Nearside wiper position

[Timmyboy]

Wiper advice please

I've been sorting out various annoying noises with my car since buying in August (2010 CR VRS). One of them is a 'clunk' when using the wipers,but only in auto/intermittent mode.

A visual check showed the rest position to be very close to the bottom of the screen and hence the tip of the wiper just a couple of mm away from the bodywork - there's also a small mark and dent where the tip is clearly making contact.

I repositioned the nearside arm by about 1cm upwards, but still got the clonk. In intermittent mode, after a single wipe the wipers seem to jolt very slightly, almost like their rest position is being reset, it's very odd and I don't recall my pre FL doing the same!

I then repositioned both arms more carefully by removing each, turning the wipers on and off and attaching back in what looked like the perfect position - but the clonk remained.

I've bought a new set of blades just in case the size was off, but they're identical. My last resort yesterday was to push the rest position up by a good few cm yesterday, but it makes the car look slightly odd having the wiper visible when presumably it is designed to be essentially hidden. The next journey in the rain should give me some more info;the only thing I can think is the arm is turning on the spindles so any adjustment I make is reversing itself in operation.

Anyone experienced anything similar? The nearside wiper fitted is 19"/475mm.

[millser]

The 'clonk' noise you describe could be the wiper changing rest position, when I first got my octavia I kept wondering what the noise was with my nearside wiper but found out that is was a way of stopping the blade resting in the same position and therefore preventing wear.

[Timmyboy]

That makes sense, the clonk does happen about 2 to 3 seconds after the wiper has finished its arc - will monitor this week

[millser]

That makes sense, the clonk does happen about 2 to 3 seconds after the wiper has finished its arc - will monitor this week

That sounds about right (excuse the pun) you get used to it after a while and then stop worrying about it when you know what is causing it.

[Sarge]

The near side wiper generally does sit at rest so that it's visible a bit. After having a new windscreen fitted the guy put the near side one too low and I ended up with the issue you highlight. They raised it a bit and it's fine now. On both the vRS and Scout the near side one sits with the blade just above where the chassis number is visible.

Edited 11 October, 2015 by Sarge

[Timmyboy]

Excellent advice as always, thanks.

 

That sounds about right (excuse the pun) you get used to it after a while and then stop worrying about it when you know what is causing it.

 

I think I have been hearing two noises actually, having absorbed everything in this very useful thread. Here come the technical terms: a clonk, and a thud. The 'thud' is this intended minor change of position, the noise being caused by the bending of the wiper blade itself from one side to another - this, I see now, is to be expected. The 'clonk' however, is when this re-position occurs when the wiper arm is already quite low, and is the wiper blade smacking the car.

 

The near side wiper generally does sit at rest so that it's visible a bit. After having a new windscreen fitted the guy put the near side one too low and I ended up with the issue you highlight. They raised it a bit and it's fine now. On both the vRS and Scout the near side one sits with the blade just above where the chassis number is visible.

 

Funnily enough that's pretty much the position my wiper is now sitting in - I'll see how it is now, possibly got it just very slightly too high so it can come down a shade, making it look a bit less odd.

 

Park position:

 

 

Top down view - note the little black dot on the white bodywork, this is where contact has been made for a while and has caused a very small dent!

 

[Sarge]

Comparing with mine, that position should sort the 'clonk' .

[Budgie]

The blade on mine has always parked just below the chassis number display, it's been like that from new.

The position in your photo is definitely not right and looks most odd. 

It looks the two blades might even make contact with each other at the start and end of a sweep. 

[skomaz]

Can I just ask what size are your blades - they look wrong to me...   One should be a 600mm and the other a 480mm, with, from memory, the shorter on the passenger side (yours looks too long on the passenger side).  I'd wager as they are at the moment they are catching each other as they sweep across the screen near the park position and the length of the passenger side one is making it hit the bodywork (had this on our old Fabia once)

[Sarge]

The OEM near side wiper (for r h drive) will catch the bodywork if set too low. That's exactly the problem I had after new windscreen and it makes a big thump noise as it does it. The wiper just needs re positioning up a little.

[Timmyboy]

Well, after the weekend's position change I'm very glad to be clonk free

 

The wiper is now just visible inside the car, quite interesting to watch the position change behaviour in action. I also managed to solve a really annoying rattle being cause by the parcel shelf, so the car is blissfully quiet!

 

The position in your photo is definitely not right and looks most odd. It looks the two blades might even make contact with each other at the start and end of a sweep. 

 

I think there is probably an optimum position where it looks ok and doesn't smack into the car - I'm probably too high at the moment, need to monitor the park position over the next few days. The design of the blades is such that the tip of the off side will actually tuck under the metal arm of the nearside (as there is a 'hump') so no contact is made. Also no contact on the arc sweep.

 

Can I just ask what size are your blades - they look wrong to me...   One should be a 600mm and the other a 480mm, with, from memory, the shorter on the passenger side (yours looks too long on the passenger side).  I'd wager as they are at the moment they are catching each other as they sweep across the screen near the park position and the length of the passenger side one is making it hit the bodywork (had this on our old Fabia once)

 

Brand new wipers fitted, the correct way around , 475mm on the near side. Definitely no contact between the wipers. As Sarge has said, the design will mean the wiper clashes with the car if set too low - it's just the setting of this optimal position is complicated by the fact that the park position of the wipers isn't constant as confirmed above. With the new info gained from this thread, I'm sure a bit more tinkering will reveal the park position pattern and allow me to figure out when the wiper arm is truly at the lowest position I can expect it to ever reach - then set it accordingly.

[Herschel]

Hi Tim,

 

Has this solved the noise we both heard on the test drive that I had just been putting up with (and the dealers couldn't find either) for the last year or so?!

 

Cheers,

 

James

[Timmyboy]

Well, funnily enough after hearing that odd noise noise twice on our test drive, I haven't heard it since. Sounds too coincidental doesn't it? I did try a very quick ham fisted reposition of the wiper arm about 2 days after collecting it, so perhaps the noise was related. It's definitely not the 'clonk' I have described as the noise we discussed was very subtle. The only thing I can possibly think it may have been - given both times I heard the noise with you was on turning right - was the wiper (in as I understand now it's too low parked position) moving slightly as the chassis flexed and caused the 2 already touching surfaces to produce a noise. 

 

I got into the habit when owning the Jag of driving without music, which for no real reason I've continued to do with the VRS - so I definitely would have heard that odd faint noise if it was still there - very odd.

 

For anyone else reading this thread in future (I've seen a couple of wiper threads crop us this week) I took a couple of videos to demonstrate this park position and clonk issue:

 

1) Shows the 'adjusted' position I describe above i.e. with the wiper arm too high and looking a bit odd. You can clearly see the park position change after the intermittent wipe.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=as3K5AeAfD4

 

2) Tools out at the weekend, lowered the wiper arm but went too far - here's the clonking sound which as with most noises is far louder inside the car.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCW4H2k7LfA

 

3) And here's a further re-position (actually took about 5 attempts as the damn wipers move very slightly when being tightened ).

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jM01X5y0nc

 

Final note, as also mentioned earlier in this thread, the wipers jump up very slightly when the keys are taken out - so as an example, if I leave them in the lowest position you can see in the last video, the resultant position of the wipers having locked the car up was: