Wiper hitting A-pillar

fredej

fredej

Member
 Gothenburg
I noticed yesterday that my drivers (LHD) wiper was touching the rubber seal at the A-pillar. It was most noticeable when driving at highway speeds. It did not always happen, but more often than not.

Today I tested the wipers (dry) while stationary, in all speed settings. The point of return for the wiper blad was about 2 cm from the A-pillar.
I would have thought that would be enough margin. But maybe the force of the air at highway speeds pushes the blade that much?

I looked in TIS to check specifications of the resting point. TIS states 5.2 cm from the rubber seal at the base of the windscreen. Mine sits maybe 1 cm higher than that. So it’s not very much off. But maybe that centimeter makes all the difference?
Is there any other adjustments to be made?

The windscreen was replace by previous owner, so the wiper arms must have be removed and reinstalled at that time.
 
fredej said:
Is there any other adjustments to be made?
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I can't remember if the spline is keyed or if you could adjust the position. I would be tempted to get a wiper puller if you don't have one and take it off and adjust. Check TIS obviously to see if there are any gotchas.
 
Probably just needs adjusting a couple of splines however if they don't park in the correct position that is often down to grease having migrated across the contact plate on the underside oof the wiper motor. To cure this the front scuttle panel has to be taken off to get at the wiper motor and linkage two bolts and one plastic clip and disconnect the wiring plug then lift it out of the car. Turn it over and take the six cover plate screws out and lift the plate off to reveal the contact plate. Clean the grease off it with electrical contact cleaner and the two small contact springs. Put it back together and refit to the car. Replace the scuttle and wiper arms in their rest position then test and see if they park in the desired position. Re adjust the arms on their splines if your not happy with the park height. You don't need loads of grease on the drive gear so use it sparingly before you replace the back plate on the motor.
BMW Z4 models use a standard hook wiper arm fitting for the front windscreen wiper blades. Earlier models use 21” driver's & 20” passenger's and later models use 21” driver's side & 21” passenger's side wiper blades.
 
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colb said:
Probably just needs adjusting a couple of splines however if they don't park in the correct position that is often down to grease having migrated across the contact plate on the underside oof the wiper motor.
Click to expand...
So far they have always retured to the same position when parked. So I think that's fine. But thank you for your detailed instructions. :thumbsup:
I will try adjusting the position of the wiper arm, to see if the extra centimeter or so will make a difference.
Last few days I've only been driving around in town. Then it has been fine. It's at higher speeds ( >100 km/h) that the wiper touches the A-pillar.
 
If you do take the scuttle off to check the wiper motor the added bonus is that you can clean the interior of the scuttle and its drains, just did it on my newly acquired 2.0l and the amount of leaf debris was shocking and the drains filled with leaf debris. All removed and scuttle give a good clean. Drains run clear now.
 
It took me some time but I finally bought a wiper arm puller tool.
I managed to remove the wiper arm, adjust it to a position, and putting it back together again. It didn't really wanted to stay in the position I chose when I fastened the nut. It adjusted itself to whatever spline was closest, I guess.
Visually, the positioning look similar to before. But having tested it in the rain, it so far has solved the problem with the wiper hitting the A-pillar.

Since I bought the car (over 7 years ago) the automatic wiper feature has not been great. It has worked, but It feels like it selects whatever speed it likes. It does nothing by adjusting the sensitivity on the wiper stalk.
Inspecting the sensor in the windscreen, there are some bubbles in the gel (the workshop that replaced the windshield 10 years ago did not do a great job). I thought that it was due to the bubbles in the sensor gel that made it unreliable.
However, I read online that a sensor initialization is necessary after replacing the windshield. The workshop doing the work surely wouldn't have done that.
It is possible to perform the sensor initialization with INPA. So I did.
It's not night-and-day different, but it seems to be a little more reliable. The sensitivity adjustment seems to be doing something now, especially noticeable at higher vehicle speeds.
 
Whist it’s apart I’d also grease up the ball joints and fit some repair clips for when they inevitably pop off when it’s pouring down.
 
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