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Wipers/rubber

J

JimS

Member
Is it just me or is the quality of rubber declining? It seem i cannot get a pair of wiper blades that last more than a few months and the elastic in many things I have seems to give out more quickly.
 
Jim I think your correct. I have rubber air hoses that will not last a year or more. Heater hose that fails in a few years too.
 
The best wiper blades that you can find are the OEM blades (not the Delco, Motorcraft, etc. service blades, which are not the same).

You can buy these at the parts counter of GM (probably Ford and Chrysler) dealers and you will find that they are not much more expensive than the Anco, Trico, Bosch, etc. blades that you will find at Wal-Mart, etc.

Note: By "best" I mean best performing, not necessarily longest lasting.

Dean
 
I get a year and half out of mine but when vehicle not in use its put inside or put under tree. Sun light is hard on wiper blades and manufactures look at blades to be replaced once a year.
 
To make those wiper blades last take them off every few months and wash them with bleachwhit, same thing for cleaning the white part of your car tires. You would be amazed at how much dirt will come out of the rubber and how much it will make them work like new. Years ag i got 11 years out of a set of winter blades doing that. And was on every day driver.
 
Rubber is one thing, that as far as I can tell, is impossible to know by looking at it if it is going to last or degrade in a short time.

Just about all of it is now imported, which doesn't really matter, as the manufacturers can make what ever they are asked to make.

One of the biggest complaints is off road tires. Take a big gamble on them, a lot of money to invest in something that may go bad in a years time!
 
It's not just you ! I've been saying that for years now. I have seen more cars with flat tires along the roads lately than in all my years before. See a lot of semi skins (alligators) too. When I was a kid I'd see a lot of them and then not much for years but lately see several along the hi-way all the time. I used to just replace all the hoses on an engine when doing repairs like a water pump or such. My last truck a 1996 Dodge with about 200,000 miles I figured the hoses didn't seem bad yet and aftermarket replacements would likely not last as long as these originals still will. In the early 1990's ? I replaced the gas hoses on an old 1978 gmc. Stuck the old ones on a shelf in case I needed some hose for something. Well a few years later the "new" ones were cracked on the outside so I stuck the old originals back on ! Air hoses too. Dad has one old one left it has to be about as old as me (53 years)and it is still good. Had several others come and gone into the trash that just didn't hold up.
 
I bought expensive Winter blades from NAPA for a truck that garaged most of the time. That was 5 or 6 years ago. No problems. Bought the cheapest set NAPA had for another truck about 2 years ago. They're still fine.
 
Cheap materials just like everything else these days. I've been told that to be safe you should change wiper blades every 6 months now. My vehicles all sit in a shed when not in use and that seems to be about right.
 
Wiper manufacturers recommend changing blades every 3 months. What makes you think the blades are designed to last any longer than that?

That said, the OEM blades on my 2015 truck are 2 years old and still going strong. I typically get a year out of a set of blades. I am impressed.
 
And you can't just buy the inserts anymore, you have to buy the whole blade for a lot more money. Every time I buy wipe blades I feel like I am being screw%%.
 
Anybody have any experience with using RainX washer fluid? If it is silicon based, it should help wiper blades last. I use it and like it, but haven't noticed. The blades did last longer on cars that "parked" the blades up off the windshield.
 
I just replaced a Bosch blade with a new cheaper Bosch. It has clear plastic and does not scrape all the water off the windshield. There was a tip in Car Craft once about sanding them with 300 grit to refresh wipers.
 
Rainex is good. I use it and it has to be raining pretty hard before I need to turn on the wipers. The water beads up and blows off real good. If the wipers are off, will the blades last longer?

What makes me want new blades is when they take a set and then "hop" on the upsweep. You used to be able to flip them over and get rid of the "hop", but the manufacturers have outsmarted us and now they'll no longer flip.
 
I went to Rainex Blades. They do not have all those separate , shall we say, tension devices , just one long blade. I also go a little shorter to minimize the curve effect of the windshield. They cost about $20 bucks apiece but do not jump and skip across the windshield over a few sprinkles.
 
When I was stationed in Germany in the 80's, I flung a huge wad of mayonnaise across the windshield of a Jeep that one of my buddies drove past me as a joke. Naturally he turned on the wipers. Within seconds the windshield was completely thickly blackened as the mayonnaise ate the wiper blades in real time. Like tossing a ham into a pool of piranhas, gone in seconds. I have no idea if bad quality rubber, mayonnaise or if would do that today. Know someone you don't like? Give it a try.

Mark
 
I Rain-X everything, even the kitchen bay window!

It even helps in the winter when you have to scrape.

We drove 12 hrs to the michigan sand dunes, huge rainstorm, one of the convoy said his wipers couldn't keep up and could we pull over to wait it out.... I didn't even have my wipers going, perfect visibility at speed.
 
If you put Rainex right you don't use the wiper very often . I have done my car and truck with Rainex and drive all day in rain and never use wipers.
 
(quoted from post at 08:26:57 02/03/17) If you put Rainex right you don't use the wiper very often . I have done my car and truck with Rainex and drive all day in rain and never use wipers.
Click to expand...

Never had any luck with it what am I doing wrong.
 
Windshield has to be perfectly clean. You apply the Rainex and it will develope a film on windshield. Take soft cloth and rub film off
windshield. You might have rub it several times till you see no film.
 
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