The wipers park about five degrees above where they should, and when wiping, they stop about five degrees short of where they always used to.

 

This happened suddenly. One day, I turned the wipers on, and they wiped an inch too little on the left, and they parked an inch too high. They've been that way ever since. It was icy that day, but I always scrape the windshield by hand; I don't run the wiper motor with the blades frozen in place.

 

What's wrong, and how do I fix it?

Probably the rod that connects the wiper assemblies under the cowl has either shifted or loosened. Usually caused by too much exertion on the wipers, although I've only ever seen it happen when physically pushed.

 

Not too familiar with the mechanisms myself, but removing the cowl should probably make it evident if you're handy. If not, probably a cheap fix at the shop.

 

Good luck,

 

Chef

 

 

The wipers park about five degrees above where they should, and when wiping, they stop about five degrees short of where they always used to.

 

This happened suddenly. One day, I turned the wipers on, and they wiped an inch too little on the left, and they parked an inch too high. They've been that way ever since. It was icy that day, but I always scrape the windshield by hand; I don't run the wiper motor with the blades frozen in place.

 

What's wrong, and how do I fix it?

Thanks, Chef. I can't quite picture what effect loose fasteners in the wiper linkage would have, but I'll remove the cowl tomorrow and figure it out. Hopefully I won't need any parts from the dealer.

Is it permanent?

 

I haven't been in a Subaru - and they count many over the years - that didn't occasionally park the wipers a bit high.

The wipers park about five degrees above where they should, and when wiping, they stop about five degrees short of where they always used to.

 

This happened suddenly. One day, I turned the wipers on, and they wiped an inch too little on the left, and they parked an inch too high. They've been that way ever since. It was icy that day, but I always scrape the windshield by hand; I don't run the wiper motor with the blades frozen in place.

 

What's wrong, and how do I fix it?

 

Check to see if the nuts that secure the wiper arms to each wiper "shaft" (the part of the wiper linkage that protrudes thru the cowl) have loosened, allowing each wiper arm to "slip" where it attaches to each shaft.

What model Sube is this? I remember seeing on an old XT a switch under the dash for a "winter mode" which left the wipers up a bit.

What model Sube is this? I remember seeing on an old XT a switch under the dash for a "winter mode" which left the wipers up a bit.

 

That's Subaru engineers for ya:brow: . That could be one of the coolest things I have ever heard of.

Is it permanent?

 

I haven't been in a Subaru - and they count many over the years - that didn't occasionally park the wipers a bit high.

Setright is right. I got in the car this morning, turned on the wipers, and they wiped the whole windshield and parked right where they should. They were misbehaving for almost a week.

 

It's a 96 Legacy Brighton.

 

I don't know. Maybe what I'm observing is an undocumented feature. Maybe my wiper linkage still has slop in it. Maybe by checking for slop at the wiper arm, I corrected the problem. I'm not going to tear it apart to find out in weather like this, though.

Nice, although I'd check it out ASAP - we take our wipers for granted, and they can potentially be the most important part on the car at times!

 

I replaced all my wipers recently with the ridiculously expensive "reflex" ones, that are a thin unibody piece with a blade across them that bows in an arc. This gives much better coverage at those pesky edges, plus minimizes lift on highways. However my rear arm is old and weak, and wasn't quite planting it down well, so the edges were clearing but not the centre so well (couldn't find a replacement, and I drive a lot on highways daily). So I got some clips for a ridiculous fee to hold them tightly down. Now it's almost too tight, and my aging wiper motor is slowing them down I think. But, it works well now!

You think you got it bad, My wiper work only when I turn them on, and stop when I turn them off, whereever they are on the window. They also turn on when the car is off, no key in it or anything. But they work