R55 Front wipers very poor
R55 Front wipers very poor
Author
Discussion

T-bagger

Original Poster:

457 posts

220 months

Friday 1st May 2009
quotequote all
Hey everyone,

Just thought i'd share this experience with you all in case any of you have the same problem.
My wife has a Cooper Clubman that she bought new last June through the BMW/Mini dealer that I used to work at as a senior diagnostic technician (got 15% off!).
A couple of months into the cars life I noticed that the drivers side front wiper would not clear a small section of screen intermittantly, so I checked them over visually and gave them and the screen a good clean with the recommended stuff.
Fast forward another 9 months or so and the drivers wiper was missing about four places, so I stumped up for a new pair and fitted them. After a couple of days I realised that the new driver's wiper was missing the screen even worse than before!
Looking closely at the wiper rubber it seems that with the necessary pressure applied to it by the wiper arm, the rubber was being distorted where the clamps held the rubber. I played around with the arms approach angle to the screen with little success. Bending the arm to apply less pressure seemed to cause the wiper not to conform with the Mini's curved screen. I know 2 other people with brand new R56's that also have wiper issues!
I could at this stage have booked the car in but having spent 10 years working at a local dealer I wouldn't trust 90% of the people there to top up my washer fluid! So I tried another new blade from Mini - smae poor result.
So I decided to fit one Bosch Super plus wiper blade as the rubber compound seems a little harder than the Mini type and guess what it performs perfectly!
The Bosch wiper went on yesterday I plan to monitor it over the next few weeks and then I'll update if anyone is interested.
Thanks for reading all this!!!!!

Bugeyeandy

11,726 posts

213 months

Friday 1st May 2009
quotequote all
Thanks for the tip, i've had similar issues with my 51' plate Cooper since I got it.
I'll have to nip to Halfords and get a set to try thumbup

jcwuk

1,127 posts

212 months

Saturday 2nd May 2009
quotequote all
We have just had exactly the same problem and Our Main Dealer failed the car on this for the MOT !

Adjusting the angle helps and it passed 2nd time around but im off to Halfords to fit the wipers you have mentioned.

Thanks for the info (-:

Bigdick

56 posts

230 months

Saturday 2nd May 2009
quotequote all
I brought the wife's mini some new ones via ebay,brand new and Bosch for a lot less than Halford's and even better than my mate getting them with his discount!
next day deliverd too!!

just thought it might be of some help

Kind regards

Richie