brus brother Posted December 14, 2003 Share Posted December 14, 2003 2000 GT Legacy. Heavy wet snow today in Ct.. Driving down the road when suddenly the driver's wiper started working erratically and then stopped which had a conflict with the passenger side wiper's sense of order (crashed into each other and knocked off the wind foil). Seems the nut on the driver's side became loose. Anyone experience this before? I didn't see anything in the owner's manual or schedule of maintenance for checking this particular nut. Yes it was heavy snow but I didn't see any other cars on the roadside stopping to tighten their nut. Perhaps SOA will be so kind as to replace the wiper arm under warranty. If you happened to see me on the road, please excuse my driving the rest of the way home by braille. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commuter Posted December 15, 2003 Share Posted December 15, 2003 I couple of years ago, while changing the wiper on my 97 OB, I noticed that the driver's arm seemed to be flexing. The nut was a little bit loose. I caught it just in time. I believe the windshield was changed on my vehicle by the former owner, but this would have been about 2 years or more prior to when this happened to me. You don't want to overtighten and strip it. One of those things... I guess an occasional one will work loose. Commuter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiny Clark Posted December 15, 2003 Share Posted December 15, 2003 Another bad design IMO, at least on my 96, because the wiper arm isn't keyed to the shaft. As soon as the nut becomes loose, the arm will slip. That desing engineer needs to be bit@&-slapped! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
remarcable Posted December 15, 2003 Share Posted December 15, 2003 I had the same thing happen but higher up on the arm. The blade assembly fell off at 70MPH in a downpour. I am very glad I had applied Rain X to the windshield or I would not have been able to drive. The windshield got gouged from the wiper-less arm scraping. Now I replace the blade assembly every 3 months and check the integrity of the rest of the arm too, including tightening those bolts that like to work loose over time. They have to deal with alot of corrosion and movement, so it is no wonder they fail. Loctite anyone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweet82 Posted December 15, 2003 Share Posted December 15, 2003 My old 82 GL has had that problem since........82! The wiper bolt is threaded so that if too much pressure is put on the blade the retaining nut will come undone rather than strain the motor/system. I think it's a safety valve in the system. Tighten the retaining nut real GOOD! Glenn, 82 Hatch, now without a windshield or wipers! 01 Forester, never had that problem yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legacy Posted December 16, 2003 Share Posted December 16, 2003 A few weeks ago during some heavy rain the wipers were doing their duty when suddenly in morning rush hour traffic the passenger side blade went loose and started to flop around. I turned the wipers off so as to not break anything. The arms were secured to the drive linkage, but the blade assembly has somehow become damaged ( I think there is some sort of retaining clip which I've seen on replacement blades, which is absent from mine). For now I've taken the blade off and squeezed the U part of the arm to make it a bit tighter, and threaded some metal wire through some holes that line up so if it becomes loose it won't be able to slip out and flop around like that again. Gotta love these old cars! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brus brother Posted December 17, 2003 Author Share Posted December 17, 2003 Originally posted by Sweet82 The wiper bolt is threaded so that if too much pressure is put on the blade the retaining nut will come undone rather than strain the motor/system. I think it's a safety valve in the system. Tighten the retaining nut real GOOD! Pretty much what the dealer told me today. He said the post is tapering and allows the nut to back off under pressure (heavy snow not cleared off manually) instead of burning out the motor. The wife admits that she didn't do much to clean off the snow. So to prevent a recurrence I intend to: 1.) Get stick. 2.) Beat wife with stick. The question I have is what size stick does SOA recommend for this procedure?:temper: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frag Posted December 17, 2003 Share Posted December 17, 2003 The wife admits that she didn't do much to clean off the snow. So to prevent a recurrence I intend to:1.) Get stick. 2.) Beat wife with stick. The question I have is what size stick does SOA recommend for this procedure? why did'nt you get a wife recommended by SOA in the first place? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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