F-Type wiper blades

[raceboy]

My dad took his V6S in for a service at a local Jag specialist and one of the recommendations was to fit new wiper blades, they have suggested that Jaguar Original Equipment are the way to go rather than auto factor Bosch or such like, is there any reason in this thinking? They are considerably more expensive but are they worth it? And are the same parts available from anywhere other than my local dealer?

[anonymous-user]

IME the OE blades are no better than Bosch or other known brand aftermarket blades.

[8bit]

Not sure if the arms and wipers are any different on an F-type than my XKR, but when I needed new blades I found that yes there are third-party alternatives from the usual suspects but they don't fit so well; the bit where the arm clips in to place on the top is much larger and more obvious than on the OE ones. Yes they're more expensive but I'd rather pay a few more quid every few years or so and have slimmer looking wipers, I'd think differently if i was changing them twice a year or so.

The trick would be to find out who makes the OE ones from Jaguar, I didn't look terribly hard at them last time I swapped them but I didn't immediately see any sort of OE manufacturer name or logo on them.

[raceboy]

I'm quite happy to pay more for a better quality product, and seeing as these are getting wrapped up for Christmas anyway if my Dad wants OEM he's getting OEM and it does sound like there is a slight manufacturing difference.
I phoned my local dealer for a price, and asked if they were made by 'someone else' and the parts person just said they were branded Jaguar and came in Jaguar branded packaging.
Found a mail order source that appears to have the right Jaguar part numbers for £10 less than my local dealer, still £20 more than pattern parts but I'll get them ordered to put with his socks.

[8bit]

raceboy said:

I phoned my local dealer for a price, and asked if they were made by 'someone else' and the parts person just said they were branded Jaguar and came in Jaguar branded packaging.

Yep, that's all the parts guy sees so in most cases that's all they know. On the XK series at least, MAFs are made by Denso, wishbones and control arms are made mostly by Lemforder, shocks and springs are Bilstein (at least on the 4.2s), brake parts mostly made by ATE/Teeves etc. etc. but it all comes to the dealer in Jaguar bags/boxes with Jaguar part numbers. I managed to find the Denso part number for the MAFs on my previous 4.2 XKR and bought a pair of those for half the price of the same thing in a Jaguar box but unfortunately not found the original source for the wiper blades.