ES330 Wipers

[sapeluso]

I have an '05 ES330.  I have an issue with the wiper blades.  At slow speed, they work fine with the tip on the drivers side coming about 3/4" to 1" from the edge of the glass.  At high speed, however, the tip hits the metal on the edge of the glass.  Not hard, just a thumping which is very annoying.  Is this just an adjustment or is there a worn part.  I'm kind of surprised that I don't have the issue at both speeds.

 

Thanks 

[gbhrps]

sapelsuso,

You may not be aware that the ES is blessed with wipers that park (turned off position) in a summer and a winter position. Yours may be in the winter position, and therefore at high speed tend to be closer to the edge of the windshield and slap the A Pillar. Its an easy fix if this is the case.

 

With the wipers parked, grab the thick portion of the driver's wiper arm and firmly push it down the windshield towards the plastic vents under the hood edge. It should move about 3 inches or so and clunk, as it parks in its new summer position.(If it already is in summer park position, there is another procedure that I'll get to in a moment.) In this summer position the wiper should not come anywhere near the A Pillar in its sweep. Test it.

 

The idea with a winter position is that when parked overnight, ice and snow will not  lock the wipers down below the hood edge necessitating having to chip them out.

 

If there still is an issue, pop off the plastic cap over the wiper arm pivot point (use a flat screw driver, and you may need to open the hood to get at it.) There is a 14 mm nut to remove and then pry the wiper arm free of its shaft, reposition it an inch further down towards the hood from its original position, reinstall and tighten the nut and test. If all is fine, reinstall the plastic cap. Good Luck!

[sapeluso]

It didn't look like the wipers were in the winter position (I didn't even know there was such a thing).  I poped off the cap and moved the wiper down a notch.  I marked the original position.  Seems like when I turn then off they return to the original position.  Drivers side doesn't appear to be hitting the A pillar though I don't know what will happen when driving down the road (I'll check this out the next time that it rains).  Seems like there is some play in the arm.  Is this normal? 

[gbhrps]

sapeluso,

The car is 11 years old, and the bushings on the drive unit may be worn enough to have added some slop to the wiper's movement. The only way to tell would be to pull the wiper arms, and the plastic cowl pieces that the wiper mechanism is underneath. Once there you could assess if there are worn parts by feel and by watching the various arms rotate..

 

Many ES330 parts are the same for the Camry of the same year, and would be much cheaper to buy new, as well as used. I'd check to see if the bushings were worn, and then see if the Camry parts were available and a direct fit. Then again, you could just take it to a Lexus dealer and open your wallet very wide.