Windshield Wiper Arm Design

[appleton]

Shortly after buying my 08 ES 350, a service station attended lifted and propped up my wiper blades while cleaning the windshield. Soon after, I noticed that paint had been scraped off the edge of the metal cowling that partially covers the blades when they are in the resting position. I tried flipping up the wiper arms myself and sure enough they would not bend to open position without scraping along the edge of the cowling. Thought this was an engineering weakness, but never got around to mentioning it to my dealer. After my last regular maintenance service (now a year + later) I noticed that the wiper blades were resting "high" on the windshield to the point that they were a bit annoying. Thought this strange since no service was done to the wipers. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that the wiper arms have been replaced. Sure enough, now when lifted away from the glass they bend at the mid-point and no longer scrape against the paint.

I will certainly ask my dealer about it at my next visit. While the new arms are a definite improvement (providing they lower the blades back below my line of sight), I find it odd that the work was never mentioned to me or indicated on my invoice. It makes me wonder if they were quietly fixing a problem in order to avoid having to repair the damaged paint?

Wondering if anyone else has had their wiper arms changed or if their wiper arms currently scrape the paint when propped out?

[LVL61]

If you grab one of the wiper arms by its base you can change the position of the wipers from their normal "low" position to the "high" position, which is officially "winter" mode. By resting higher the wipers are less likely to get frozen in the kind of slush that can accummulate at the base of the windshield when the car sits through a snow fall. Unfortunately, the wipers only swing freely on their arm in the "high" position; in the "low" position you'll scrape the back lip of the hood against the top of the wiper arm. I did that soon after I got my 08.

Luc

[appleton]

If you grab one of the wiper arms by its base you can change the position of the wipers from their normal "low" position to the "high" position, which is officially "winter" mode. By resting higher the wipers are less likely to get frozen in the kind of slush that can accummulate at the base of the windshield when the car sits through a snow fall. Unfortunately, the wipers only swing freely on their arm in the "high" position; in the "low" position you'll scrape the back lip of the hood against the top of the wiper arm. I did that soon after I got my 08.

Luc

Thank you for that. I totally missed it... had no idea there was a "winter" mode.

[timzter]

The guy at the Lexus Service Center told me that it is not advisable to play with the 'high' and 'low' positions of the wiper manually. If they are in the 'low' (normal) position, and you wish to clean the windshield under the blades, start the car, turn on the wipers and stop them in mid-sweep. In that position, you can easily fold the wiper arm away from the glass to clean the windshield.

[Ultralux ES350]

I pull my wipers up to winter position every time I wash the car which is about twice a week. I have had no problems with them as a result.