Wiper/hood interference
 

Any chance some of you could post pictures of exactly where their wipers sit with regards to the darkened area at the bottom of the windshield?

I just replaced the two plastic cowls, and now I'm getting interference between the hood and the driver's side wiper. I've got it fully seated, but I'm noticing that the hood sits slightly lower on that side as well. The splines on my wiper arm were not well defined, so I couldn't tell where it was seated previously. Ideally, the picture would be from a car that hasn't had it's wiper arms ever removed, it's hood adjusted in any way, and has no interference problems.

Paul
'96ti 222,000mi

It seems to me this is a common issue. One of my TI's have it and one does not. I'm not sure the cause, perhaps the spring. Maybe the cowl?

I've bent the arm to clear and then just walked away.

It's not the cowl - there's lots of clearance there. And the effects of the spring are mitigated by lifting the outboard end of the arm when tightening the nut. I'm afraid I'll snap the arm in two, since it's a casting - it needs quite a bit of bending.

When I first bought the car, I stripped the wiper arm by running the wipers with ice on the windshield. I remember the dealer telling me it's not covered under warranty. It's possible I just tightened it, but I don't remember - that was almost 20 years ago.

I'm sure that I could fix it by repositioning the arm, but that would put the tip of the blade almost out of the "dark" zone, which just doesn't seem right.

My car's had the same thing since I bought it, also on the driver's side. If you can still open your hood, just leave it alone - that's what I did. Otherwise, maybe file down the part of the wiper arm that's hitting the hood?

I can open the hood, but it scrapes on the wiper arm, right where the pivot joint is. I would need to file down an awful lot. I may order some shims to raise the hood slightly or try to enlarge the conical hole in the wiper arm so that it sits lower. If anybody's following this thread, and they've replaced a wiper arm with a new one, I'd be curious to know whether the arm comes with the splines cut into it. Judging from the torque spec in my Bentley manual, I would be inclined to guess splines are already present.

My car does this too, I just assumed that my arm was bent somehow. Interesting to see others have this issue.

I've got most maintenance records back to new, I don't recall anything about removing or replacing the wipers.

A stroll around the internet reveals that it's fairly common. I ordered two of the factory shims that set the height of the hood, each is 1mm or 0.040". I may not be able to get these in until Spring, as our weather has gone to hell. I shoveled snow for three hours today.