95 850 Wiper blades not contacting winshield

bnzlva · Post by **bnzlva** » 13 Mar 2007, 19:14

I have had two 850's and had this problem with them both:

The top of the driver's side wiper blade does not contact the windshield when it is in the vertical position. It does just fine from the "off" position to about 3/4 of the way to its vertical position. I have tried tightening the bolts at the base of the wiper assembly to no avail. I was wondering if anyone else had seen this problem and if they knew any solutions. Thanks in advance!

sntee · Post by **sntee** » 13 Mar 2007, 19:33

I have exactly the same problem.

I replaced the Volvo blades on mine with Bosch and they seem a tiny bit better, but still not brilliant.

The only other thing I can think of would be to remove the metal bracket that the arm is attached to and "manipulate" it a bit to increase the pressure on the blade against the screen.

Haven't tried it yet though.......

When you look at it, the whole geometry just looks wrong. Its difficult to see how it could ever work properly.

P.S. Make sure those retaining nuts are on fairly tight. I don't know the torque value, but I do know that driving home at night, in the rain, with your drivers side wiper blade hanging loosely off the drive shaft and having to lean over to the passenger seat to see through the windscreen, is NO FUN WHATSOEVER

Post by **MadeInJapan** » 13 Mar 2007, 19:34

A very common problem on 850's...you can try bending the wiper arm but if that doesn't work, you'll most likely have to replace the whole arm because what's happening is the splines on the bolt connecting part at the base of the arm are starting to strip out.

Post by **billofdurham** » 14 Mar 2007, 10:42

Check the wiper arm very closely just above the retaining nut. I have seen several that have bent in towards the screen at that point. That then lifts the top of the blade away from the screen, especially at the top of its sweep.

Remove the arm from the car. Take two pieces of wood about 12 inches long and put one piece of wood behind and one in front of the arm and gently squeeze the whole thing in a vice until the arm is straight.

It worked on mine and on others I have seen.

Bill.

bobsnow100 · Post by **bobsnow100** » 14 Mar 2007, 12:39

My 1995 850 wagon had this issue, I just bent the arm until it hit the windshield, never had a problem since. I bent it between the mount and the blade and just made the shape of the arc greater.

Post by **Pauloil** » 14 Mar 2007, 19:33

the torque for the mounting nut is only 20nM so don't over
tighten.
I had this prob. and bought a new arm from fcpgroton after
bending did not work well.

Black850 · Post by **Black850** » 15 Mar 2007, 10:51

I bought new wiper arms for mine from the dealer. They're relatively cheap and a quick install. I would recommend just getting new arms.

bnzlva · Post by **bnzlva** » 15 Mar 2007, 17:46

Thanks for all the replies, I'll try some of those suggestions. You guys are always a huge help!

pmonk · Post by **pmonk** » 15 Mar 2007, 18:21

I had the same problem, and after seeing the hint on volvospeed, and it didn't quite do what I wanted I got a little ticked off, accepted that I would have to buy a new arm, took the non working one off and crammed it in between the gap of the tailgate of an inlaw's truck and bent that sucker in tiny increments until it worked. That was Christmas eve and it still works. I guess sometimes accepting that you are going to probably ruin something helps you do what is necessary to fix it...

Post by **kelvin6** » 16 Mar 2007, 13:26

Same here, today I bent mine to fix the wiper and it works perfectly. This problem occured when I switched over to the new style Valeo Ultimate blades which is essentially the same as Bosch Icon blades. Some how these blades exposed this problem. Now that I bent the arm, it works incredibly!