kdurg

I am at the bank drive thru yesterday in the C4S. The teller..(quite the cutie I might add) says...." Jeez Keith...for such a small windshield on your car...why do you need two windshield wipers ?" UUMM...AAHHH....Well...HHMMM...good question cutie.....just give me my money and pipe down !!!

As it stands the driver's side wiper leaves the lower corner untouched...even after bending the wiper to assist in the contour of the windshield line.

A friend of mine has a '91 Mercedes 500E...(nice car!!) windshield size must be 2.5x's that of the 993. Yet, he has ONE windshield arm that covers the entire surface. In fact, Porsche engineers where involved in the development of this car !!!

Now I am not fretting any "windshield envy" here...but it seems to me the boys in Stuttgart may have missed this one.

Weight Savings
Cost of Production/Savings materials

I highly doubt any kits are out there to retrofit such a product...but if one was available....I'd certainly buy it !!!

Just my .02c

nile13

Keith, if you look carefully at how the wiper on 500E works, you will see that it actually pulsates up and down as well as moving side-to-side. This way it covers more area. But, boy, knowing German electronic "prowess" well enough first-hand I want as few electrical frills on my car as possible.

Sachin Misra

Hmmmm. Pulsate.

kdurg

Well said Mike...I agree.....and I have noticed that movement in the 500E wiper arm.....up and down....side to side......hhmmmm.....

Edward

He he he, sad, but my experience, too. What's the deal with that, anyway. In all my years of various car/motorcycle ownership/wrenching, why is it that I have NEVER had a single issue with Japanese electronic systems failing (e.g. nippondenso, hitachi, etc.), but have had to replace Bosch components many times? It's a weak link in German (and Swedish cars) than can easily be remedied, in my opinion, anyway.

Edward

Terry Adams

My wife's '94 E420 has the single arm. No mechanical problems in 130K miles, and not much rain here anyway, but you have to wonder why they went back to 2 wipers. I suspect it had something to do with getting a frequent enough wipe at autobahn speeds.

Temple

Actually, I think the boys in Stuttgart thought long and hard about our wipers. As I recall, part of the press releases regarding the 993 included information how the 993 wipers covered something like 30% more windshield area compared to previous 911s. From what I can tell, the big technological 'leap' was that they moved the wiper arms closer together. (this is an easy way to tell if you are looking at a real 993 or an earlier generation with a 993 bodykit -- the wiper arm positions).

I'm also not sure if one arm is actually lighter than two (those mercedes arms look fairly massive). And, assuming our wipers operate with two separate motors (one for each arm), this would lessen the chance of losing all wiping capability at once if a motor was to break. (also, if one wiper blade goes bad, you can always switch to the other until you can get a replacement).

Anyway, just thought I'd throw in my $0.02...

P.S. If I recall correctly, I think I saw a documentary that said that Porsche was the first company to paint all wipers flat black to prevent glare (wipers used to be chrome) -- a lesson they learned while racing.

graham_mitchell

kdurg, I share your wiper envy, even though Temple raises some valid points.I have always admired the one wiper design and wished Porsche would use it.

SLVR

There is an official name fo the "wobble" mechanism on the single arm Benzes but I forget what it is. I think it is purely mechanical though.

Nevertheless, I currently rent a C220 CDI and it may have two wiper arms but one of them still has this mechanism. I can't remember exactly but I think it was the same on the new E-class I rented over X-mas.

I am sure somebody on the board owns one of these and will pitch in the correct name ;-)

95993RS

I would think that along with the "new" concept of razor blades that 2 wipers are better than 1 but then again that's only my .02

kdurg

Temple......you know your stuff......thanks for the valuable .02c.....with all this 2cent commentary....we'll be able to afford/design/manufacture our own 1 arm unit....!!!

Flying Finn

Just take the passenger wiper off and cutie will be happy (saves weight too).

TB993tt

If you go to www.rs-tuning.de and click on "press" then go to the bottom item "sport auto 4/97" with the pic of the red 993, look at the 4th pic down on the left hand side and you will see the red 993 has a special windscreen which slopes at more of an angle with a different bonnet (the result of the reduced drag and the RS 533PS motor allowed this car to hit 221mph !) This car has a 1 wiper set up -sorry the pic isn't very informative but you can make it out. I have the full story at my office with more pics, so if anyone is interested enough for me to scan it ?

poorb0yw

While we are on this topic does anyone know where to get the little plug for the wipers when you remove them? I'd like to remove the passenger side one for weight .

kdurg

Prince..

Check www.bumperplugs.com