Tales of windscreen woe, and fixing wiper alignment

[blackflash]

Hi chaps,

Just to make you shed a tear, a couple of months ago I had to have my heated windscreen removed to allow some rust on the A pillar to be dealt with. Given that I could get a new screen for only £75 insurance excess and only around half the elements worked, I went for it. Given recent weather, it turned out to be a great decision.

Lo and behold, a week ago I noticed a three inch (7.5cm in case there are any youngsters reading this!) crack in front of the steering wheel. Thinking it must be a stress crack, I called out AutoWindscreens and they spotted a stone chip in the area = impact damage = another screen if you please. Wallet another £75 lighter but such is life...

However, when driving the car, I noticed the wiper blade and normally I don't. So I went online and looked at a few pics and confirmed that the guy has replaced the wiper arm at the wrong angle, so that the tip of the blade is 2+ inches distant from the scuttle rather than parallel to the bottom of the screen.

I did a search and spotted this from Brakebuster which tells me it is a simple thing even a bumbling amateur like me can fix so I don't need to get AutoWotsits out again to do it for me:

"removal is easy, lift the nut cover on the wiper, undo the 17mm nut and pull of the wiper arm, while unplugging the washer hose ".

I take it I'm ok to get my spanners out then... unless someone tells me otherwise.

Nigel

[Brakebuster]

Nigel

it is really that simple

one thing to remember , the wiper arm knuckle is made of softer metal than the spindle it bolts to , so if you try to move it around rather than pull right off it may chew up the arm a little, as the spindle is splined to grab the arm

get yourself a nice thick cloth , and a lever to put under the wiper body by the spindle to lever up once the nut has been undone and removed, its so much simpler than struggling over the middle of the car


another thing to note is that the wipers have been known to break the windscreen if allowed to bang down on the glass without a wiper blade in, so take care

i had to buy a new wiper blade for mine last week, i went to Jaguar and bought a genuine one , at the grand sum of £12 including the VAT , i was even cheeky enough to ask for JEC discount , so he knocked 10% off , lol

good luck

BB

[blackflash]

Thanks. Job done, as easy as you said.