Hello

Please help me fix my back window wiper that has a mechanical problem, I think.

If you look at photo, the end of the wiper has a 10 cm (4") play in rotation. You can move the wiper arm by hand like you try to wipe the window until there is a mechanical resistance. The play comes from wiper mechanism because when I move the wiper, the motor axle rotates too. The axle play in rotation is a few degrees, but enough to get 10 cm play at the tip. I hope you can understand my description.

Do you have this problem too?

How can I reduce that play?

Andrey

My rear wipers have the same play. It's a shame nobody else checked theirs to know at least if it's a common issue.

Maybe only the two of you have that issue?

-or-

No-one is going to rush outside to find out? Sometimes the useful answers take time, remember?

Yeah, it took me about 3 seconds.

Doesn't surprise me, but then maybe the rest of us have a life outside of cars and don't feel the need to be trying to have an answer for everything that happens on here.

It's a lovely sunny day (been sunny for the last few weekends) here in England, people have better things to do than go wiper-waggling.

^ Yep, I've just had a brilliant & very full on day with my Weekend Fun Club group at a local leisure centre/park, comprising 11 lads this time round with mixed disabilities/impairments. They consistently demonstrate to me what amazing things can be achieved through application, care, insight & depth of understanding. A lesson to us all perhaps!

It's a lovely sunny day (been sunny for the last few weekends) here in England, people have better things to do than go wiper-waggling.

I will remember this caring attitude from now on when somebody will need help on this forum.

Edited 19 May, 201313 yr by adurer

thanks adurer.

I understand from what the other 2 gentlemen wrote that I shouldn't have asked for help on this forum.

I thought it's easy for any member to simply move the wiper when they pass near their car then reply.

but probably not although I waited patiently 3 days.

I guess English people have a desire to help only if another English asks for advice.

I will not bother anyone from now on, I understand I am not welcomed.

Handbags at dawn, ladies....

Anyway, all three of my Felicias' rear wipers had about the same amount of free play. Nothing suspicious about it though.

thanks adurer.

I understand from what the other 2 gentlemen wrote that I shouldn't have asked for help on this forum.

I thought it's easy for any member to simply move the wiper when they pass near their car then reply.

but probably not although I waited patiently 3 days.

I guess English people have a desire to help only if another English asks for advice.

I will not bother anyone from now on, I understand I am not welcomed.

If I might interject I'm quite sorry that it's come off that way, but I'm sure that's not the case at all.

This Favorit/Felicia is rather a quiet area of Briskoda and sometimes, certain posts do go without replies.

If this is some universal, international preconception of the English, then God help us... maybe it explains why we never win Eurovision anymore.

I understand from what the other 2 gentlemen wrote that I shouldn't have asked for help on this forum.

In that case something was lost in translation.

I thought it's easy for any member to simply move the wiper when they pass near their car then reply.

but probably not although I waited patiently 3 days.

And it is just as easy to forget too, especially as most of the time is spent getting in the front of the car. Not everyone on here (English or otherwise) will have your issue at the front of their when mind when they next go to their car either. Quite a few of us have other things to do when going to the car (making sure the kids are strapped in properly for example), and I suspect most of us rarely sit at the PC and then go straight out to our cars.

As Jonesy has said, this is one of the quieter areas of Briskoda. In the topic list, you can see how many times your thread has been viewed. You, and adurer, would be in a better place to be upset had post had been view 1,000 times with no reply. One of the issues that arise from posting is that certain people get upset when there are postings that say "nope this doesn't happen to me", he views them as irrelevant and unnecessary

I guess English people have a desire to help only if another English asks for advice.

I will not bother anyone from now on, I understand I am not welcomed.

Oh I think you'll find that we'll help anyone.....if they can be helped and are patient for answers. I don't every recall anyone (besides one particular person) dashing outside every time there's a request for help.

What doesn't help any cause is such statements as:

It's a shame nobody else checked theirs to know at least if it's a common issue.

.....this attitude will rarely be met with the enthusiasm to provide answers. But, in this case, it's exactly in keeping with previous examples.

As I said before, sometimes the useful answers take time to surface. The weather here has been on the good side for the last few days and most of us have lives outside of cars and computers, so there will rarely be an influx of speedy replies. In the busier parts of Briskoda, you'll see that solutions can be quite some time in coming and are usually the result of "rainy day play" or when the problem has upset or intrigued another member (this is frequently the case with things such as VCDS coding)

And besides, you've had a day of free bumping your thread to the top of the forum. Even the cold eastern wind can't be unhappy with that.

Hi dohnjoe, it is normal to have a bit of backlash ( free play) in a wiper mechanism on most modern cars which I once found out to my great cost when I reinstalled some wiper arms in the wrong position and then took a chunk out of the paintwork when I operated them, my skoda is not here at the moment so I couldn't check mine to tell you.

I learnt the hard way that when you fit the arms to have them in the raised position and let them go back ad forth a few times to settle the mechanism in the home position before letting them wipe on the glass

also the front ones on a felicia are a pain to get right as well, I don't know about the left hand drive ones, but on the right hand ones the wiper arms are different shapes and I couldn't remember which one came from which side and it took lots of trial and error to get them working right.

I don't really know what you can do about yours other than trying a different wiper motor to see if it has less movement in it, these mechanisms are really tricky to take apart ands threres probably nothing you can do to fix it if it's badly worn.

thank you Jonesy92 and TeflonTom.( for helping me with new words)

is it something designed like that from factory? I don't have the car from new.

I checked on a VW Golf 3 older than my car and it has 1 cm backlash at the tip.

while I waited 3 days for an answer, I took the courage and opened the wiper mechanism.

gears are intact and clean, well greased, but have a play to rotate easy.

I will try to record a video, maybe it will bring ideas.

RainbowFire

as you can see, there are not only 2 cars with that wiper play

you didn't give me a reply I can use, you were sarcastic and that is not elegant.

you speak like you know everybody and you represent the forum.

I hope you are an bad exception.

hate less. leave adurer alone, he is documented and knows about electronic things.

don't try to excuse yourself more, I don't like you whatever you do.

there are other members helping me, as you see. I hope others will repel your unfriendly behaviour.

Check the motor's properly mounted to the car too. My front wipers were all over the place and it turned out the slack was because the three bolts holding the motor to the frame were loose.

Rear wiper mounting type is different from front one and doesn't allow any radial slack by design (see photo)

Checked mine now too. There's a good 10cm, maybe more, free movement measured at the wiper end. Looks like it's "by design" or just down to age and wear. I wouldn't worry about it.

thank you Red Studio for checking yours.

I was afraid mine is broken from last winter when it was still frozen.

I started it and maybe I forced it.

I checked rear wipers on Fabia, Golf 4, Opel Corsa, Fiat Uno and Seat Ibiza, all older than 10 years.

there is no backlash or < 1 cm plus they clean the glass very well.

mine has not enough pressure on glass although I greased the arm spring with WD40 then worked it 10 times up and then down on glass.

Exactly the same as mine - it really only clears one side of the screen as the spring isn't strong enough to keep the pressure on the glass. My last one was the same in that respect and like you, I've oiled the hinge and worked it back and fore but no real improvement. Whenever I wash the car I give the wiper a firm push against the glass when I put it back and it helps a bit.

The tip of my blade goes from the base of the screen to the third line of the heated rear window. Probably not 10cm but still a fair amount of free play. And like all the others doesn't clear the screen particularly well, my last one was the same, you could lubricate it and push it onto the screen but two weeks later it was back to square one. Just to add to the fun on this car once you've used it it won't switch off! I have to switch the engine off and restart it at the traffic lights up the road if I use the rear wiper before I set off for work.

thanks Yossarian G

so it looks as a design flaw both in backlash & pressure on glass.

maybe the spring needs to be shorter by one turn to make it a little more powerful?

Edited 20 May, 201313 yr by dohnjoe

Making rear wiper spring more stiff is a solution.

See here with photos.

If everything fails we can send our better ideas to Skoda engineers.

It comes in different colors, washable, affordable.

If everything fails we can send our better ideas to Skoda engineers.

It comes in different colors, washable, affordable.

:rofl: Russian cheap and efficient fix.

but no thanks, I think I will make the spring more stiff.

for rotation backlash... I still don't have a solution.

probably the wiper arm will be more and more floppy if we don't fix it.

it looks like an old woman's feeble arm already.

like people behind me didn't have already motives to laugh of my car

Employ an asian orphan to cling on to the roof and wipe the windscreen repeadtedly with his hand.

Simply remove the wires from the wiper motor and attach them to the child. Every time you push the rear wipe switch, a harmless jolt of electricity will be the signal for the child to wiper the rear screen.

If anybody asks, he has a tourist visa and you're merely showing him the sights.

is that a Lada samara above ^^ it's been donkeys years since I've seen one of those... Very rare indeed in the uk nowadays, I would love to get my hands on one.

today I pulled out the rear wiper spring.

then I cut about 3-4 cm from the spring wire on the side closer to axle.

not from the entire spring width, but only the hook.

so now the last turn of the spring is the hook after I bent it 90 deg.

the wiper is cleaning beautifully. one problem solved.

now I go untie the asian orphan from car's roof