My Car's Windshield
2025-09-10 12:40 - General
When I bought my (used) car in late 2022, it had two minor problems: a couple small chips in the windshield, and the wiper blades hit each other. It's got opposed wipers, which sweep both from the center out (as opposed to the more typical parallel arrangement). The passenger side wiper is a bit lower, and would rise too quickly, striking the other blade during operation. But just barely. I didn't know why, and for a quick "fix" originally, I trimmed down the length of the wiper. It's got "beam" style blades, which made this practical. I kept making small adjustments, and I could see it getting better. But by the time it was no longer hitting anymore, I had removed four or five inches from that side.
The windshield chips were just cosmetic, and out of the way enough to not be a big deal. But at some point with a significant (ten or fifteen percent) discount via a credit card, I opted for repairs. I was warned that there's a chance for them to cause further damage, but I figured: it's just two tiny cosmetic chips, they don't even go all the way through the glass. It'll be fine. It wasn't. Ironically, the smaller of the two did fixes did end up causing a crack in the windshield. Just cosmetic, and the further out of the way one. And for about a year it was small, still minor. Then one day, overnight, the crack jumped all the way from the out of the way origin on the passenger side, right across the primary line of sight the whole way to the drivers' side. So I got the windshield replaced. I had avoided that originally because: The car has rain detectors to automatically control the wiper, and replacement glass might be worse, and because I fear how well the rear view mirror would be attached. But that all worked out alright in the end. (And I wish I went for replacement to begin with: not only would it have saved hassle, but it wasn't as expensive as I expected!) The installer complained that they had trouble aligning the wiper blades! (I think they could have just been folded out of the way on the hinges built into the arms, but apparently they were taken off!) And also commented that the nut holding one of the wiper arms on was incorrect. (Foreshadowing!)
Fast forward a while. I've still got the wiper weirdness, and I've also observed that the washer fluid filler neck is very loose: I think it makes space that the fluid easily evaporates out of, over time. I get far less usage out of it than I expect, between refills. The local junk yard alerted me that they got a C-Max in, so I went and I got two wiper arms to experiment with, and a washer fluid reservoir. I expected to bend one of the wiper arms, tilting the blade so it's less likely to interfere.
Well I got home with the extra blades and realized I didn't take note of which was which: left/right or driver/passenger side. The process of figuring it out made me realize: On my car, they're installed backwards! They've got bends and angles from the factory, and one is longer than the other. So I've now reversed them, and they operate perfectly, and with plenty of space between them during operation! (The spare junkyard arms had blades installed, no worse than what I've got now, so I took a full-length one from there, and still no interference!) Would have been an easy fix if I knew about it! Plus I think it will be a minor aerodynamic improvement: the old layout had one wiper sticking up higher than it should have, into the air stream.
As far as the washer fluid goes: the extra junkyard replacement is just as loose as mine. It sure seems like there's supposed to be a rubber gasket between the tank and the fill neck, which are separate pieces. I think I'll try to figure out a good way to make such a gasket. On the replacement parts, easy to work on outside of the car.
