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finally some smear free wiper joy!

Posted: Fri Jan 22, 2010 11:52 am
by atayub
Waheeeeeaaaaaaaay Finally had some jou with my smear. Bough mine in June 09 so did not really have a problem till regular rains set in. To cut a long story short been through the full VW process involving customer service, retailer and technical. In order of tried fixes, cleaned windscreen and blades, had rubber changed, had wiper changed, had wiper arm changed, had windscreen replaced still no joy. The next day after the windscreen change decided enough was enough and went to speak to the services manager at my local dealer. He sat in my car, saw the smear was still there, drove with me in the car to the garage part at the back of the dealership, asked me to wait in the car and got what I found out later was a vw jetta wiper blade.

This is what I had suggested in the first bloody place! Anyway problem solved! Smear gone been about a week and I am very happy with the rest of my car.

Lets hope it stays that way. Never kept a car more then 2 years, this one might make it to 3.....

Re: finally some smear free wiper joy!

Posted: Fri Jan 22, 2010 7:50 pm
by adamj
I am going to get a Jetta wiper even if I have to pay for it myself. My Scirocco has been dam dangerous this week on the motorway in heavy rain and a big smear in my direct vision.

Re: finally some smear free wiper joy!

Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2010 1:22 pm
by steveargy
Guys, I have lived with this for a year and it is very annoying and you are correct - it is dangerous. It has become a joke in my office. Will go to my local VW dealer and buy one myself .... thanks for the info.

Re: finally some smear free wiper joy!

Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2010 11:15 am
by jackbarr
Can't explain it but the Jetta Wiper Blade did the business. I did notice that it said made in Belgium therefore could be a superior batch. Service manager at my local dealership couldn't believe it?

Re: finally some smear free wiper joy!

Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2010 11:31 am
by RW1
Can you post a part number(s), if not on your paperwork, its on the rubber blade plastic carrier near the arm attachment point. On the side that faces the windscreen. In small yellow dotted print where * is an 9 alpha/digits reference like 1K* *** *** and + is a letter.

C.

Re: finally some smear free wiper joy!

Posted: Tue Mar 23, 2010 4:04 pm
by Mrk
Guys, I've just taken delivery of my Roc, and I have no smear! Maybe its fixed??

But the car was plastered with polish, inside and out, so could this be the problem, a polished covered screen?

If not then at least the later cars have the problem solved so you can get Roc wipers.

I have also now cleaned the screen with RainX's cream cleaner, which is brilliant, and rainX'd the glass, now I don't need the wipers.

Re: finally some smear free wiper joy!

Posted: Tue Mar 23, 2010 4:27 pm
by RW1
VW (UK) parts are holding old stock as spares.:sad: Mine were perfect until about 500 miles.

As above to locate, whats the part numbers of yours?

C.

Re: finally some smear free wiper joy!

Posted: Tue Mar 23, 2010 6:45 pm
by Evil Derboy
Hate to burst any bubbles...

I had Jetta wiper blades fitted and they were smear free for about a month before becoming just as bad as before.

Re: finally some smear free wiper joy!

Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 12:38 pm
by Mrk
This is weird, so you are getting smear, not on the first ever wipe, but weeks later?

Sounds to me as though you either have contaminated washer fluid or just road film on your screen that neither the washer fluid or wipers can shift. Defo sounds like a build up of something..

I would firstly change the washer fluid, clean the wipers and screen thoroughly, and go again. I've done 500miles in my car now with alot of rain and my screen is crystal, but then I did rainX clean and treat 150miles ago

Re: finally some smear free wiper joy!

Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 1:29 pm
by RW1
Mrk wrote:This is weird, so you are getting smear, not on the first ever wipe, but weeks later?

Sounds to me as though you either have contaminated washer fluid or just road film on your screen that neither the washer fluid or wipers can shift. Defo sounds like a build up of something..
Not in my case, it's a mechanical problem with the wiper rubber blade plastic carrier. First occured after about 5 weeks last December.

The plastic carrier collapses in the centre portion. This forces the blade side to sit flatter on the return sweep against the windscreen. Lightening the wiper arm load isn't cure as at higher motorway speeds, the wiper lifts off the screen slightly causing smears.

The solution has been to bend the tips towards each other (outer 1/4's) while keeping the centre portion (centre 1/2) straight. The tips then effectively lift the centre section upwards slightly by taking more of the wiper arm load. You know when it is all correct by measuring the distance between the windscreen and wiper blade plastic carrier. It should be a constant 6mm across the whole length.

I've found if you lift the wiper by the blade to clean the wiper rubber or windscreen, it causes problems. So I now always put them to the "service position" and lift by the wiper arm only.

C.

Re: finally some smear free wiper joy!

Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 2:05 pm
by Evil Derboy
Mrk wrote:This is weird, so you are getting smear, not on the first ever wipe, but weeks later?

Sounds to me as though you either have contaminated washer fluid or just road film on your screen that neither the washer fluid or wipers can shift. Defo sounds like a build up of something..

I would firstly change the washer fluid, clean the wipers and screen thoroughly, and go again. I've done 500miles in my car now with alot of rain and my screen is crystal, but then I did rainX clean and treat 150miles ago
Trust me. I've done everything that you've said on more than one occassion...

Re: finally some smear free wiper joy!

Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 3:17 pm
by Mrk
Very interesting RW1. Sounds much more like a plausible problem, and why Evil Derboy and others are continuing to have troubles.

I'll make sure to lift the wiper by the arm and not the blade. Although I will be changing my wipers for PIAA's shortly, so maybe they are stronger or just different enough to not distort like VW ones.

Have to admit I am terrified of this 'wiper service position', as it will trash my bonnet when then they inadvertantly move back. I don't dare touch anything when the wipers are up :eyepop:

Re: finally some smear free wiper joy!

Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 4:28 pm
by RW1
The wiper problem is generated by more than source one problem....

I had two of them .... 1) spots of glass adhesive from the factory. 2) plastic wiper carrier collapsing

Ref:
http://www.sciroccocentral.co.uk/forum/ ... iper+smear" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.sciroccocentral.co.uk/forum/ ... iper+smear" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

As regards the "service position", thats the whole point of it, so that you can lift the wiper and wiper arm safely .....
Presumable you would put the wipers back on the windscreen when you've finished with them before driving off etc..!
Because the wiper arms cannot be lifted without fouling rear bonnet lip when they are in the "normally parked" position.

C.

Re: finally some smear free wiper joy!

Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2010 9:09 am
by jc74
Ok, has ANYONE got smear free wipers? - Ones which have been replaced and have remained smear free for more than a month or two, without using rain X or similar?
If so do you know, what part numbers were used? - The reason is my car will be in for the boot struts, and I wouldn't mind getting my wipers replaced (and don't mind paying for it, since the car is a year old), however I don't really want to pay if there still isn't a definitive solution for this yet!

Re: finally some smear free wiper joy!

Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2010 11:36 am
by maisbitt
I changed for a goodyear set, as they were cheap at Costco, and they were worse than the VW ones, same downward smear on drivers side, but bigger and slightly different position (still near the joint knuckle though).

We're all going to fail our MOTs at 3 years old!

Re: finally some smear free wiper joy!

Posted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 9:13 pm
by rehmondo
Some joy for me too, car was bought in October 2008, been through 2 VW wiper sets which have been shit.

I bought these 2 weeks ago... http://www.opieoils.co.uk/p-6452-neofor ... nf489.aspx

Work perfectly and are heavier than stock ones, therefore on the motorway they don't lift off - not sure if I still get the rattle though, need to wait for the temperatures to drop.

Re: finally some smear free wiper joy!

Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2010 10:27 pm
by bambam127
Finally got mine sorted after 5 sets from dealers, dozen or so calls to VW customer services (only after emailing VW Germany who contacted VW customer services here to sort it! They just kept fobbing me off, not knowing of any such problems) Had several so called 'modified wipers' still no good till the last set 5 months ago still smear free!! Think the dealers & VW have loads of old blades about which are useless...will post no.s of wipers as there have been several number changes.

Re: finally some smear free wiper joy!

Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 6:43 pm
by bambam127
Drivers side wiper blade 5K2 955 426, Passenger side 5K2 955 425 are the codes for my blades which seem to work fine. As I said before the other 'modified' blades I had received were different numbers to this set.

Re: finally some smear free wiper joy!

Posted: Sat May 01, 2010 7:12 pm
by avatar157
Got mine in March and had the dreaded smear for a few months then it went away during the winter. I assumed it was some kind of coating on the windscreen which has worn off over the months. I normally use neat screenwash in the winter the pre-mixed stuff from Asda and in the summer just use a squirt if washing up liquid which is just a very good degreaser.

Re: finally some smear free wiper joy!

Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 6:42 am
by atayub
been 4 months and 2 weeks and still smear free (sounds like an aa meeting here! lol). Hope it keeps up!