Well, this is interesting. I took my wiper arms off a while back to adjust their height, as several members commented they were sitting way too low. But now I wish I hadn't because I don't know if I did something wrong reinstalling them (is that possible??) or if the act itself just revealed worn out arms ready to be replaced anyway.
My wiper blades chatter, skip across the window etc. They leave streaks, dont' clear the water properly, in that even if a wipe in one direction cleans the windshield, on the reverse wipe it'll leave bits of water trailing that gets blown around by the wind etc.
They skip a lot / chatter in the rain. Definitely after a car wash on a dry windshield. At first I thought it was the blades, so I bought new ones and nothing changed (except they made the problem seem worse).
Mechanic says its possible springs have lost tension / aged. But I find it odd this problem would happen after my fussing with them.
I did note during my adjustment of the blades, that one came off rather easily, the drivers side, so I had very little fuss with it (yet it gives me the most trouble with skipping etc). I didn't even have to take it all the way off the mounting bolt. I just adjusted it smoothly after lifting it up a little.
The passenger side was more strange. It only wanted to push down onto the bolt at set intervals, and the first time I forced it down, I wanted to adjust it more and almost couldn't get it to come off. at least one of the arms did "bend in" i.e the mount had enough room to move that the spring pulled things together more, but I reset that and didn't think it would be an issue.
When I reinstalled them, I did not have them in the "up" position like when you are cleaning the windshield at a gas station. I had them laying against the windshield. Could this be the problem?
Winter is coming. I am sick of skipping blades and also I want to be safe and able to clear snow and ice. So I am prepared to buy new arms. Is there possibly anything I could have done to mess up the reinstallation or is it likely that just being handled caused old springs to go over the edge and lose tension ?
My symptoms seem consistent with bad springs but I'm unsure.