Wiper blades in new cars

[Andrew1972]

Originally Posted by redhat

I have always loved the Honda OE refillable blades.

Me too, I tossed wiper blades at $15/each after a 100 miles and put the Acura ones back on with Honda refills(made in Japan). Never looked back. The 3 refills for 07 MDX cost between $12-$20 depending on who is working part counter. I am extremely picky about the best vision possible so I change them it seems every year.

 

[2strokeNorthstar]

Our Nissan Juke requires OEM. They are offset mounting and normal blades hit the cowl. They last a long time so oh well.

 

[WylieCoyote]

I just wish the auto makers would standardize the mounts. It seems the aftermarket makers can't keep up. Had a set of Rain-X on my '15 Canyon, they never performed very well. When it turned cold, they got very stiff, and make a lot of noise, not to mention all the streaking. Bought a pair of Michelins at Wally World, the driver's side (22") has the adapter for the arm (top-lock style), but the passenger side (17") doesn't. The fine print on the package says you can call Michelin to get one. What???? Had to return them and order a set of AC Delcos from Rock Auto. This shouldn't be such a pain.

 

[nthach]

The aftermarket have been using a "universal" adapter that fits hook, pin and side-saddle "button" mounts but not perfectly. I had a costco goodyear fly off my windshield at high speed, as the blade didn't engage the OEM hook - there was no bottom tab/tang to mate with the hook's mounting hole. My gripe with aftermarket beam blades is they make the OEM wiper arms sit too high. Trico has been using a side-mount on some of their blades. Bosch is selling their AeroTwins as sets in the aftermarket but only for those applications that they were OEM on.

 

[Hall]

Originally Posted by asiancivicmaniac

I don't know who Ford uses for OEM, but the ones on my Fiesta are still streak and noise free after 2 years. Even higher priced replacements don't last much longer than 6 months on our other cars so I just went back to cheap traditional blades on them.

I put Motorcraft blades on our Fusion and they seem to work great. They have good 'pressure' and do good, streak-free wipes. I replaced them 14 months ago but they could probably be replaced soon. I don't know if it's a combination of 90º and higher summers along with sub-zero winters (frost, ice-covered windshields and wipers) or what but I've never had blades last much longer than a year. I've tried many, many different brands over the years too.

 

[red7404]

last spring i bought a 2016 Nissan Frontier. the wind shield is VERY hard to clean. i have tired different fluids. rain X, and Bosch blades. and its still hard to clean.

 

[red7404]

opps

 

[nthach]

Originally Posted by red7404

last spring i bought a 2016 Nissan Frontier. the wind shield is VERY hard to clean. i have tired different fluids. rain X, and Bosch blades. and its still hard to clean.

Einzsett Krystal Klar from Amazon or one of the German parts suppliers for Mercedes/BMW/Porsche. It's the same stuff Porsche sells at the dealerships and similar to Mercedes SummerFit washer additive. Comes in a squeeze-dose bottle, 25mL to 2.5L of water for best results but the CARB dosage of 25mL to 1 gallon of water also works good(and cheaper). Expensive, but nothing works better. 303 washer tabs are also good. A friend's mom has an 14 Frontier and there's cheap Costco blades on it that do an OK job.

 

[pezzy669]

Originally Posted by rooflessVW

How about the curved passenger wiper on my 911?

The MKIV Golf/Jetta/New Beetle had a curved passenger wiper, never understood the purpose of it. Only thing I thought was that maybe it helps keep water in the blade vs sliding off the ends. Speaking of wipers the pin mounts are by far the best mounting system I have ever used. I can replace my MB wipers in probably 30 seconds or less (excluding taking the sticker off the wear dot). The hook system just sucks all around.

 

[dailydriver]

Originally Posted by asiancivicmaniac

I don't know who Ford uses for OEM, but the ones on my Fiesta are still streak and noise free after 2 years. Even higher priced replacements don't last much longer than 6 months on our other cars so I just went back to cheap traditional blades on them.

Same here, even though I replaced them as a matter of course/'habit' after about 1.5 years. When I was looking for aftermarket replacements, PIAA does not even list anything in their catalog which would work with our push button/side mounting system, so I went with the Motorcrafts, since the factory ones worked so well, and they were fairly priced from the dealer with their discount coupon.

 

[Silverado12]

Valeo makes a lot of OEM blades. I've had good luck w/Motorcraft too, but also don't know who makes them. I tried a pricey Rain X silicone blade (27 bucks for one 26" blade for the Jeep Cherokee) and we'll see how it does. I've heard good things about silicone blades.

 

[xxch4osxx]

The wipers on my Ram lasted 2 years and they started tearing at the ends. I replaced them with Mopar blades, but I'm not sure who makes them.

 

[Whimsey]

Just replaced the original wipers on the 2017 Explorer, they were in service 2 years. My wife wants the wind shield to be perfectly clear ALL the time, I'm not as picky . While at the dealer I priced the wipers and they were $18 each. I got Motorcraft direct replacements from Rock Auto for $11.46 each. Even with the shipping they were less expensive than the dealer. From my years of driving Ford vehicles I've found that the Motorcraft replacement wipers are better than aftermarket wipers and cost less money. As a bonus I ordered a Motorcraft cabin air filter from RA which saved me ~$7+ and the shipping was included in the cost of shipping the wipers. I ordered on 1/10 and received the items on 1/12. Whimsey

 

[occupant]

I just found out the OEM 28 and 16 inch wipers on my Corolla are simply Trico hybrids. I've been spending $23 a pair to replace the inserts so I could keep the same stock appearing aero style, when I could've been purchasing whole blades for about 2/3 of that online. This is great news because one of the little plastic aero bits snapped off with the sleet tonight. Now I can just buy a new pair and stop fighting the refills to install them!

 

[JetStar]

My '18 4runner had blades that look like the 2019 Camry & Sienna hybrids (likely Denso/NWB Designers). Recently in Icing conditions they got fouled and wouldn't conform to the windshield. They worked fine up to then. I replaced them with Trico Neo Beams, which have been my go to now for quite a few years. So far so good.

 

[racerviii]

Originally Posted by WylieCoyote

I just wish the auto makers would standardize the mounts. It seems the aftermarket makers can't keep up. Had a set of Rain-X on my '15 Canyon, they never performed very well. When it turned cold, they got very stiff, and make a lot of noise, not to mention all the streaking. Bought a pair of Michelins at Wally World, the driver's side (22") has the adapter for the arm (top-lock style), but the passenger side (17") doesn't. The fine print on the package says you can call Michelin to get one. What???? Had to return them and order a set of AC Delcos from Rock Auto. This shouldn't be such a pain.

That's the whole point and reason they're constantly changing and not standardized. The automakers want you to buy their wiper blades and not aftermarket ones and they try to eliminate the aftermarket option.