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Please let us all know how you solve it. Mercedes has been plagued by this issue for many years now. My 2014 W204 had the issue and no matter what the dealership did, it was never able to be fixed. Dealer demonstrated it happening on brand new W222s on the lot. It happens on every loaner car I've ever had where it rained (and there have been many loaner cars). My W212 also did it - until I had to replace the factory windshield and went aftermarket. That solved the issue. So I believe it is inherently a problem with the glass supplier and therefore it is not going to be something you can solve.
I have spent a lot of time in the past years chasing this issue with no resolution (until AEM glass). Good luck to you!
I've never had an issue with wiper judder. I clean the windshield daily with reverse osmosis water. Wiper blades last about 4 years (20k miles). The car is garaged when not in use.
05 SL55, 10 C63, 12 SLK3, 20 S560, 08Bentley GT Speed, 16 Aston Martin Vanquish
Try clay baring the windshield. It will get the glass free of any roughness. Might even try putting a coat of wax on it.
I have no problems with any of my cars.
I think the problem is related to the angle of attacks of the blade not flipping well. The wiper arm should drag the blade at an angle behind it like 45° or so. If it does that then the glass condition doesn’t matter.
if it doesn’t flop at the top of the stroke to be dragged again, then the judder happens at some point when it does flop, or worse, just judders several times because it’s pushing the blade rather than pulling it. Perfect glass or lubrication may allow pushing the blade to occur smoothly too- but that’s an accommodation, not a real solution. Windshields don’t stay clean long on a winter drive.
when I take slow motion video the wiper it’s clearly not flopping to be dragged across the whole length of the wiper blade. And I’m getting some twisting rotation back and forth as the different ends of the blade experience different friction from pulling/pushing the twisted wiper blade edge.
a Mercedes USA video touting OEM wipers talks about how their wipers are unique to each windshield model, which after market cannot be. I find this claim dubious- however- the sliders I show in the original post I don’t find on other wipers either. They may allow some tuning of the rigidity of the wiper, or how the force of blade spring is distributed. I believe just the top (windshield wise) of my wipers is juddering. The bottom does not seem to catch at all.
my hope is understanding this better I can tune them so that the wiper edge flops correctly at the top and bottom of each stroke.
with old metal cage arms you could just twist them some.
If you use an automatic car wash and spring for the deluxe package that includes the spray on "wax" or paint protectant, you will often get wiper judder (until the "wax" wears off). Other products may have the same side effect. Just sharing as a possible explanation.
Ya, I'd think a film on the windshield of some kind and maybe a product like rain x applied and wiped off with a clean rag might help. No question that wagon above looks beautiful in the Lunar blue, I like it better than my diamond white Wagon. My S550 is Lunar blue, great color.
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