Shuddering wiper blades

[Mandrake]

Hopefully someone can help me figure this out before I pull all my hair out...

Ever since I've had this Xantia I've had terrible problems with groaning and shuddering wiper blades that will just not go away no matter what I do.

They would groan or shudder on the upstroke even on a wet window. It did it on the original wipers that came on the car, and two different new sets of wipers have been tried - the last set I bought were relatively expensive name brand types, and whilst they are a bit better and are tolerable they still shudder or squeak quite a lot when the window is anything other than soaking wet.

Other things I have tried is thoroughly cleaning the glass with glass cleaner (no difference) and using Rain X in the squirter water - which does help somewhat but as soon as the wipers go back to wiping pure rain water they start shuddering again within a minute or two.

Tonight I tried the trick suggested a while ago of twisting the wiper arms slightly to tilt the blade more towards being the right way for the upwards wipe, on the theory that they might be trying to push the leading edge of the blade first instead of flopping over at the bottom of the stroke as they should. Since doing that it seems quiet when the squirter with Rain X is being squirted at it, but as soon as normal rain water is on the window it is shuddering even worse than before!

Here is a video I took of the shuddering with pure water:





You can clearly see that the bottom half of the wiper blade is grabbing and shaking back and forth. A squirt from the squirter and it will stop, go back to water from the hose again and it starts shuddering badly again.

I am at an absolute complete loss as to what is going on and what to do about it. In 25 years of driving I've never had such a stubborn problem with wiper blades, and have never had a problem that wasn't solved by a nice new pair of blades. Both my previous Xantia's had no problems with shuddering blades even when they were old and worn and due to be replaced.

Help!

[myglaren]

Mine were doing that a while back and I went for some new Valeo ones.
The guy declined to sell me them and said I didn't need them.
He got a bottle of "Glasgae Brandy*" from under the counter and cleaned my screen and wipers with it and they were fine after.
I have repeated the procedure every few months but never replaced the wipers.

May work for you, may not.













*Methylated spirits - and he is Scottish

[white exec]

Hi Simon.

I have had exactly the same issue, with juddering blades, on XM.
Years ago, I used exclusively Bosch blades, which never suffered from this.
Then something changed, and they did. Tried one or two other makes, but only slight improvement.
Cleaned windscreen (and the blades) with everything imaginable, but no lasting improvement.
Re-angled (twisted) the arm, but no real joy.

Intrigued that our RAV4 never suffered this, and so fitted XM with Toyota blades (which are Denso).
This produced a real improvement for the XM, but only lasted a few months, before juddering returned.

Brand new blades rarely do this, in my experience. As they age (even a few months) they do.
What seems to happen is that, when wipers are parked, they do this "at an angle", and also become less flexible with age.
It's the loss of flexibility, plus an unhelpful angle, that causes the judder.
Exposure to sunlight (big issue here) accelerates the ageing of the 'rubber'.

Cure, and it is a cure (or has been here), is to prop up the wiper blade with a wine cork*, under the arm, so the blade is just lifted off the screen. This stops the blade "setting" at an unhelpful angle. It seems as simple as that. Particularly effective when the vehicle in question only gets periodic use.

* Rioja works particularly well, but feel free to experiment . . .

[GiveMeABreak]

Never had a Bosch blade on any Citroen that doesn't squeak or start juddering after a while, despite these supposedly being a premium brand. Even the Bosch conversion blades to the newer type of wiper starts moaning and scraping the screen on the C3. In every case the problem was solved using original blades from Citroen. Don't ask me why, they just work perfectly and I've never gone back to other makes for the last 8 years or so.

Not saying this will help your situation Simon, but worth a mention.

[white exec]

Marc, exactly my experience.
Bosch certainly changed something, some years ago. Were once a by-word.
Bosch on RAV4 not good either - Denso (=OE) no problem, so on Citroen now.

If you lift a used blade, or watch it in action, you will usually be able to detect an angular bias to one side.
New blades sit perpendicular to the holder.
It is this 'set' angle that causes blades to 'dig in' rather than 'trail', hence the judder.

Interesting that you've had a similar experience.

There's also been a design shift towards wiper arms (holders) having very little inherent sideways 'flop', possibly in an effort to reduce wiper noise. This obliges the blade to provide all the sideways flex/movement, and, with age and sun, they just don't.

Twisting the arm is just an attempt to eliminate the angular bias of the blade, and it sometimes works. On the XM, twisting the thick spring-steel lower arm is a serious job for two large adjustable spanners or moles, and almost impossible.

[CitroJim]

He got a bottle of "Glasgae Brandy*" from under the counter



*Methylated spirits - and he is Scottish

Never heard it called that Steve but it gave me a good chortle

Good tip all the same... I noted Robyn's wipers on her 207 were shuddering like anything on Friday and it made me fairly shudder to as a passenger

I'm promising her a new pair but might try a bit of your remedy first...

Will Napoleon Brandy work too?

[white exec]

I'm promising her a new pair but might try a bit of your remedy first...
Will Napoleon Brandy work too?

1: James - are there no limits to your skills?
2: Yes, you may find she needs this first.
3: If all else fails, try putting some in the screenwash.

Little devil...

[Gibbo2286]

The problem you have is not the make or the quality of the blades it's the way they are set up.

The blades need to be exactly in line/parallel with the arm and need to flop over so that they drag not push when they change direction, a twist here and there on the arm itself to adjust them will fix the judder. As in white exec's last paragraph.


Think sweeping brush.

[CitroJim]

3: If all else fails, try putting some in the screenwash.

I understand, but it may be apocryphal, that Russians chuck Vodka in with their screenwash in the winter to prevent it freezing... Cheaper than the pukka stuff apparently...

Mind you, having said that, I often used cheap Ouzo (a kind of aniseed spirit like Pernod) to fire up the brabie in Cyprus... That again was dirt cheap (and pretty dire) as was young Keo Cypriot brandy....

[Stickyfinger]

Steel Wool (0000) grade.


CAUTION MAY BE A WIND UP

[GiveMeABreak]

He was doing ok until 6:08 when he soaked the rags on the bare ground - picking up all the grit and then started to wipe the glass! Doooohhh!

[CitroJim]

I fear this whole wire-wool your windscreen may be an Internet wind-up... I'd not trust it unless it can be verified by at least 10 independent articles... My rule of thumb for anything I see on the Internet, especially where IT is concerned...

I may be wrong and I'm happy to accept that but for now, no way is a ball of wire wool going anywhere near mine...

[myglaren]

A Scotchbright pad may be a safer bet - try it on your neighbour's Vauxhall first though

[GiveMeABreak]

A Scotchbright pad may be a safer bet - try it on your neighbour's Vauxhall first though

I'll be keeping an eye out for your next appearance on 'Neighbours From Hell' then Steve!

[GiveMeABreak]

I fear this whole wire-wool your windscreen may be an Internet wind-up... I'd not trust it unless it can be verified by at least 10 independent articles... My rule of thumb for anything I see on the Internet, especially where IT is concerned...
I may be wrong and I'm happy to accept that but for now, no way is a ball of wire wool going anywhere near mine...

I was thinking that I had finally found a use for all the spare wire wool left over from a recent DIY job - but not convinced - if it's anything like those metallic-looking scouring pads you can buy that supposedly 'don't scratch' and then you find your super expensive non-stick frying pan scratched to bu**ery - I think I'll pass!