On Sat, Jan 21, 2012 at 10:14 PM, Rick Knoble <rickkno...@hotmail.com> wrote: > Any opinions on what are good wiper blades?
Ah, a subject that is near and dear to my heart. A wiper-blade thread to me is like an oil thread to normal people. For normal cars I like Tricos. Their refills work better with their own blades rather than trying to fit them into your factory blades. You can get Tricos in any size from RockAuto.com. A good alternative is the NAPA "Exact Fit" house brand (which is probably OEM'd by someone respectable, just like how their "Gold" oil filters are actually made by Wix). For monowiper Mercedes, you MUST use the OEM refills that Rusty sells. Bosch is not the same and WILL streak. One thing that's frequently overlooked on monowiper cars is tension of the blade against the windshield. Not only should you periodically replace the whole blade (not just the insert) so that the blade claw assemblies are as springy as new, but the wiper arm also needs replacing periodically. I have found on 124s that it is pretty much worn out after 20+ years. Replacing it is dead simple (one bolt holds it to the wiper transmission) and will make a huge difference in performance. (The part that wears out is a big spring inside the arm. It might be possible to replace that with a generic hardware-store spring, but I haven't tried.) Note that early and late 124s have a slightly different arm, and only the later version is still available. The arm and blade are a matched set, so if you upgrade to the later arm, get a blade too. The wiper motors and transmissions on monowiper cars get slower as they get older, too. There's supposed to be a trick to opening up the transmission, but I've never figured it out. Others have reported that when they got it open, the grease inside was dried solid. Cleaning the gears with a good solvent and refilling the unit with low-temperature grease ought to make a big difference in wiper speed. The motor is still available, although I've wondered if it could be replaced by a generic one with more torque---sites like www.sciplus.com and www.allelec.com sell a variety of 12VDC motors. Last but not least, cleanliness of the windshield greatly affects wiper performance. Depending where you live and what kinds of interesting chemicals are in the air (and on the road, being thrown up on your windshield by the car in front of you), different cleaning regimens may be necessary. Simple Green, rubbing alcohol, Bon Ami, and glass polish applied with a buffer are all worth trying, in decreasing order of ease. _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
