GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Something has bothered me for a while now, and that is the size of the passenger blade. It says its 18" but I feel like it is too long.

The actual blade in resting position, will ride up on top of the plastic edge piece that is on the corner of the windshield. I thought maybe it was just because of the bulky/cheap winter blades I had put on, but yesterday I bought a set of BOSCH blades ($18/ea ouch) and put them on and same deal.

I feel like this is a waste of money because it could be ruining that edge of the blade, and also I think it introduces mechanical noise. Like a "thump" or whatever when the blade returns to rest, and has to ride up over that piece.

Does anyone put smaller blade sizes on? a 17" or a 16" ?

Its kind of hard to see what I'm talking about in the pic, but you can see it goes right up to the edge with the hood hinge, and I don't think it should I guess..

Hah!. I noticed that myself when I changed my blades. Mine looks exactly the same. My suggestion: Don't fix it until it's broke.

Well usually I would. But it just annoys me because I'm worried about ruining the blade.

And also I hate the clunk sound it makes. I noticed it especially during the winter when it was and things were a lot stiffer I guess, but I've noticed it in cold rain too. With any luck these BOSCH blades have better quality rubber or something that won't make the sound???

Also, not impressed with green Windex fluid for bugs/tar etc. It comes out looking like water, and doesn't cut through the tree sap that gets baked onto my windows

I was playing with the thought of using a razor blade to cut the rubber just enough to clear the plastic piece.

I don't hear a clunk, but my brother did hear it when he was in the passenger seat. That says something about my hearing.

My rides use the plain old ANCO steel frame blades, but I use the next size up for the driver side. Never had a problem using 18" on the passenger side.

Seems like it's an issue with the type of blade and the brand...

Maybe? idk. Both BOSCH and TRICO are the same so far. I'm guessing Rain-X will be the same too.

Just a wild guess, but are the wiper arms the same length? Is it possible that they were removed and accidentally swapped??

This is the first time I've seen a complaint of a too wide sweep using the OEM blade size. I'll measure later tonight...

I haven't looked at them, but I'm pretty sure they are the arms that came with it from the factory. I've never done anything with them, at least.

I just went out and measured them. From the hinge that allows it to pivot upward, to the tip where the hook starts to bend.

Driver: 18"
Passenger: about 19.5"

I have a 21" blade on the driver and an 18" blade on the passenger.
I don't really have a "complaint" that the sweep is too wide. It's just a concern about whether or not the overlap between the blade edge and the plastic trim at the bottom corner of the windshield is appropriate.

If I were an engineer I certainly wouldn't have designed it like that. I would have kept a flat, glass surface for the entire arc of the wiper blade.

Very strange. It looks to me like your wiper arm is parking way too low compared to our '03.







The blades I have on now sit a bit higher than usual due to the weird adapter on them for the the Vibe's type of arms. These are Trico Flex 18 and 21's. Never had any issues with fitment on either Vibe using any blade of the specified size.

I don't know if it's possible as I've never pulled the arms off, but could someone have removed them and reinstalled incorrectly? Don't know if these things are keyed to only go on one way, if they're not perhaps that could be an explanation.

I don't know...

does this look right to people? If my passenger sat higher like yours I feel like I would see it more distractingly and it would become annoying
My passenger blade partially obscuring the driver blade was also something I saw as normal on my old car.

Definitely not right. Wipers should park just below the black area at the base of the windshield which marks the area that is not visible inside the car. Somebody removed the wiper arms and put them back on wrong. It's very common for discount glass companies to do this during windshield replacements.

Good point Rayven01. I know for sure that the glass on my vibe was replaced by the PO. My wipers park low as well.

That sucks.. Are these things hard to pull off? I've heard you need special puller tools to get them off without damaging them or something.
If anything I am guessing my mechanic could do it in 5 minutes.

You heard wrong. All you need is a 14mm wrench. Pull off the plastic cover by hand, loosen the nut, reset the arm, tighten the nut. I did not even pull the arm off on the driver side.

Before:
After:

Thanks I will give it a try.

Funny thing about that "black area marks non-visible from inside car" thing. I can still see some of the wiper from in the car,

Edit: I just did my best to adjust them.

The drivers side was very easy, I put it up a bit, no probs. It moved easily. The passenger side was another story and left me disappointed. It would not adjust easily, I had to pull it all the way off the pivot mount and it would only go back down at specific intervals, making adjustment a pain.

I manage to either make it too high so the tip of the blade is easily visible on the windshield (but still below the black) which is kind of annoying. Or I can drop it lower, but it still somewhat hits the plastic piece although not as much. When I first adjusted it, I almost couldn't get it back off the pivot mount again and almost freaked out.

Also did gain some room it looks like to install a 22" blade if I wanted on driver side, there is a bit of a gap between the driver and passenger blade near the bottom of the windshield, which won't get cleaned as it is currently set. Maybe a larger blade will fix that.

Here are my new wiper positions, and the annoying view from the inside. idk I guess I like a "clear" windshield area.

BustedVibe wrote:Funny thing about that "black area marks non-visible from inside car" thing. I can still see some of the wiper from in the car,

My Passenger side blade tip is just over the top of the black line. It looks like your new position.

Yeah its not so bad I guess. It looks like the driver side can be raised a bit more (doesn't quite go out to the window edge at the top of the arc). I might try that too because it rained today and it seemed pretty ok, but the damn driver side is squeaking on me now when the blade reaches the top of its sweep. It looks weird too, almost like its jumping/skipping as it stops and pulls back... and you get that squeegee type squeak.

Tiny things just keep happening to (removed) me off

Still have my old blades so I guess I could throw one on and see what it does next time it rains. Maybe its just a one-off thing

Regarding the windshield washer fluid, I use plain old windshield washer fluid and have no issues. I do clay bar the windows twice a year and after clay barring, I use Mother's California Gold Water Spot Remover. When I drive in the rain, the water beads up and goes upward on the windshield. I much prefer this to any of the windshield washer fluids or Rain-X type products. Just my $0.02 though.

My problem isn't so much rain removal, as it is tree sap and other type of junk removal. I am not parking my car on the street in this town, I don't trust these people not to drunk drive.

So in the parking area it goes outside of the garage, collecting the walnut tree sap on the windshield etc.

I might try the green rain-x and see if its any better but I'm really surprised that this green windex was so crappy. The winter formula was pretty good. But yeah I can go down the street to gas station and squeegee the stuff right off with standard blue fluid.

I would give the Mother's California Gold Water Spot Remover a try. It leaves almost like a coat of wax on the windows which should help tree sap come off much easier no matter what windshield washer fluid / glass cleaner you use.

I'm one of those people who runs their car through an auto-wash quite often. Will that strip it off?

After a few washes I suppose. It only takes about 5 minutes to put it on the windshield, let it dry to a haze and buff off though.

ok thanks, I will look into it