Hi,
Recently I had to replace the wiper motor (@dealer for $1200) and then I noticed 2 bold spots when windshield wipers are in action. One in front of the passenger side next to the inspection sticker, the other to the left of driver's view as pictured. Stealer says it's due to worn wiper mechanism, cost of repair $600.

Has anyone had this kind of a problem? My pepper is pushing 120K miles. Is this just normal wear & tear? Could the cause be something else?

Thank you in advance.
Regards,
Sam

 

Bendus wiperbladus. Or pay the dealer a few hundie.

I'm pretty sure there's a bunch of threads on this.

 

^+1
Windshield wiper arm TSB (search for elephant dragging its *** across the windshield)

Or

You have picked up something on the windshield (oil, grease, etc).
Clean the entire windshield with alcohol. Also clean/inspect the wiper blades.

Or

Send me a check via my Tranny Nigerian financial manager and I will fix it for you.

 

I have fiddled around with mine a bit and just made it worse by using a crescent adjustable wrench to twist torque the arm as the ghost TSB states. Got a new windshield last week and it is no better than before with the original 115k one so I know it was not grease and crap. Touaregs have the same problem.

Other thread on here somewhere someone replaced the arm, not that hard, 2 bolts on the passenger and 1 on the drivers I believe, don't know the torque, doubt the windshield guy did either. Anyways heard once the arm was replaced all problems went away. You can easily see on the passenger side if you press down where the arm goes to wiper, that you would get better windshield contact, theory being the springs have lost their sprung, and just don't press as tight as before. If I bend the wiper to get better middle contact, I get lousy outer contact, and if I bend the outer get lousy middle. So messing with old wiper blades and the arm for me was futile

I have not checked if the spring tension can be increased, may check that next.

From vwvortex touareg section:
Your right...Here goes again.
My blades would chatter badly from right to left leaving alot of water on the windshield, then sweep back smooth and clean. My wife complained because it was so hard to see in driving rain, so off to the dealer 85 miles away,(new wipers) next rain same thing, back to dealer(needs more pressure) next rain, same chatter. So... a saturday morning with the hose watching my wipers (trying to focus at speed) the wiper was not perpendicular to the glass. The blades would not rock back and forth. It was pushing the blade accross and then would sweep back nice and smooth. I took the blades off and layed a straight edge (30 inches or so) on the top of the pin that holds the blades on. The straight edge was about 6 inches higher than the top of my windshield. I could tell that lowering the angle of the pin would make the blade more of a right angle and sweep both direction without the chatter. It took two moves, holding the wiper arm with a rag and pliers and another pliers bending the pin down only about 2 to 3 deg. The final outcome is when the straight edge is flat ontop of the pin, the straight edge will be touching the top of the windshield or even a little lower (about an inch). Now the wipers set square on the glass and (rock) wipe or sweep smooth in both directions. The hardest part of this is getting the plastic cap off the top of the blades without braking the little snaps, look close under blade. emo993

http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthrea...0-Noisy-Wipers

Club touareg thread of just replacing the arm:

http://www.clubtouareg.com/forums/f4...des-15242.html

 

Thank you Divot, ltc and Touareg.

Cleaned the windshield & blades with "Tito's" handmade vodka No help. On closer inspection, the passenger wiper blade has decent size gap against the windshield right in the middle (corresponding to the missed spot). So it seems like the arm is not pressing the blade down hard enough. It appears it's time for two new wiper arms along with a new A/C blower fan. My friend did say I'd be alright up to 120K miles.

Regards,
Sam

 

Rainex

 

Our driver side wiper arm streaks somewhat in the center portion of the arm. I just had the "angle of attack" checked at the dealer and they said it was fine. They attributed the streaking to a worn spring in the wiper arm so they are now getting me a quote to replace it. Unfortunately, it sounds like a wiper arm replacement plus some other assembly part so I'm thinking $500-$1000 or more. Anyone find out if changing just the spring is a feasible option? I could always try Rain-X when we hit rainy season again. I could buy a lot of Rain-X for $500-$1000 if it works.

 

Update: After a brand new wiper motor at the dealer and a new set of wiper arms/blades by our famous indy, streaking has been eliminated but now there is this annoying loud noise every time the wiper moves side to side. To a point that I avoid using the wipers if possible. I have called the indy and will be taking the car back for an evaluation.

 

You have two options:

1) Streaky bald spots and relative quiet
2) Elephant wiping it's butt on the windshield noise and clear glass

 

Well, when you put it that way ...

 

My Driver side wiper squeaks on the way down.....have changed the blades also

 

What about option "3"?

No streaks and quiet? The way it was for 8 years.

Total cost of repair over $1500 not done by a street mechanic.

Sam

 

Note to self: Spend less than $1,500 to change wiper blades.

 

Correction: wiper motor, both arms and new blades.

Sam

 

The best blades I've ever had:


Elephant's *** is gone.

--Bob (04 CS Original Owner)