Edit for cliffnotes:

Had damaged Bosch Icons. Bought PIAA refills. Installed in Icon frames. Done!

<skip to next post>

 

no cliffnotes?




anywho, Rain-X Latitude wipers ftw!

 

I was too busy installing stereo parts to make any notes or take pictures. Took all of 5 minutes though, it's easy... I haven't tried the Rain-X wipers, are they good?

 

google cliffnotes, because i dont think you know what i mean. Oh and their very good!

 

LOL... Too damn old I guess. Are cliff notes the same as cliff notes used to be when I was in HS?

 

small points in a long posting.. lol

 

My OEM wiper blades worked great after 3 years of ownership, 18 months of which they didn't see a drop of rain (Arizona). I don't know what you're doing that you already needed new wiper blades, but you're doing it wrong.

 

Ive been using the bracketless Anco's (Icon equivalents) and they're actually really nice. I park outside and they've lasted three seasons so far. ...and we had a pretty icy winter.

 

Unfortunately we have this annoying stuff out here called ice... From when water freezes. LOL Also known as snow.. I see you're current location is NJ, so you've probably seen the stuff. If you're lucky enough to have the time to sit and 100% defrost / de-ice your windshield so that your wipers never meet the stuff, then that's good! Unfortunately most people have ice on the windshield which the wipers run over. Also a side effect of ice and snow: Gravel covered roads. (sure, they call it sand, but who are they kidding?) My windshield looks like a cheese grater after a year driving around here. A couple nice divots in the windshield, and no wiper blade is going to last very long continuously being grazed by sharp glass. I don't believe I've ever met a car with 3 year old wiper blades that still work great, unless it lives in a trailer.. My freind's brand new Mitsu Eclipse's rear wiper blade is already deteriorated to the point the blade is separating, and he rarely uses it. Guess we need some of that magic AZ sun.

 

Two winters in Jersey, two summers in AZ and the wipers were working like new. Also, AZ is as much of a beating on them as the snow and ice, dry rot ftl.

 

LOL Don't know what I was doing wrong then.. Maybe it was the way I was moving the switch? Maybe if I caress it some before I turn them on? Less than a year and they were already streaking. Maybe Scion used better wiper material 3 years ago?

 

A set of blades don't last a year for me in SoCal-- I've had the car three years, and I'm on my third set. The Michelin Radius are holding up pretty good so far. Stock set lasted about 8 months before they started chattering, and I wax the windshield.

 

BTW - were they on the '05 in your profile? What happened to that thing, it looks like it was parked at a light in NYC for more than 30 seconds!
I'm hoping the silicone blades won't dry out as fast as typical rubber.. I googled "best wiper blade" and the PIAA's came up most often on different review sites and forums.. Guess we'll have to wait and see!

 

I parted the entire car out after I hydrolocked the motor . I dunno, I rarely used them, never cleaned them, then got wet once every 2 months when I was in AZ...lol maybe I just got lucky. I know they worked 100x better than the wipers on my Jeep. Brand new wipers on that thing streak like crazy lol, pos chrysler parts. Now with my 08, I clean off the wipers every week after I wash it, we'll see how long they last lol.

 

Damn! I thought I did that to an engine once, freaked me out... Cleaning the wipers is probably a very good idea.. I usually only clean them after something nasty gets on them.. ie- bird poo.

 

I just give them a quick wipe with a paper towel after I clean off all the glass, regardless of use, those things get filthy, and fast lol.

 

Hint: Replace your wipers every spring after the last snow fall. Then you can destroy them all winter long knowing they're at the end of their life span.

 

Come to MN for a while. They wont last a full year. I replace mine before and after winter here typically. And sometimes that is pushing it. Between the winter, when they are wiping snow off, or constantly cleaning the windshield (I will go through 2 tanks of washer fluid in the winter) due to salt and road spray, and the spring when it is storming and raining.. then the summer when there are bugs everywhere, they get a lot of use. Actually, even in OK I never made it more than a year before they started going downhill. If yours made it 3 years they probably never get used and you dont really notice how bad they get.

I use the bracketless, one piece wipers (no springs or joints) on mine and they work great. They dont get filled up with ice and snow and stop wiping It was great driving through a blizzard for 9 hours last winter seeing everyone else having to stop and clean out thier wiper joints every 30 minutes... mine worked flawlessly the whole trip :D