Astral

So I was driving in this crazy snowstorm with whiteout conditions. Snow tires working great, putting along.

I guess the snow built up below the left windshield wiper and shifted its movement up, so that it was moving past the windshield on the left side. I pulled over and cleared out the snow. The wiper didn't return to its previous position. I gave it a push down and suprisingly it moved. Then it worked, but it stopped moving up as much. Eventually, it stopped moving at all.

So the left wiper barely moves (limps for a 1/8th inch) and feels "limp": I can actually move it up and down (across the windshield) with almost no effort, whereas the right side wiper doesn't move to a moderate tug.

So what the heck broke? I kinda don't like driving around with the left wiper broken. I assume this is a warranty repair, but I wonder whether there's a quick fix.

THANKS!

Astral

FIXED!

So the nut on the motor bolt at the base of the wiper arm got loose. I popped off the cover, tightened the bolt using a 12mm socket and bam, it's nice and tight and wipers PROPAH!

w00t! and phew!

zoom44

in th efirst 12k miles you might get lucky if you are freindly with your service center but no the wipers would not be warranty.

scottmhr1

I broke a wiper once, had to learn to use the other hand for a while!

Astral

this was the wiper arm. i think that should be warrantiable. the wiper blade and assembly itself was fine.

Astral

awesome! guess it worked here!


now i noticed that when i operate the wiper, i hear more of a whirring sound than i used to. they seem to work ok... hmm, hope nothing's damaged. damn winter storm. it was just snow!

maybe i will record the sound and post it.

zoom44

not if you told them that story

translated to dealer speak that's "customer broke wiper"

if they found what you foudn they probably would have jus tfixed it. had it been something actually broken......

Astral

dunno, a $30K car better have wipers that can withstand a snowstorm. sure, i did push down the wiper manually after it began going off the windshield, but it got to that state without my interference.