Do the stock wipers blow or are mine just old? And the speeds are atrocious, fast and really fast.

Anyone replaced them with non OEM wipers?

 

Are they original with car? then they prob need replace

I'm running the Bosch Evo's right now and very good, I hear the PIAA Silicone ones are even better

Also what are you cleaning your glass with? I clay bar every couple of months and put a coat of wax on the windshield. In between use a good quality glass cleaner such as Prima's Clarity. If your using Windex and the like it's gonna look cloudy/streaky no matter what blades you use

 

They BLOW really hard!

 

they suck bad. only lasted like 10K for me... with light light use.

Replaced them with some Bosch micro edge ones and have gotten another 20K no problems

 

A good dosing of Rain X and decent aftermarket blades. At highway speeds it takes a heavy downpour to create a need for anything above intermittent.

The only blessing for that speed dampener, mpg killer, rock catching, giant air dam of a windshield is how fast the wind streaks the rain off it.

*I do love seeing the road thru that glass.*

 

I was just thinking this as it has rained for the past three days. It's hard to believe there isn't just one slower speed than the fast and really fast settings. I was hoping to see that I was missing out on some setting but apparently not. Oh well there are worse things I guess.

 

I think I tried every blade out there and so far for my car with a PPG replacement windsheild the only thing that has worked well, not streaked, Chattered or caused any unwanted wind noise is the Bosch ICON, I went with 17 inch blades on both sides and have coated all my windows with Rejex,
My car has the Autowipers and i have no complaints about the speed they operate in. Its actually an area i think they did a good job on.

 

I bought the car used so not sure if the are original or not. I am sure they need to be replaced and I haven't done anything with the windshield except soap and water.

Is auto-sensing when you push the button in on the wiper arm on the right hand side of the steering column? Or is it truly automatic and come on without any intervention from the driver?

If I do that it seems to be slower than fast and really fast. But I haven't looked at the manual to be sure.

Will check out some replacement PIAA's.

 

I have 3 clicks on my wipers, first puts it into automode and that is pretty much wear it always stays. and yes they come on when it starts to drizzle out. Have not had any issues with them at all even after they replaced the windshield.

 

I just replaced mine with the new flexible blade (feels like all rubber) never had a better blade, but not sure what is going to happen when it is ice instead of water

 

I've started the scouting process cause my Bosch's are starting to fade. Lowest price on the PIAA's was on Amazon. Let me know if you find cheaper

http://www.amazon.com/PIAA-95043-Sup...9166265&sr=1-4

 

quick tell on stock blades is if they have the little "wind spoiler" thing attached to the drivers side one.

sounds like you have non-auto wipers... with the pretty slow, then fast, then really fast settings. They also slow down a notch when the car is stopped...

 

I have heard that it is reccomended that you change your wipers every 6 months regardless of use. And about every 6 months I can tell were the blades are wearing out. I need to change mine also. Plus I am pretty sure they are covered under the maintance free part of your warranty.

 

My blades crapped out on me, so I'm in the market too. Just for chuckles I checked out the PIAAs you referenced, and when I entered the info for "Make sure they fit your vehicle" it came back with "This product does not fit your 2007 Mini Cooper"

 

Guys, there's a slower speed, it's the button on the end of the stalk. Odd placement? Yes, but it's there.

 

I've never had wiper blades last longer than two years, so it shouldn't be a big deal to swap them out.

I just put a set of these on, and so far they are working quite well;

http://www.amazon.com/Bosch-4821-Evo.../dp/B0016ZU39Q

dp

 

Why are you waiting that long between changing them?

 

Not sure what car your referring to (I had a SLK that worked the way you describe) but the MINI (08) only has two click speeds and you push the end of the stalk to activate auto or (I think) intermittent (too). There is no way to leave it in auto mode (shuts off when MINI is turned off) and you must press the button to activate auto mode again.

 

There's nothing special about the wiper mount on a MINI - both the GEN1 and GEN2 use the same mount where the blade clicks into a loop - fronts that is anyway. Every replacement blade I've bought since 02 came out of the package ready to snap in


Only curveball is that the fronts use 2 different sizes. Driver side is 18 inch, pass' is 19.

Any auto part store has blades that fit ... Target, WalMart, Ace Hardware . . .

 

I am not familar with the 08 Mini, mine is an 04, I keep my stalk 1 click up and the auto sensing wiper is always on, very rare that I even touch it

 

That's a R53 which is a different car so how it works and what you do is NA and may confuse the OP who's car is and operates differentially.

 

The stock ones blow for sure and the RainX Latitude ones blow as well so stay away from them also.

 

Standard Mini wiper blades are really poor - a definite safety hazard, as far as I'm concerned. I think they fit the old-fashioned multi-part wiper blades because only they will fit the screen's curvature.

I've swapped mine for Bosch flat-blade wipers and they work perfectly at all speeds - except they don't wipe the last 6" on the passenger's side of the screen, which is no problem. Here in Yurp, Bosch sell a dedicated retrofit kit for the Gen1 Mini with two 18" blades. That's what I've fitted to my Gen2 Mini and using a 18" passenger blade rather than the OEM 19" is also no problem.

You may have heard that we've been getting a bit of rain here in the last week (last Thursday one place broke the British record at 12.4" in 24 hours) and today I was driving through rain in a howling gale. The headwind was maybe 20-30mph, so my 'air speed' was 100-110mph (yep, flat out at times in my justaCooper) and the flat blade wipers gave a weird effect - when the blade reached vertical, there was some turbulence on the convertible top right above my head. I reckon it was the vortex generated by the flat blade, because that is effectively a spoiler the whole of its length. When the wiper blade was vertical the vortex was shed over the roof, creating the turbulence - it sounded like the window seal was leaking.

Took me ages to work out that the turbulence was in time with the wipers.

Andrew

 

Just had my car's 1 year service done but I don't see anything on the invoice about changing the blades.

 

Some dealers are better than others on changing these things which ARE covered. Unfortunately if YOU are not aware of what they should change and LOOK for it on the invoice they can charge corporate for the work and pocket the dollars.

Your pre-pay maintenance covers wiper blades ... some dealers will change them and some won't. If you want them changed, ask the dealer to inspect ... they will still only change them "if needed" .

I discovered this discrepancy the first time I decided to pull the cabin air filter on my 02 which would have been covered under pre-pay maintenance:



according to the schedule the dealer changed this twice in the previous 2 years. What do you think? Do I need to say more?

on the other hand - I recommend getting some decent wipers, after a GOOD cleaning of the front glass ... good means clay or a good 3M Pad and hard soap. Glass needs ruff treatment to get clean and allow good wiper performance.