Why do you put your wipers up before it snows?

[PF52]

All wipers are capable of it, some have a maintenance mode and others you stop the ignition mid wipe.

Having the wipers stopped vertically mid-wipe is different than what the OP is asking about, which is pivoting them up towards the sky and off the glass. Most new cars have a hinged wiper arm; most older cars don't.

 

[Jetronic]

Having the wipers stopped vertically mid-wipe is different than what the OP is asking about, which is pivoting them up towards the sky and off the glass. Most new cars have a hinged wiper arm; most older cars don't.

on modern cars, you can't hinge up the arms because the bonnet is in the way, hence you need to stop them mid wipe, or put in maintenance mode to lift the arms and change the wipers.

 

[PF52]

My Impala has wipers that are kind of buried deep down in a cowl below the top edge of the hood, and that area gets packed with snow. It's a chore to clean it out with a snowbrush. The wipers can only be raised a very small amount away from the glass, because the edge of the hood gets in the way. And no, the wiper arms are not hinged.

EDIT: Like you described. Hood gets in the way.

No hinged wiper arms where you live? I am assuming "across the pond"?

 

[Ranger83]

I have a friend from the upper mid-west that lived where they get "real winters"...she laughs at the wipers up folks. I'll take her as a snow SME. She told me nobody does that where she is from.

Which is where, exactly?

Passers by can mess with your blades anyway. Or your valve stem, lug nuts, license plate... Humans are mostly good and mostly don't.

In our neighborhood in Boston, people often leave their cars unlocked when snow is expected, to make it slightly easier to get on the car.

And so thieves are active during snow storms, rotten bastards…..

 

[TiGeo]

Which is where, exactly?

In our neighborhood in Boston, people often leave their cars unlocked when snow is expected, to make it slightly easier to get on the car.

And so thieves are active during snow storms, rotten bastards…..

Wisconsin. Can find out the town.

 

[2002 Maxima SE]

I've had the blades freeze to the car in NC. I would typically NOT lift the blades before a snow. My experience was either a mix of snow and freezing rain would freeze the blades or snow melting and freezing the blades that night. I recall on more than one occasion not being able to activate the windshield wipers until some warm, melted snow by the defrost had penetrated the blades (which took longer than just leaving them up).

My practice was to clear the windshield and lift the blades before nightfall on the older Ford Taurus.

My wife's Subaru Outback has a thin strip defroster, like the rear window, just for the windshield wipers. We never lift the wipers on the Subaru.

 

[TiGeo]

Older Toyotas and some other cars used to have plastic gears in the wiper motor. If the wipers were frozen to the windshield, they break.

More recently, manufacturers moved to recessed blade mounts, with a gap between the back edge of the hood and the windshield and plastic underneath, This area can hold a lot of snow and ice. Having the blades up makes it a lot easier to get the snow and ice out.

Most Subarus have a heater at the base of the windshield to deice the wipers and base. It was on a separate switch on the dash. Most owners never RTFM’d so they didn’t realize it was not on. So starting in 2010 it was tied in to the defrost button.

I had an old Toyota, never an issue. Who is turning on their wipers after snow/ice without checking that they are free if they were down?

The modern VW/Audis we have you have to put them in a "service position" to lift them/change blades...key on/key off/hit wiper "comfort" wipe (the quick wipe/just push the stalk down). This moves them so you can lift if you choose.

Yes, the deep cowl on the modern VWs can trap snow for sure (the one on the Atlas is HUGE) but I've never had that be an issue to use the wipers once the window was clear.

 

[TiGeo]

on modern cars, you can't hinge up the arms because the bonnet is in the way, hence you need to stop them mid wipe, or put in maintenance mode to lift the arms and change the wipers.

During my research for this topic, I found some funny videos where someone at an office thought they were "helping" by putting folks' wipers up in the lot b/c it was starting to snow. Imagine telling so and so down in accounting you broke her wiper on her Jetta b/c you didn't know there was a service position hahaha

 

[IndyIan]

I don't usually bother putting them up unless it freezing rain, but when its minus 15-20C, defrost doesn't unfreeze wipers for quite a while. I think its am essential northerner skill to delicately pop wiper blades free with the scraper when they are frozen to the windshield, without damaging the rubber. Usually I can scrape the essential windows and windshield and free the wipers in under a minute and get on the road.

 

[FordFETruck]

All wipers are capable of it, some have a maintenance mode and others you stop the ignition mid wipe.

No, not all of them are capable. My 86 F250 they only come off the windshield about 2-3" before they hit the built in stop, both the original and my new replacement wiper arms were like this. Same with my 64 galaxie's, our old 78 Dodge B200 same way. My 99 grand marquis will but only if you shut the car off with them in the middle of the wiper position, otherwise they are hidden and hit the edge of the hood when fully down.

 

[supton]

It can be nice for cleaning out snow from the cowl, leave them up, then use a snow broom to clean the car off.

I flip them up half the time, half the time not. Sometimes I'm copying others, other times I'm not.

 

[bbhero]

Not sure the winter weather of Northen Virginia is a match to ask this question. The quantity of precipitation, the temperature fluctuations, and the current temperature after the falling of precipitation are all factors. All factors that likely mean as little to the people of Northern Virginia as it does to the people of El Paso, TX. Both areas get freezing and below freezing temperatures, and both areas get snow. But the impact from both areas to windshield wipers frozen to the windshield because of a large quantity of precipitation, that ends up freezing, in a deep thick sheet, and then the temperature drops 5 below zero, is why people stand up their wipers.

When I lived in Alaska, the area I lived in was a rainforest. In the winter with very limited sunlight, large quantities of rain and freezing rain would fall. Followed by snow all night. In the morning, temperature might be ten degrees. Windshield wipers would be under easily a half inch of ice. That is a lot of ice. Maybe something not common in Northen Viginia, but a lot of the north has like environments. Maybe not rain forest like, but enough precipitation in quantity that freezes the windshield wipers to the glass.

To be candid that doesmakes sense..


In a freezing rain event I think putting the wipers up does make sense.,

For typical winter weather around here… I don’t do the wipers up thing either.

With no issues with my wipers ever.

 

[TiGeo]

Best reason I found yet

 

[ATex7239]

I feel like this will be my breakout content that I can quit this geology consulting gig.

New Vision: just the helmet and tighty whities on like Ricky Bobby when he gets out of car on the track thinking he is on fire. You’re just a big hairy American winning machine. Muse

 

[The motor guy]

Repaired several wiper transmissions-linkages that were busted because wipers were frozen to the windshield and the driver either shut the car off previously with wipers on and started the engine the next morning or turned the wipers on to “clear” the windshield.

This is why people leave them up. Especially in tbe south where it starts off raining before stuff freezes. That's what causes them to freeze to the windshield.

 

[Ranger83]

I had an old Toyota, never an issue. Who is turning on their wipers after snow/ice without checking that they are free if they were down?

We have an old Toyota - a 2001 4Runner. Never a problem.

They were even older, obviously Toyota remedied it. Maybe as old as the 3,000 mile oil change….

 

[TiGeo]

We have an old Toyota - a 2001 4Runner. Never a problem.

They were even older, obviously Toyota remedied it. Maybe as old as the 3,000 mile oil change….

Mine was a '92 truck.

 

[ryster]

Wipers up works...until there is a strong gust of wind during the storm and the wipers slam down. The wipers up method is extremely common around here. I've tried it. It makes cleaning the base of the windshield and the cowl slightly easier, but not enough of a difference [for me] to keep doing it.

Everyone has their snow removal methods that work the best for them. It doesn't matter to me what they do or how they do it, as long as they remove the snow before hitting the road. There is absolutely no excuse for anyone to be driving around with snow still covering half of their windshield (yes, I've seen it}/hood/roof/trunk/rear window.

 

[JTK]

Having the wiper arms lifted makes it easier to clear the snow and ice from the cowl area without damaging the wiper blades. If you pre lift them, you don't have to dig though the snow to find them.

 

[The motor guy]

-5c temps here in uk, my 1995 ford fiesta has a heated front windscreen so no need to put wipers up, other cars i have just pour warm water on the windows from a bottle and away you go.

I remember one time I was trying to deice my windows and it was about 17f outside. Neighbor came running over as I was about to pour water on the windows. Must have thought it was boiling water or something. It was just cold water out of the faucet, still way warmer than 17 degrees. He was like just use a credit card! I tried that man! I give him my credit card and he goes oh okay. I think the ice finally thawed from the water and away I went. Was trying to make a 20 mile run to my other property hoping the power would be on....nope. nobody was on the the road, so I figured I didn't have to worry about running intl anyone, but it was sketchy trying to try back because people started getting out and about. This was houston during the freeze of 2021. Had to pull over once to let this guy go around me because I couldn't tell if he was just being dumb or doing it on purpose, but his whole truck was sideways going down the rode everytime he was trying to get up to speed.