W210 front wiper blade fitting and adjustment

[welland99]

My front wiper blade was smearing badly, so I tried to examine it to see if it was worn. I lifted the wiper off the glass, but it didn't lift very high before the arm sort of clicked and locked at an angle of about 20 degrees off the screen.

Anyway, after examination, the blade appears to be in good condition, so the problem may be due to something waxy on the screen. I'll try cleaning the screen to see if that helps.

But then I came across another problem. How to get the wiper back on the screen. After a lot of fiddling, I discovered that pressing on a spot underneath and near the base of the wiper made it unlock and go back on the screen, but after trying this several times it was not easy and still took a lot of fiddling. Is there a different way?

Then, I discovered that the wiper misses part of the screen at the bottom in the middle, which it did used to wipe before I fiddled.

I have searched the forum, but not found any how tos or other posts about the same problem. Please help.

 

[Dieselman]

Other than bending the wiper blade there is no adjustment. The arm has a leaf spring that locates over a protrusion when the arm is raised. This becomes dry of lube and so becomes difficult to press back down. If you unclip the arm covering it will be revealed and a bit of grease will fix the problem.

 

[welland99]

Other than bending the wiper blade there is no adjustment. The arm has a leaf spring that locates over a protrusion when the arm is raised. This becomes dry of lube and so becomes difficult to press back down. If you unclip the arm covering it will be revealed and a bit of grease will fix the problem.

Thanks. Yes I discovered that by pressing down harder on the arm it would click back towards the spring. I did not initially press hard enough for fear of breaking something.

What arm covering do you mean? It didn't appear to have any covering and looked like it was made from black painted metal channel.

I managed to solve the problem with the wiper missing a bit of screen. On the underneath of the wiper arm, about half way along, there is a plastic guide in the shape of a horseshoe that has its legs pointing towards the screen. The blade passes through this guide. Well I must have dislodged the guide when I was fiddling earlier. Replacing it into its correct position made it touch the screen all the way along.

When it started raining again I noticed that the water seemed to be beading a lot on the screen, so decided to give it a good clean with washing up liquid. It now seems to wipe better, with less smearing.

So all problems now seem solved except lubricating the catch.

 

[lynall]

Buy a new blade!

Pull it away from the screen until it clicks wipe it and the screen with white vinegar push down job done



Lynall

 

[Dieselman]

welland99.
The spring for the latch is on the underside of the arm. You might get to it by using care, alternatively lift off the arm cover next to the main rotating part, then unscrew the arm locking bolt and withdraw the arm and turn over to apply grease.

 

[Olivier]

this is a secutity, you lift the arm, it lock, like this there is no way you could break the windscreen by letting the arm go bak , then with the new blade on, just push it hard ish, there will be a "crack" and the arm will go back in place. That's all. You get use to the "crack" after awhile