Car wiper blade problem

[shirlthegirl43]

LOL - know what you mean on the frilly front! The only business our local garage gets from us is MOT and really dirty jobs - Madmax does the rest including all servicing (and MOT repairs too to be honest). They would still check the wipers for me though if I said he was away or summat.

He isn't in work till 11.30 tomorrow so I will let you know which blades asap after that.

[Stacey Steve]

On a lot of mpdern cars, the blades rest one over the other in the centre.

A neighbour changed her blades and they kept getting caught up together.

Reason, when she replaced them, she put the correct sized blade on the correct arm but then laid them back so the blade that should have laid nearest the bonnet was above the the one that should have been at the top.

Just switched positions of the arms and they worked perfectly.

Give it a try.

[smallblueplanet]

Will do a bit later, thanks Steve.

[smallblueplanet]

Wahhhh!!!!

Nipped out to look at the car - swapped the longer blade around (the 'metal spoiler' bit is now on top, is that right?)....hurrah! They don't catch!!!

Waaahhhh!!!!!! The long blade now wipes so far down the windscreen that at the bottom of the sweep it hits the other blade arm!!!

[shirlthegirl43]

Wahhhh!!!!

Nipped out to look at the car - swapped the longer blade around (the 'metal spoiler' bit is now on top, is that right?)....hurrah! They don't catch!!!

Waaahhhh!!!!!! The long blade now wipes so far down the windscreen that at the bottom of the sweep it hits the other blade arm!!!

Spoiler bit should be at the bottom of the windscreen. Perhaps the shorter blade is upside down?

[smallblueplanet]

Ta Shirley, the shorter blade looks the same both ways but I'll go swap the drivers blade around again.

[HeyWayne]

Do you have a man Manda?

[Paul Wagland]

Buy an Audi?

[shirlthegirl43]

Buy an Audi?

NEVER - my poor dad's audi has been laid up for months - the serpentine belt broke and lodged under the timing belt and broke the whole engine!!!

[shirlthegirl43]

SBP - what year is your car?

[shirlthegirl43]

Okay, Madmax has checked the Halfords database.

You need Halfords set 61 which includes a 22 inch blade and a 16 inch blade. I would fettle with the set you got.

[smallblueplanet]

Thanks for looking Shirley & Madmax, I've had another fettle and the long blade catches the short one on the upward sweep - pah! I'm sure it must be something straightforward, but it looks like I'm gonna have to nip down the garage and smile sweetly! Fortunately they've only recently MOT'd the Fiesta over New Year and were 'primed' with some choccy liquers - I reckon they must still be 'good'!

[shirlthegirl43]

I am gonna ask a stupid question here but are you sure the shorter blade is seated properly? I know that I have sometimes thought I had refitted a blade properly only to find that it has not quite 'clicked' right in.

[smallblueplanet]

Thats not a stupid question, I checked it this morning, it wasn't quite seated this morning but I made sure it 'clicked', the other one has a spring clip and is seated okay. I'm now thinking it must be timing as I think even a shorter 'short' blade would get caught by the long blade too. But I'm getting p*ssed off with it now, so I think its time to call in the choccy's favour!

[HeyWayne]

Isn't it the simplest things that drive you mad sometimes!

Can't help I'm afraid Manda, but I can sympathise having been stood for ages trying to change wiper blades on my previous car, and then all of a sudden "eureka" - it clicks.

Haven't had the joy on my current car yet...