when the blades are traveling in one direction you need to tweak the angle of the blade a bit to give it more trail in that direction. I usually use a couple of adjustable spanners on the metal part of the arm to twist it in one direction. If you don't use 2 spanners you can damage the arm.
There's always the exception to the rule. From my experience in the motor trade it is the exception as well. If the glass is clean and the blades are new it usually fixes the problem.
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
Once bought two new sets, and each squeaked as bad!
Thus, I usually blame the windscreen condition.
I’m definitely no car expert!
I suppose I would expect the windscreen to be cleaned before replacing the blades.
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
British ones, or German quality blades?
Last edited by wristwatchwoody; 1st January 2021 at 20:33. Reason: Spouting nonsense
Clay bar the glass
is the easiest and simplest remedy.
I’ll give the vinegar trick a go tomorrow. I’m loathe to replace almost brand new wipers.
One more consideration is if the Bosch wipers are OEM fit?
OEM blades are usually designed to apply a consistent pressure across the blade to match the curvature of the screen and often aftermarket blades don’t always match the same parameters.
There’s more to wiper blades than you’d think.
Well apparently the ones squeaking are Bosch so perhaps try Valeo or Lucas.
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
Yes there is more to their design than perhaps many people would realise.
Also having wholesaled many thousands of wipers in many different brands, I never found a brand that never squeaked. And most often it probably wasn’t the wiper at fault.
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
I keep a cloth in a dilute solution of vinegar available, cures a lot of wiper/windscreen issues.
As a "nuclear" option, use Bar Keepers Friend.
Make sure that you wash it off with copious amounts of water. Then dry the screen, and clean it, and the wiper blades, every week with Stoners Invisible Glass, which is available from Amazon.
Thank me later.
Although no trees were harmed during the creation of this post, a large number of electrons were greatly inconvenienced.
According to wiperblades.co.uk, I have three further choices for different brands - Michelin Stealth, Lucas Airflex and a WiperBlades own brand...
I always buy Viper blades off Amazon
Best blades I've used, tried all the usual makes. Mine are in their 3rd year now and still work like new.
Yes plenty choices available. Clean the windscreen and try one of them. The more expensive brands do tend to be better overall.
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
I tried the vinegar tip. My windscreen is crystal clear but the squeak remains.
On previous cars I've used THESE - silicone blades. It's a bit like constantly reapplying Rain X or similar. Very good but not on the current car as the wiper blades haven't needed to be replaced yet.
I'd save the vinegar for your chips and try this instead................
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
Spray your screen with wd40
Let it run across the screen
Whilst it’s doing tgat - wipe your blades with a cloth dampened with wd40
Buff the screen now to a haze so it has a fog of covering of wd on it
Then clean it off with a dry cloth
Should help no end
'Squeaky clean' comes to mind.
Buy a new car
I had a Skoda Fabia and replaced the wipers with bosch ones from eurocarparts. After a few days they juddered and left streaks that remained after thoroughly cleaning them. I ditched them and bought oem ones from the Skoda dealer and problem solved, they were still good over a year later when I sold the car. I used to swear by bosch but will just get them from the main dealer in future as they were only about £30.
I hope I’m not tempting fate here, but I’ve never know a windscreen wiper squeak and didn’t realise it was such a ‘thing’! All advice above noted though for future use :-)
Would be interesting to know who makes them, must be one of the big makers.
You could move to a drier climate.
If that's not poss, smear fishpaste throughout your car and leave the heater on for a few hours.
When you next use the car, you won't notice the squeaky wipers.
If all that doesn't appeal, WD40 worked on my wipers.
I picked up some OEM wipers from the dealer today and they have not solved the issue! However, I then noticed that the squeak is coming from the wiper arm fitting rubbing against the scuttle panel.
Any ideas?
Sounds like the wiper arm is bent as obviously it would normally miss the scuttle panel. Bend it back into correct shape or replace it.
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
Bit late but I put some wd40 onto a cloth and used that to clean the wiper rubber which sorted out the issue for me but annoyingly you need to repeat every few weeks.
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