[s-cars] Winter blade recommendation

[Tom Green]

On Saturday, December 6, 2003, Bob Rossato answers:

>> Have you all tried the very latest wipers as found on some
>> of the '03 Audis? They look really strange- just a flat blade,
>> kind of similar to the blades they put on for transport on the
>> ship, but working wipers with rubber. Supposedly, they do very
>> well and act as an airfoil to keep the wipers planted at speed.
>>
>> Taka
>
> I've been considering installing those ever since I've seen them.  
> Since
> there isn't the usual blade holder with all it's hinges to freeze up 
> they
> should work fairly well as a snow blade too.  The blade mount to the 
> wiper
> arm is completely different so it would require retrofitting the 
> associated
> arm as well.  Haven't had the time to pursue it any further, though 
> the next
> time I'm at the dealer I will make some measurements.
>
> Bob

We just finished a 1600 mi roundtrip for Thanksgiving in the wife's '03 
A4 Avant that has the new fat rubber wiper blades.  The weather was 
quite disagreeable and the blade performance very unsatisfactory.  No 
amount of tweaking by myself or the dealer will make the blade clean 
the w/s like the old type do.  The arms have the wind wings on them.  
The blade just does not perform, appearing to float some across the 
entire windscreen in heavy downpours.  The were fine in light precip.

I bought the old refills for the OEM Bosch blades from 
<www.europeanautomotive.com>  in Albuquerque  on a lister 
recommendation.  The newer Bosch micro edge non-refillable blades are 
available from most of the online parts dealers.  This place uses the 
WorldPac catalog like the parts bin and others and drop-shipped 
everything from a NJ warehouse.

Tom '95 S6