vw did know about the rubbish corrado wipers all along

[davidwort 0]

I've just gone to swap a driver's arm (as one on the car isn't holding the blade down on the down stroke at all) and discovered there's an early and late arm, late one has an 'A' suffix, earlier bend at the blade end and a stronger spring, so VW did attempt to improve the wiper arms, just not well enough!

in the end I modified the later arm to increase the spring tension (without bending the arm)

this involves removing the spring and bending the 'C' shaped clamp/joiner so it's shorter, it's a fiddle but doable and leaves the arm with greater spring pressure to the screen, but no visible modification.

different sping sizes on early and late driver arms [ATTACH=CONFIG]60557[/ATTACH]

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]60553[/ATTACH]

late arm on left [ATTACH=CONFIG]60549[/ATTACH]

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]60545[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]60541[/ATTACH]

 

bending clip in vice with a rag over it in case it slips!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]60537[/ATTACH]

 

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]60533[/ATTACH]

 

C clip now bends down a little lower:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]60529[/ATTACH]

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]60525[/ATTACH]

Edited April 23, 2012 by davidwort

[Portent 0]

Intgeresting info, thanks. I've always thought my wipers were the exception and they worked fine... until I got caught in a downpour at speed this weekend and they skipped and juddered across the screen. Time for Lupo's or TT's methinks.

[James. 9]

Good spot oh Anorak wearing one.

 

Have you ever tried grinding down the small nodes on the inside of the arm. I was lead to believe that this can help apply additional force to the blade ?

 

What's the outcome ?

[RW1 0]

Have you ever tried grinding down the small nodes on the inside of the arm. I was lead to believe that this can help apply additional force to the blade ?

I ground the two little nodes down on mine many years ago. By doing it, it allows the rubber wiper blade to fully rest on the windscreen, where as beforehand, the arm was stopped by the nodes and only light pressure is applied through the rubber onto the windscreen. So the outer ends of the wiper blade skip the windscreen surface. Its intended to stop the arm scratching the windscreen if the blade carrier and rubber wiper are missing.

 

With them ground down so the wiper arm does not contact them, the wiper blades work properly as maximum pressure is being applied to the carrier and wiper blade by the arm.

 

.

 

---------- Post added at 1:09 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:45 AM ----------

 

The reason I think for the two part numbers is a little bit different. The original wiper carriers and rubber blades for early Corrados were Scirocco Mk2 parts and if you notice, the arm lengths are slightly different, hence the "A" suffix being used on the later one. The original wipers were still the same lengths of span - 475mm, but part numbers were 533 955 425B (passenger), 533 955 425C. Which would dictate the coupling pointposition between the carrier and the arm hook end.

 

Now they are Golf Mk3 - 1H0 955 427 & Polo - 6N0 955 427 respectively.

 

Edited April 24, 2012 by davidwort

[davidwort 0]

I ground the two little nodes down on mine many years ago. ...

With them ground down so the wiper arm does not contact them, the wiper blades work properly as maximum pressure is being applied to the carrier and wiper blade by the arm.

 

That was my first job when I bought the 8v, but it's not the main problem unless you use very shallow blades.

As a few people have noticed, bending the arms into a curve increases the pressure onto the screen, because it puts increased tension on the arm spring (which grinding the rests doesn't), but this can also be achieved by shortening the connector link as I did above, so no longer do you have to have ugly arched wiper arms.

 

The Corrado may well have had slightly different blades on the early cars, but the arm length change to late is negligible, certainly won't affect the 'wiping ability'. The spring size is really noticeable though, so they definitely tried to improve on the early arms.

 

The main thing is they worked far better on the motorway today :)

[Stonejag 10]

Have you all got the wind deflector fitted to the driver's blade? They only clip on so a lot get thrown away when the blades are changed...

 

Doesn't make a lot of difference but every little helps, I have a spare if anyone needs it!

[Kevin Bacon 5]

TT / Lupo wipers are so last year. Modded standard wipers ftw! :D

 

I wonder if a stronger spring off, say a TT arm, could be retrofitted to a Corrado arm? Although having said that, I think I'll stick to the TT stuff as the blades seem to last forever on those....

[davidwort 0]

Have you all got the wind deflector fitted to the driver's blade? They only clip on so a lot get thrown away when the blades are changed...

 

Doesn't make a lot of difference but every little helps, I have a spare if anyone needs it!

 

yeah, I have blades on there with integrated spoilers, it's just the spring is barely under tension that seems to cause the problem.

 

 

TT / Lupo wipers are so last year. Modded standard wipers ftw! :D

 

I wonder if a stronger spring off, say a TT arm, could be retrofitted to a Corrado arm? Although having said that, I think I'll stick to the TT stuff as the blades seem to last forever on those....

 

yeah, really rather than messing about I should have just put the lupo arms and blades on from the car I'm not using ATM.

but as I took the arm off and compared it to the other older driver's arm I had I couldn't help but waste and evening in the garage trying to work out if the original arm could be improved.

Now if only the wiper motor could be swapped for something better!

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Yeah the wiper motor is terrible. Well, saying that, I fitted a new one a few years ago and it no longer does the 80mph slowing down thing, but just the general wipe speed is rubbish, even by 90s standards. My E34 5 series daily has a superb wipers by comparison. REALLY fast, even at naughty speeds.

 

It does make me laugh how the VR6, a supposedly 145mph car, left the factory with rubbish brakes, rubbish wipers and candles for headlights :lol:

[davidwort 0]

It does make me laugh how the VR6, a supposedly 145mph car, left the factory with rubbish brakes, rubbish wipers and candles for headlights :lol:

 

ever tried a mk1 GTI?, 2 speeds, slow and very slow, granted it will only do 110, but VW have had a long history or poor lighting and wiping :lol:

[KIPVW 0]

I bought some brand new standard Corrado wipers last year (yeah i know what you're thinking) but they are perfect even at high speed, i guess the springs get weaker with age, then are just as good as the lupo ones on my 8v i use rain x too so that will probably help.

[craigowl 0]

"VAG development engineers thwarted by fundamental windscreen wiper, door handle, headlight switch, coilpack, sunroof, etc. design - shock! horror!"

 

"Germans? - Do you a good pair of binoculars, though, they will." (Line from 1970s tv sitcom, I recall).