Anyone with a pre facelift w203 try the RAIN X Latitude Wiper Blades??? 2001,2002,2003??? do they work well? worth the dough?

 

What brand is good?
When do we need to replace our old one?

 

Yup, absolute garbage. They work fine in regular rain but when it snows they get ice inside them and they freeze up. The result is you get big spots of snow they don't wipe off. Learned that for the first time in a Chicago snow storm tonight! Hence my research on the topic now. My pain can be your gain, heh.

I've had good luck with Bosch units on my BMWs but haven't tried them on a W203 yet. I think I'm going to try to buy a set of those.

 

The best ones i've ever used are the stock ones. Bosch ICON.
Bosch Excel however are worthless. They're just as good/bad as the universal generic brands.

Another words, if you're gunna spend money, get the ICON's. Otherwise save yourself some money from the Excel and purchase generic.

 

I just bought a set of the OEM replacements -- 42 bucks from the dealer for a pair. They took literally 5 seconds to install and I can now see again. Bosch has wipers for these cars but Autozone, Murray's, et al. don't carry them in stock and can't even order them, so I went to the dealer and just got the OEM replacements.

I'd consider the Rain-X wiper to be a generic product. I saved a few bucks and got what I paid for -- poorly designed junk which put my safety at issue. Personally, I consider wipers a critical item (much like brakes). Not a place to skimp, especially where the quality OEM product is only 40 bucks.

 

+1 I got my last 2 sets of wiper blades from the dealer as well~

 

if you didn't upgrade the wipers to the aero wipers than you can just purchase the refill blades from any auto parts store. depends on your brand preferrence.

Bosche ICON will work. you will need 22A and 22B. ICON blade is for the one doesn't have the aero wipers. The passenger side has 1/4 doesn't lay on the glass when you are not using it however. that's the only problem with it.

 

i solved this by setting the "rest position" slightly higher up if you're talking about the edge that sits on the black plastic trim at the bottom of the glass. can't find it now but it's somewhere on the forum.

Just curious, what is the different between the A and B? I think I have 22A for driver side and 21A for passenger side (bought this and was too lazy to return after finding out I could just adjust rest position).

 

its garbage.

 

you mean by taking it off and setting it higher up?

 

I'm not completely sure.. but I used to sell the Bosch ICON's and I believe the A, B, C, and maybe even a D out there as well. But all that defines is the amount of curvature in the blade.. I THINK!

And I believe A would be the least, more or less a straighter blade with the slightest curve they would offer in an ICON? :P