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So, yesterday afternoon I was making the 2.5 hours drive home from a client in the rain, when my wipers started making a knocking sound with each actuation. Eventually, the passenger side right-most link detached and the wipers were unusable.
Fortunately, I use RainX washer fluid, so I could continue to drive the remaining distance in the rain with relatively good visibility.
Anyway, it was apparent when I got home that there was a failure of the connection of the link and some piece was missing because when I fit them back together there was a 1/8" gap all the way around. The dealer was able to order be a new arm for this morning, so I'll be right as rain again in a couple hours.
Upon closer examination after pulling the arm off, the part that failed is actually a ball bearing - the inner and outer races were still seated in their respective locations, but the ***** were gone. It makes me wonder if MB was the victim of counterfeit bearings also.
Sorry for your mishap, but something for the rest of us to look at and possibly look over and lube as a preventative maintenance measure. Thank you for sharing.
It wasn't a big deal really, the replacement wiper arm came to about $150CAD after tax. Such a waste to throw out the entire old wiper arm, but it looks like a purpose-built bearing, so it's not just a matter of removing the old one and pressing in a new one. As well, it looks like it's swaged in place in the idler arm. Drilling out the old one, sourcing a bearing, fabbing-up a pin and attachment method; in the end it's just easier to replace the arm than to try and fix it.
11-11-2015, 09:12 AM
