Carrying on from this post : https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...ld-wipers.html

To take a closer look on the angle meter MB uses, this video shows how it looks like :


============================================
I will attach the latest supporting documents in the second post : ( I don't know why I can't upload #1 PDF )

Please observe the modified title I made, as not all documents are relevant to my car, a right hand drive.

This is an easy to read guide :
1 (summary) - Stopping-Mercedes-Benz-Wiper-Streaking-and-Skipping.pdf

5.1 and 5.2 doesn't make sense for my car. The value stated simply not possible for my right hand drive car.
5.1 ( Left Hand Drive Only ) - Check Wiper Alignment Mark.pdf
5.2 ( probably left hand drive only ) - wiper blade length.pdf

I call these desperado-s LOL. This is new for me, WIS 2020 has it.
6.1 (desperado) - Twist the wiper v1.pdf
6.2 (desperado) - Twist the wiper v2.pdf

PDF 2, 3 and 4 are what been available in the original wiper thread.
================================================== =============



The mechanism we are actually adjusting as per PDF 2,3 and 4 is this tilt-able wiper assy........
Sorry, I have to use a right hand drive wiper assy because I am on a RHD car.

My best drawing, sorry it is ugly. Photos of used wiper assy are from an Ebay seller. Forgot his name and link, BTW thanks to him.





So sad, MB forgot to place a service rubber plug for us RIGHT HAND CARS..... damn, I had to wound my heat shield.

So narrow to work on and angled too ...double damn



For PULL adjustment, I use a string. PUSH is easy, a blunt rod or chopstick is good enough.



For the special angle meter, it is DIY.

I meant Parallax error. https://imanoptician.com/2018/02/28/parallax-error/


I did my very best to make sure both needles are dead center....










NOTE :
2 ways to have wiper blades in reverse position ( 12 o'clock), by hand or by using wiper motor. I use wiper motor because its sensors do its own maximum travel, where if by hand, I can over-travel.
To initiate wiper manual movement by hand, start with the passenger side wiper, the double arm-link one along with the driver side, it can move easy.

My passenger side wiper is short by 3cm in reverse position. MB stated 33 cm, I am getting 30cm.
I dare not adjust because two arms links is scary to mess with. I use wiper blade frame middle thickness as ZERO.





Since my eyes is old, I use camera to assist in zooming. I can also use torchlight and play with its shadow, but I need photo database to keep.
Before I adjust, I was at +2* there about. I choose +3* because it seems better for my car. Also the logic is, my DIY meter is surely not as accurate as the proper MB tool, I best stay at middle value ...




MINUS 4.5* degree


Still, I find Hella CleanTech's rubber blade with built in graphite lubrication is better than MB original which I think it is a Bosch brand.

Okey wiper adjustment done.
So I covered the battle wound with 3M alumimun tape.



Will continue with the PDF files.............

 

PDF #1 can't be attached, I guess it is copyrighted or something. I will give you the link.
https://automotivetechinfo.com/2020/...-and-skipping/


Please observe the modified title I made, as not all documents are relevant to my car, a right hand drive.

This is an easy to read guide :
1 (summary) - Stopping-Mercedes-Benz-Wiper-Streaking-and-Skipping.pdf
You need to download yourself... sorry.


5.1 and 5.2 doesn't make sense for my car. The value stated simply not possible for my right hand drive car.
5.1 ( Left Hand Drive Only ) - Check Wiper Alignment Mark.pdf
5.2 ( probably left hand drive only ) - wiper blade length.pdf

I call these desperado-s LOL. This is new for me, WIS 2020 has it.
6.1 (desperado) - Twist the wiper v1.pdf
6.2 (desperado) - Twist the wiper v2.pdf

PDF 2, 3 and 4 are what been available in the original wiper thread.

Happy wiper tinkering.....

 

WOW, a very comprehensive treatise that those with wiper chatter will find very useful. We've had so much discussion about wiper skipping and chattering, hopefully this will provide a good baseline for a fix. Thanks.

 

Oops, since most of you are on a Left Hand Drive car, I need to provide windshield alignment marker position.
The WIS 5.1 ( Left Hand Drive Only ) - Check Wiper Alignment Mark.pdf for us old eyes is confusing to find... LOL





My daily reading glass is a 70-80cm distance, suitable for PC. I can't wear progressive glass, I feel giddy.
My book reading glass is a 30cm one, but I can't move around wearing that as background beyond 45cm is so blur, I feel giddy too.
So may times now, I missed small super fine details <50cm because of this, if the details has no good contrast.
I wear specific 150cm+ driving glass, because beyond 150cm all good focus with that glass.
So me has 3 glasses to wear... damn, getting old on the eyes is no fun. I was a 20/20 till 45 years old.

Therefore, I rely heavily on my trusted tough Nikon W300 to preview everything like a 20/20 eyes


This E350 W212 video below will help for positioning feel of the bolt to adjust, just in case you guys Left Hand Drive cars also need to wound the sound shield and not have remove-able rubber plug prepared by MB.

Start at 5:05









One more tip :


Make shorter the spring steel forward part. So you can aim the needle at protractor digits easier.



I initially kept those 2 spring steel portion longer, was to place a digital angle meter on it. Too bad it doesn't work....well not say 100% does not work, but let me explain.
The two needles represent twisting or angular force created by the wiper arm, because I am reading the base plastic effected by the wiper arm.
The 2 spring steel are placed as such by wiper OEM, it is not a true zero horizontal plane , both curved up in the middle on purpose.

So placing a digital angle meter at the 2 spring steel actually resulted in opposite angle reading to the needles. If needles heading to the right or a Plus , digital one reads to left , a Minus.
Also I need to first calibrate the digital angle meter on the windshield surface as ZERO/Horizontal plane, so it's a hassle and more room for errors.


I show below what I mean :

Testing the digital angle meter on a flat surface and tilt it to confirm where Plus and Minus is



See two different angular values below :








Would reading angular value via wiper blade plastic body as per my DIY method.... is the same as MB OEM angle meter reading directly on wiper arm ?
Probably not. But at the least I can see if my wiper system is at positive angle where it should be positive ... and is negative angle where it should be negative ...
Surely the final test is the artificial rain test I did on the windshield and it is good.

 

you Sir, are a monster! Awesome write-up as always!



BTW: If you don't have the time or patience to do it properly, like S-Prihadi, the easy fix for chattering wiper is Rain-X, on the windshield and rub it into the wipers...you be able to see better and they will never chatter again!

 

In the 80s I used to use Rain-X. Its okey but need constant maintenance because once the slippery portion gone partially, the skipping and chatter is worse than a non coated glass.
This wiper adjustment exercise is also good for us to at the least mechanically correct the wiper system first and then experiment with slippery coating like Rain-X but with a good
maintenance regime.

Perhaps I need to mess around with Rain-X again he he he he, now that it seems the angle on incidence is already good.

 

Also a good excuse to mess with our 2nd wife, the W212

 

oh yeah, I would imagine it's like mine...AWESOME! lol!

Mine don't make noise until they get some age on them(6-8 months), but the Rain-X seems to rejuvenate them very well.

 

My 2014 C350 and current 2016 E350 have both suffered terrible wiper chatter. Nothingwill fix it, and stuff like Rain-X makes it worse. The dealer tried everything, I tried everything.

Then my E350's windshield got cracked. They replaced the glass with FUYAO and the chatter was gone.

Then it got cracked again when I hit a deer. This time, it was repaired by a MB shop and they replaced it with OEM glass. The chatter is still gone.

So I'm not sure what exactly is wrong with these things.

 

I get chatter when there's a rubber or grease buildup on the glass. getting it really clean (and cleaning the wiper blades) usually solves it.

not replaced the OE wipers on our W212 yet, but replaced quite a few on W124's. with the big mono-wiper on the 124, only the MB OEM wiper really works well, Bosch 'Spectrum Exact Fit" and "MicroEdge" are 2nd best. On the 124's, and of my other older cars, I replaced wipers at least once a year.

 

Razor blade, cerium oxide, ceramic coat, done. Good for a couple years.

 

Never before has the subject of wiper blades made my brain bleed. Thanks Prihadi!

 

no, having to drive 200 miles on a dark massively rainy night with bad wipers, THAT makes my brain bleed.

having to tear down and clean and lube the gear mechanism of the W124's 'monowiper', that was brain bleed, too...

 

So am I the only one here who ceramic coats his glass?

You guys don't know what you're missing.

 

our w212 CPO came with something on the whole car and glass thats still doing really good after 3 months of outdoor parking. I tried to ask the selling dealer twice what their detailers use, but never got an answer. I'm guessing its a poly sealant rather than a ceramic coat, poly lasts about a year while ceramic lasts 2-3-4 years.

man, I washed and dried the wagon the other day, and the next day it was all covered in oak pollen again. stuff just blows off a clean surface, but sigh.

 

Here is un-intended real rain test. Wiper 100% new too.

In Dec 2020, before adjustment, I also had a 100% new wiper, same Hella ones like now. However within 1 hour of use, it develop some sort of lines.
Full details here...... https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...ml#post8248700

 

I once had a car which had its windshield replaced. No chatter or skipping issue, but glass seems can't be crystal clear during wiper use, unlike when it was new.
So when windshield broke, I got a new one and crystal clear vision with every swipe of the wiper.... came back ...
I think the windshield broke when the car was like 4 years old , there about.

 

Just like you all, my '14-E350 is plegged with disfunctional wippers. It's borderline riduculous how everything turns into crap in a hurry on these cars.

I had to waste my time to studdy these stupid wipers so I could drive regardless of rain. What a concept !!
The wipers angle of attack in relation to the glass actually varies with the blade position from bottom to turn around point. Benz engineers chose a crappy angle to generate wiper department repairs... Junko wipers are pathetic way to milk customers from "the best or nothing" brand.

My FIX was to bend the arms to provide a more neutral angle of attack to the blade. I did that with two adjustable wrenches and masking tape to tag reversing point improvements.

CAUSE: the rubber blade needs to angled acording to its travel direction. The point where this angle is switched comes ahead of turn around. The problem is the BLADE WIPING ANGLE IS WRONG DURING MOST IF ITS TRAVEL. Angle should become neutral then reversed near turn around.
We are talking about angle between arm and windshield that provide a near 90° perpendicular base for blade.

CAUTION be sure to prevent a bare wiper arm to snap onto your windshield... while blades are removed, wrap both wiper arms with masking tape to prevent *any* scratches 🤣

NUGGET: After enough noisy wobling I found the big nut fastening my driver side arm to soft alloy spindle had gotten LOOSE! So I tightened it lightly with a drop of blue Locktite.

In the rain department, Benz has a few complementary milking surprises:
the swimming pool trunk,
the shrinking moonroof drain pipes,
the overflowing cowel drains,
the soaking footwells....
Look at a list of TSB's to review the design surprises - Find all the Easter eggs... 🙂

 

the mono wiper was quite an engineering feat. they extended into the corners and retracted in the middle according to the gear drive in that arm.

this is the other side of the gears

 

What we're missing is a waste of time. I tried this before and it did not work. Literally nothing worked. Finally, I ended up at my dealership one day in the rain with my C350. They had tried everything short of glass replacement and it was still no better. They'd already tried the cleaners/razor blade stuff and I'd already tried the ceramic coat. We went around the lot and tested W205s and W222s and every single one of those - brand new - did the same thing. It was at that point that I gave up. My independent mechanic had tried everything he knew to do as well.

When I bought my W212 CPO, it had the same jitter and I never pursued it with the dealer because of the ordeal it had been with the W204 using the same setup.

Luckily my W212's issues are solved after 2 windshield replacements. My W212 is ceramic coated all but the rims and the windshield - I will never put any sort of product on the windshield ever again.

 

I agree, the W212 wiper is not so good. The best wiper I ever had in a car was the 80s Audi 100CD or C3 version as per wiki
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audi_100

At that time I can compare its wiper to W126 S class, Supra MK2 and Saab 900 which my family owned. Saab 900 sold and Audio 100 CD took its place. I was in Singapore back then, not in Indonesia.
I love driving fast in the rain , usually up to 180 KM/H just to look at the water vapor trail from the tires and to test how Supra MK2 sunroof won't allow water into cabin in heavy rain as long as you go 160 KM/H or faster.
What do you expect when a 15 years old driving with "+2 years aged" driving licence .. , more dumb ***** than brain.

Audi 100 CD has original air-spoiler on the wiper and it does really work at 160KM/H or more compared to my MK2 Supra which the wiper will lift off a tiny bit during down wipe at that speed.
I recalled it was the first rare low cost car to get 0.30 CD aerodynamic value. 5 cylinder 2.1 liter.
Its wiper is so clean and so quiet, as such I can remember it 35 years later, today.

Last night drive around I did and fortunate unexpected heavy rain was a good wiper test after the adjustment.
I am very happy. My wiper has performed better than original, and yes I use Hella CleanTech wiper blades and not the MB ones. I am already pissed with MB original wiper blades.

Agree with Cali, the wiper goes thru a variable positive to negative angle between 12 o'clock position and its bottom position. Surely it is designed as such due to the curvature of the windshield.
As for its engineering, I can't say much, but its not a super slippery design when it comes to the rotating mechanism. Also movement accuracy/repeatability I think not too good too, compared to the mono wiper system W124.

If we take a closer look at the design, the poor performing one will always be the driver side and for my skipped ones, yes...driver side. Passenger side very good.
I am using a right hand-drive mechanism as reference.

How do we expect, the driver side mechanism : something extended so long and can't be very rigid because it is not a single casting piece like the passenger side.
Driver side wiper spinning shaft positional accuracy during a work load, I don't think its that good too, look at the flimsy design.

The wiper arm assembly of passenger side, aside being mechanically shorter distance from the main motor, it also benefit from its double support at the wiper arm served by 1 spinning shaft and 1 stabilizer/guide shaft

If you guys care to notice, at the highest wiper speed, you can actually feel the inertia/shake* ( *I don't know a better word ) when wiper switch its wiping direction.
Keep car in park. Use garden hose to fool the rain sensor. Set wiper at highest speed. U will be surprised we can feel the shake/inertia.

 

This is a recent thing. My W203 was a 2005, the year of the facelift which included the cars getting Valeo aeroblades. Those wipers were perfect. I had no trouble with a 2009 W211 either. But for some reason with the 204/212 setup and almost every other modern Mercedes, they really screwed this up. It seems like it would be really easy to get this right since a ton of cars use aero blades and have no issues.