13 replies to this topic

[Colin cooper]

hi all.
i was recently given some crome wiper blades from a friend (very kind of him indeed and it is appreciated). He warned me that they were not great, but what mini wipers are great eh? Now its raining i've been using them, and they are alot worse than my old standard black Rover ones...which were not perfect anyway. The blade only touches half the screen. I've kept my old ones for MOT but i would like to be able to wipe rain off the screen...

i was wondering if most of the replacment crome blades and arms are like that? Are they just for show or can you get crome or stainless arms and blades that actually work as well as the original rover wipers?

cheers

[E-Tizzle]

a top tip from my friend.

if you get the standard wiper blades. and run a polishing kit on a dremel over them.
they come up really shiny.

apparently they are made stainless in the factory and then painted black.
his ones look really good but i havnt got a polishing kit so havnt done it to mine yet.
you could try that because then you still got your old working blades but now shiny.
(obviously they still have bits of black plastic that you cant do anything with tho)

[njathind]

hi all.
i was recently given some crome wiper blades from a friend (very kind of him indeed and it is appreciated). He warned me that they were not great, but what mini wipers are great eh? Now its raining i've been using them, and they are alot worse than my old standard black Rover ones...which were not perfect anyway. The blade only touches half the screen. I've kept my old ones for MOT but i would like to be able to wipe rain off the screen...

i was wondering if most of the replacment crome blades and arms are like that? Are they just for show or can you get crome or stainless arms and blades that actually work as well as the original rover wipers?

cheers

my cooper came with chrome ones from a previous owner, not sure where they are from though but we drove it home from oxford to portsmouth in heavy rain and the yworked fine, even when being battered with heavy spray from trucks (we spent most of the time in the slow lane at 50 being overtaken by trucks my dad drove it as I was 16 at the time and he wasn't quite sure how far to push it) I'm about to fit some replacment blades from minispares but unfortunatly I wont get my car back till mid august so it's probably a bit too long to wait to find out if they are anygood, I think the ones from the previous owner are from minspares as it has the chrome pack from them on it aswell.

Edited by njathind, 14 July 2010 - 12:49 PM.

[Cygnet45]

Now its raining i've been using them, and they are alot worse than my old standard black Rover ones...which were not perfect anyway. The blade only touches half the screen.

cheers

Have you tried bending the bits of the arms where it doesn't touch the screen?

[System]

I had to give the arms a little persuasive bend to get them on. Its the curvature of the blade being greater than the glass giving the arms a ben hould push the blades against the glass. THis helped mine I even had a gap still and it passed the MOT.

[minisilverbullet]

Just fitted a set from minisport, i was a bit sceptical too but if i am honest they are as good as the standard blades. They clear the rain evenly and dont streak!

[Colin cooper]

ok thanks guys,
i'll try bending them later. Yeh the MOT, i think depends on the tester. I've had a car (modern type car) pass an MOT with cracked knackered blades, and they didn't even me an adviserory. And i've had a car fail on them and they've charged me 20quid for new ones!

if thats no good i'll go to mini spares and have a second look. The design on my Rover blades does look better than these new ones, more arms pushing down on the screen, their stiffer and they are slightly wider, problem with mini spares is that the pictures aren't that clear so comparing the design is tricky

Edited by Colin cooper, 15 July 2010 - 06:32 AM.

[bunch1980]

best mod i found was to get some decent blades i got some Bosch ones off ebay work much better than what was on there now clears all screen, to adjust area they wipe i guess need to pull splines and then repostion as on drivers side mine near hits edge of screen!

[bobs]

If you're going to slightly bend them, put some thick gloves on first, as the stainless/chrome arms have always lacerated my bare hands, and mine are not the softest of hands!!

I find I always have to bend the arms slightly to get them to contact with the screen, personally the best blades for fit I've used are Bosch or Champion. The larger size blades (11inch? or 10inch I can't remember) need fine tuning to avoid hitting the windscreen rubbers.

[me madjoe 90]

Its all about these. Best type of wipers i ever bought.

Aero blades

[AVV IT]

If you're going to slightly bend them, put some thick gloves on first, as the stainless/chrome arms have always lacerated my bare hands, and mine are not the softest of hands!!

I find I always have to bend the arms slightly to get them to contact with the screen, personally the best blades for fit I've used are Bosch or Champion. The larger size blades (11inch? or 10inch I can't remember) need fine tuning to avoid hitting the windscreen rubbers.

Yup I second that!! Especially when you try to remove them by wrapping your hand around the arm then tugging sharply upwards to pull them off, the sharp bare metal edges just sink straight into your flesh, which cost me a trip to A&E!!

[Colin cooper]

Just had a go at bending them, and i now only have a thumb on my right hand !...joking. Yeh thanks for the heads up with the gloves. I did use gloves, the edges where pretty dam sharp. Bending did help a bit, i'll try it out later, i'm sure it'll pee it down again later on today.

hi Bunch1980, can you get bosch blades in crome or stainless?, i've never seen them in halfords, but i guess halford arn;t the best.
Those aero blades sound good, and they've got a spoiler would be handy tho, my old ones do lift a little on the motorway.

[bunch1980]

Just had a go at bending them, and i now only have a thumb on my right hand !...joking. Yeh thanks for the heads up with the gloves. I did use gloves, the edges where pretty dam sharp. Bending did help a bit, i'll try it out later, i'm sure it'll pee it down again later on today.

hi Bunch1980, can you get bosch blades in crome or stainless?, i've never seen them in halfords, but i guess halford arn;t the best.
Those aero blades sound good, and they've got a spoiler would be handy tho, my old ones do lift a little on the motorway.

I wanted black as mines a SPrite with all black parts. just searched on ebay for classic mini wipers 11" i think they were and they have lots in
stainless etc but none of them are made by Bosch or anything.

Not tried mine on motorway really but work fine otherwise better than i thought anyways!

[crazycoleman118]

the chrome arms have allways felt a bit cheap to me, i have some and just moving them about removing them etc they feel like they might snap... the later rover ones seem alot more sturdy but both seem to clear the screen well, you could try some product like rain-x to limit the use of wipers as the rain sheets off the windows