lupo wipers not wiping!! help!

[pet73r 0]

Bought my rado g60 few weeks back. When I first had it the original wipers were rubbish as expected. With the passenger blade not even touching the screen!!

 

So with a trip to the local stealers, and a 80 quid lighter wallet I had two new lupo gti drivers side wiper arms and a set of lupo aero blades.

 

After fitting I noticed that only the drivers side was wiping properly and the passenger side was missing the screen in the middle of the blade! So not much better really.

 

I took them apart and realised the two 22mm nuts holding the mechanism to the scuttle were not as tight as they should be. So I nipped these up tight and that seemed to solve the problem.

 

Just got in today went to wipe my screen and now the passenger side is missing the screen again, like its not being held tight to the screen, and now the drivers side is missing a bit on the way back down!! Not happy. I can't tighten them up anymore they are as tight as can go!

 

Anyone else had this problem? Or know how to remedy it?

[davidwort 0]

the aero style blades still rely on metal inserts to keep the blade flat and even pressure, take the wiper off the arm, press it again a flat surface, rear screen for example, as you press does the blade make even/symetrical contact from the edges to the centre as you push down from just the edges touching to the whole blade pressed flat?

After recently aquiring a second Corrado I've realised that the original corrado arms are not to blame (I've read this many times before too), in their wisdom, VW made the front arms with shoulders at the hinge to prevent an arm snapping back to the screen without a blade in from breaking the screen, this works fine as long as you use a conventional blade with a fairly high profile (from rubber blade to fixing), problem is most new blades are fairly shallow and so at various positions in the arm sweep of the screen the arm sits on the shoulders of the pivot and can't get close enough to the screen, file down those shoulders a couple of mm and the blades work perfectly.

[psiburr 0]

Mine skips half way up too. My only theory is that when at rest my wiper sits almost flush with the skuttle whereas others I've seen have theirs set at about 30 degrees ?

[Album56 0]

Dont know about Lupo wipers/arms but the standard arms/wipers work fine by grinding a small amount of metal/alli off the shoulders near the arm spring & hinge which stop movement of the arm short of perfect when the spindles become worn. Should be done with a Dremmel ideally but I did mine carefully with a Metal drill bit in the Black & decker. Mine now work like new.

Lupo arms may have the same problem.

Mick

[g60jaime 10]

I had this problem with my Lupo wiper arms, have you tried swapping the Drivers over to the Passengers side? This cured it for me, no reason why it should but......??? No reason why it shouldn't for you too.....

 

This is of course when you bought your Lupo arms you bought two Drivers side arms (as to not foul the bonnet when lifting the arms)?

[pet73r 0]

I tried swapping them but that didnt work!!

 

This shoulder theory sounds interesting but sorry to be a dunce, Im not sure I understand what the hell you mean?!!

 

Any chance of some pics? to dumb it down for me! :confused4:

 

Thanks!

[davidwort 0]

I tried swapping them but that didnt work!!

 

This shoulder theory sounds interesting but sorry to be a dunce, Im not sure I understand what the hell you mean?!!

 

Any chance of some pics? to dumb it down for me! :confused4:

 

Thanks!

 

lift an arm up (wiper arm :) )

look under the arm at the base piece that is bolted to the spindle

where the spring connects, either side you will see a little ledge moulded into the casting of the arm base

when the arm is in the down position the long part of the arm rests on those ledges

you can test where it sits by removing the wiper and carefully lowering the arm to the screen

you'll see the arm stops short of the screen by a couple of cm

by filing off a bit of the ledge the arm will sit closer to the screen and press shallow wiper blades to the screen at all positions along the wiper sweep

[pet73r 0]

:notworthy:

 

Thanks! I think I know what I'm going to be looking for now when I have a captain cook this evening!

 

I'm running lupo gti wipes but I'm assuming that they have the same problem as mine are not touching the screen throughout the whole sweep.

 

Ill let you know how I get on so we can solve the wiper problem for everyone, for good!

 

Thanks :clap:

[pet73r 0]

Right, I tried to grind down the shoulders, its only made the problem worse than it was in the first place!

 

How much am I supposed to take off?! Need to get this sorted now as they don't wipe the screen at all!!

[KIPVW 0]

Just bend the arms inwards a little towards the screen where there is already a slight bend/kink in the middle of the arm. this puts more downward pressure on and takes seconds to do. worked a treat on both Mine and Jude's cars :D

[pet73r 0]

Right, so back in work in work today with access to some proper tools! Whipped the old dremel out and had another crack at grinding these shoulders. Had to take a fair bit off, with a bit of trial fitting and grinding i eventually took enough off so that the blades now touch the screen throughout the complete sweep!

 

RESULT! Stoked now that i have wipers that work.

 

Thanks everyone for their input and help

 

:salute:

[Alex_G60_Fanatic 0]

I tried swapping them but that didnt work!!

 

This shoulder theory sounds interesting but sorry to be a dunce, Im not sure I understand what the hell you mean?!!

 

Any chance of some pics? to dumb it down for me! :confused4:

 

Thanks!

 

lift an arm up (wiper arm :) )

look under the arm at the base piece that is bolted to the spindle

where the spring connects, either side you will see a little ledge moulded into the casting of the arm base

when the arm is in the down position the long part of the arm rests on those ledges

you can test where it sits by removing the wiper and carefully lowering the arm to the screen

you'll see the arm stops short of the screen by a couple of cm

by filing off a bit of the ledge the arm will sit closer to the screen and press shallow wiper blades to the screen at all positions along the wiper sweep

 

This is brills! And i was gunna splash £80 on the lupo Wipers! :lol:

[Enkoder 0]

Impressive responses here in solution to the problem (that I have aswell) but

 

Does anyone use a single storm affair? As I was going to treat myself... Special eBay offer from storm directly for £85 inc p&p

[Wullie 1]

Right, so back in work in work today with access to some proper tools! Whipped the old dremel out and had another crack at grinding these shoulders. Had to take a fair bit off, with a bit of trial fitting and grinding i eventually took enough off so that the blades now touch the screen throughout the complete sweep!

 

RESULT! Stoked now that i have wipers that work.

 

Thanks everyone for their input and help

 

:salute:

I find it slightly amusing that the "wiper fix" seems to have come full circle now. Originally grinding the lobes down then TT and Lupo wipers and now seemingly back to lobe grinding. At least it's the cheapest option.

[davidwort 0]

it's a combination of things,

shallow profile new standard type wiper blades so the blades don't get pressed to the screen with unmodded standard arms

and weak old springs on the original arms

so sometimes it's nothing more than grinding the rests on the arms or bending them, other times a new arm with a new strong spring will be needed.

[fla 9]

My lupo blades seem to be juddering already. Has anyone else found this? Are there any recommended alternatives to the VW inserts? I've used the Tesco aero ones on my wifes car and they're still not bad after about 1 year, only £14 for both. Just dont think they look as good with a somewhat bulbous clamp in the middle!

[davidwort 0]

I'd check the rubber and the screen, it may be juddering because the screen has a film of dirt on it, so it's worth scrubbing the screen with a detergent, or it could be the blade is distorted already, you can remove the rubber and insert it the other way around so it doesn't judder on the down stroke if the rubber has started top 'lean' one way.

Perhaps try some rain-x on it.

Equally, providing the rubber has the same 'T' shaped cross section (there's a lot of variation even on VW blades), you can swap rubbers out from one blade to another without having to buy complete new aero blades. I had a bunch of blades too long for the corrado and have cut them down to fit the lupo blade backing.

If the blades are fairly new it's unlikely to be the rubber that's distorted, that usually happens after they've been on the car a while and spent most of their time in the parked position, so leaning down the screen rather than up which you need for the first stroke when the wipers come on.

I noticed a few years ago that some new cars actually move the blade back up a fraction from the park position so the blade is leaning the right way for the 'up stroke' and the blades last longer as a result.

[fla 9]

ok thanks. When you say detergent do you mean a regular window cleaner spray or should i be looking at using a glass polish or even actual dish detergent??? Will try the direction swop and see what happens.

[Stonejag 10]

The Lupo blades press quite tightly to the screen so they wipe reeeeeally slowly if there's not enough moisture on the screen to lower the friction. Try filling your washer reservoir with strong washer fluid (less water than normal) and giving them a blast - should do the same thing. My wipers are so slow in the gentle rain/drizzle we're getting at the mo that I end up using the washers just because I fear for the washer motor!

[quicky1980 0]

I may have misunderstood, but the shoulder that needs removing from the arm, is it found on just the standard items or on the lupo ones too? This could help explain why my lupo wipers stutter. New blades help, but dont last long.

[davidwort 0]

lower the bare arm with no blade attached carefully to the screen, if it stops short of the glass then it's resting on the shoulders and may not press the blade fully to the glass over all the sweep, so you can do that to check either type of arm for the shoulders.

I've not had any issue with the lupo arms and the blades last well, I guess pollution, dirt, wax, all sorts can affect the blade rubber.

Edited January 5, 2012 by davidwort

[krishen 2]

Is there any company that actually make a deeper blade to use with the standard arms?

[dalhalvaig 0]

I may have misunderstood, but the shoulder that needs removing from the arm, is it found on just the standard items or on the lupo ones too? This could help explain why my lupo wipers stutter. New blades help, but dont last long.

 

I'm using 'Lupos' and had to file off the shoulders to get the blades to touch the screen. I think that you can take too much off. I sometime got juddering when they were new but they seem to have bedded in now. Also after applying Rain-X they can judder for a few wipes. Rainx will cut down on blade wear since they don't get used as much