Wiper Blades

[alfiejts]

Look what I've found - Aero retrofit wipers with silicone blades....

http://www.silblade.com/

Best of both worlds - but now we need to find a stockist in the UK or arrange a group buy and split the shipping from the USA....

[Cherry Red Pocket Rocket]

In the USA they drive on the opposite side of the road to us so if we bought Wiper Blades from them, wouldn't they be useless as the U.S. driver's wiperblade will be on our passenger's side and the U.S. passenger's wiperblade will be on our driver's side non?

[alfiejts]

I think you should have saved that post for 1st April..... :-)

Just like we can't use their fuel because it makes their cars drive on the wrong side of the road.....

[imperial1952]

Well anytime i have overtaken wagons on the M/way at 70+, my wiper blades have been more than adequate, just put them on twin speed for a few seconds....and they cost me about £8 each.

You can allways apply some Rain-X to the screen aswell, i use it on the visor of my bike helmet and you imagine riding at 70+ on the m/way on a bike with the wind to contend with and the water thrown up from wagons, you literally can't see a thing unless you use Rain-X.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/RAIN-X-RAIN-REPELLEN...=item19b67eb723

I agree with your comments above, the aforementioned Wiper Blades I recently fitted are superb on motorways,

As for the "Rain-X" I have been using this for many years, first purchased some at Motor Show (NEC) Demonstration c. 20yrs ago, I use it on the side windows and rear window, of my Yaris. also on the Headlights, Wing Mirrors, and rear lights. I personally don't like it on the Windscreen as it gives a cereal affect of the water being pushed up over the screen, and also tends to leave imprints of the wiper Arcs, over a period of time

As you have stated above it is excellent on helmet Visors, I also use it on mine, however isn't it strange, that on the Car windows it lasts Months, before you have to re,apply the Rain-x, but on a M/C Helmet Visor, its needed every couple of weeks.

Following my post re:- "I bought 2 sets of PIAA Wiper Blades for £90" i have been reading all your comments and keeping quiet/biding my time.

Some peeps were unfavourable/offensive and some were in agreement and replied in my defense.

What i did'nt tell you at the time was what prompted me to spend such an amount on Wiper Blades.

Background info:

I had bought new Bosch wipers from Halfords for my Yaris following its purchase a year ago and to start with everything had been OK. Then they started to judder and i was forever having to degrease the window as i was getting smearing on the glass which wasn't being removed by the use of my windscreen wash and the wipers (i tried different brands and strengths of screen wash).

In desperation i decided to apply Rain-X to the screen (i use it on my motorbike visor and its good stuff/does the bis there) but this proved to be a huge mistake on the car. For the first week or so it worked well but then it started to smear in a big way ie you could see an imprint of the wipers on the screen and the more it rained the worse it got; i tried washing it off but within a day or two the smearing was back again.

Near miss accident.

I live 30 miles from my place of work and have to travel about halve of it on a windy "A" road. On the fatefull night last week i was driving home at about 6pm on the "A" road and it was bucketing it down. Although my wipers were working flat out my vision through the screen was drastically impaired due to the smearing. Every time a car approached me i had to slow down as their dipped headlights was making it difficult for me to see the road ahead.

As i approached a bad corner at about 45/50 mph a car came came towards me with full beams on, due to the smearing i was totally blinded and could'nt see a thing; all i could do was apply the brakes and try to steer the car around the corner blind.

This is the nearest i've ever been to Shi--ng in my pants i can tell you :o

The first thing i did the very next day was order 2 sets of PIAA blades for £90, one set for my Yaris and one set for the wife's Lexus IS200. In my mind set, money in the bank is no good when your lying fatally injured in hospital.

Moral of the story :-

1) Don't put Rain-X on any window which has wipers.

2) Buy the best wiper blades you can afford (as peeps here testify they don't have to be PIAA's at £45 a pair).

3) Wash and degrease your screen regularly.

4) Buy the best screen wash you can afford and mix it correctly (keep the washer bottle topped up).

Safe motoring to you all.

[Raeman]

Well anytime i have overtaken wagons on the M/way at 70+, my wiper blades have been more than adequate, just put them on twin speed for a few seconds....and they cost me about £8 each.

You can allways apply some Rain-X to the screen aswell, i use it on the visor of my bike helmet and you imagine riding at 70+ on the m/way on a bike with the wind to contend with and the water thrown up from wagons, you literally can't see a thing unless you use Rain-X.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/RAIN-X-RAIN-REPELLEN...=item19b67eb723

I agree with your comments above, the aforementioned Wiper Blades I recently fitted are superb on motorways,

As for the "Rain-X" I have been using this for many years, first purchased some at Motor Show (NEC) Demonstration c. 20yrs ago, I use it on the side windows and rear window, of my Yaris. also on the Headlights, Wing Mirrors, and rear lights. I personally don't like it on the Windscreen as it gives a cereal affect of the water being pushed up over the screen, and also tends to leave imprints of the wiper Arcs, over a period of time

As you have stated above it is excellent on helmet Visors, I also use it on mine, however isn't it strange, that on the Car windows it lasts Months, before you have to re,apply the Rain-x, but on a M/C Helmet Visor, its needed every couple of weeks.

Following my post re:- "I bought 2 sets of PIAA Wiper Blades for £90" i have been reading all your comments and keeping quiet/biding my time.

Some peeps were unfavourable/offensive and some were in agreement and replied in my defense.

What i did'nt tell you at the time was what prompted me to spend such an amount on Wiper Blades.

Background info:

I had bought new Bosch wipers from Halfords for my Yaris following its purchase a year ago and to start with everything had been OK. Then they started to judder and i was forever having to degrease the window as i was getting smearing on the glass which wasn't being removed by the use of my windscreen wash and the wipers (i tried different brands and strengths of screen wash).

In desperation i decided to apply Rain-X to the screen (i use it on my motorbike visor and its good stuff/does the bis there) but this proved to be a huge mistake on the car. For the first week or so it worked well but then it started to smear in a big way ie you could see an imprint of the wipers on the screen and the more it rained the worse it got; i tried washing it off but within a day or two the smearing was back again.

Near miss accident.

I live 30 miles from my place of work and have to travel about halve of it on a windy "A" road. On the fatefull night last week i was driving home at about 6pm on the "A" road and it was bucketing it down. Although my wipers were working flat out my vision through the screen was drastically impaired due to the smearing. Every time a car approached me i had to slow down as their dipped headlights was making it difficult for me to see the road ahead.

As i approached a bad corner at about 45/50 mph a car came came towards me with full beams on, due to the smearing i was totally blinded and could'nt see a thing; all i could do was apply the brakes and try to steer the car around the corner blind.

This is the nearest i've ever been to Shi--ng in my pants i can tell you :o

The first thing i did the very next day was order 2 sets of PIAA blades for £90, one set for my Yaris and one set for the wife's Lexus IS200. In my mind set, money in the bank is no good when your lying fatally injured in hospital.

Moral of the story :-

1) Don't put Rain-X on any window which has wipers.

2) Buy the best wiper blades you can afford (as peeps here testify they don't have to be PIAA's at £45 a pair).

3) Wash and degrease your screen regularly.

4) Buy the best screen wash you can afford and mix it correctly (keep the washer bottle topped up).

Safe motoring to you all.

Offensive? :o How was anyone offensive?

[Cherry Red Pocket Rocket]

I had a pair of Bosch ones and in heavy downpours they were useless (even with the Wiper Blades on maximum speed setting) and after a couple of months they started ghosting, streaking, juddering, you name it!

I bought a set of PIAA blades earlier in the week on recommendation of a couple of people and fitted them over the weekend. I have to say it’s the best investment I've ever made! Fitting them was a doddle, left them to run for five-ten minutes and that was that. In the morning it was chucking it down (for once I was glad it was raining as it made for a good field test) and when using them normally, they're silent and clear away the whole windshield silently without leaving any remaining droplets on the screen. Drag has been reduced so speed is increased also.

However, I REALLY saw the difference when I was driving quite fast on the dual carriage way. You know when you're in a car wash and the blower is drying the car and water beads and is pulled towards the top of the windshield? That was exactly what was happening with my car. The water was beading into bigger droplets and the velocity was pushing the beads up the windshield and out of my vision. I was stunned because it was raining ridiculously hard and yet the more it rained and as long as I was doing more than 40mph the more my visibility was improved, and this was to such an extent that I didn't even have to use the wipers at all!

Oh and the refill on the back cleans the whole windshield and doesn't smear it or miss a bit like the cheap refill that I had previously did.

For the two on the front and the rear refill it cost me £50.00 including VAT and delivery. They will last for a year at least and have improved my visibility when driving in the rain to no end. I would have happily paid twice as much as I refuse to skimp on safety. I try to make my car as safe as I can for myself, passengers and other road users. If you operate a car on the basis of how it affects your bank balance then you shouldn’t have a car at all, in my opinion as you not only put yourself in danger but everyone else too.

I strongly urge everyone who reads this thread to replace and upgrade their wipers to PIAA ones as you will not regret it.

Fitted my Philips Xtreme bulbs too and they’re equally as amazing. Even brighter than the Osram nightbreakers that I had previously. If you haven’t got them either, I recommend you get them too!

In total it cost me £70.00 for the lot. Improving the safety of myself and everyone else on the road? Priceless. :D

[bert.tsport]

my £3.29 each tescos blades are still working fine... no rain x, no screen wash... just turn them on when it rains.... simples... they even work at 70+ mph whilst passing lorries... they are just amazing...

[Cherry Red Pocket Rocket]

When I had my Bosch blades, passing big articulated lorries on the motorway was a nightmare, even on full belt I couldn't see a damned thing for all the spray they were throwing up. With my new PIAA wipers, visibility improves as rainfall gets heavier and speed increases! Utterly amazing!

[kimi]

I agree 100% about PIAA blades but i would say that as i work for a PIAA dealer

I have them on all our cars at home.

One set of PIAA we put on our daily runaround micra back in 2000, are still doing a good job! i guess they are about due to be changed now

the silicone the blades apply to your screen really works and as already as been said at motorway speeds the difference is excellent.

[Cherry Red Pocket Rocket]

The difference is better than excellent, it is even better than outstanding its extraordinary! The improvement in visibility is unreal!

PIAA say that the blades should be changed after a year? Is this correct? Evidently from the posts already made there are some mixed views!

[reece]

Fitted my Philips Xtreme bulbs too and they’re equally as amazing. Even brighter than the Osram nightbreakers that I had previously. If you haven’t got them either, I recommend you get them too!

How did you get the passenger side bulb in?

[Raeman]

Reece, why do you ask that? I'm curious as i will be fitting new bulbs to mine (If they ever arrive!!)

Is it a real ballache of a job then?

[reece]

It’s a very tight squeeze getting to the passenger side bulb, not sure how I would do it with my big ape hands. I think having small hands wouldn’t be any easier. I’m interested to know how much of a difficult job it is

[Red Yaris 54]

There are some members on here who have the ability to change their headlight bulbs with great ease.................Others with "Ape like" fingers seem to have great difficulty in performing such tasks.

We could call that EVOLUTION......... ;) :P

[sisaven]

I have just read the last 3 posts in this "wiper Blade" thread, and have now Seen The light why these PIAA Blades are so expensive, =

They must be supplied with a Set of Headlight bulbs????

[Cherry Red Pocket Rocket]

I've got big hands too and will admit that changing the blubs on a Yaris is no easy task. The driver’s headlamp is easy enough but the passenger's is very difficult indeed. I wouldn't attempt to do it with your right hand as its a left hand job to begin with. Its a simple matter of using your fingers and wrist to manoeuvre it in carefully without touching anything.

[alfiejts]

I'm glad that there are others now giving the positive messages about PIAA blades...

I was getting a bit worried that I was over-selling them in this thread and there would be disappointment from those who'd taken the plunge and spent their hard earned cash...

Its one of those things that until you try it yourself, you really can't appreciate the difference between those and "ordinary" blades, no matter how good the ordinary blades are.

It took me a few years of hearing the positive mesages from my uncle before I bothered myself....

My son and I were on the M6 in a hire car last year. He spoke up and asked me what was wrong with the wipers because the visibility in the rain was so poor. I had to point out that there ws nothing wrong with the wipers and that these were the same "ordinary" wipers that every other car around us had and this was the visibility that everyone else was experiencing.

He's only even experienced motorway driving with PIAA wipers, thought that they were the norm and assumed that there was some sort of problem with the wipers on the hire car because of the big reduction in visibility....

The defining moment though was bringing my daughter home from Uni one Christmas Eve afternoon. My wiper motor failed in my Audi A3. In any other situation, 150 miles from home on Christmas Eve afternoon in pouring rain, you'd be stuffed. I just carried on home, at 70mph down the motorway in the pouring rain with near perfect visibility...

They more than paid for themselves many times over on that afternoon - saving hours of waiting for recovery on the hard shoulder of the motorway in pouring rain.....

I'm glad there are other converts on the forum who are happy now....

[Raeman]

So these blades actually apply silicon the the window as they wipe?

Sorry if that was a really thick question to ask, it's been a long day and i need a beer.

[reece]

So these blades actually apply silicon the the window as they wipe?

Yes, you run them 'dry' first for 5 minutes to complete windscreen preparation. This spreads initial silicone coating on the windscreen

[Cherry Red Pocket Rocket]

PIAA should have a guarantee that if you are unhappy with them in any way, you can send them back and get a full refund. I'm so confident in them that I don't think anyone would do that once they've given them a try.

I now find myself wishing for some heavy rain so I can bomb it down the motorway and be amazed at the improved visibility and how the whole thing works.

One thing that concerns me is how do you care for the silicone layer on your windshield? Are you allowed to stick your car in an automated car wash or use glass cleaner on it or is it best to clean the car by hand and avoid the windshield altogether and simply wash it with some car soap and rinse it off?

[alfiejts]

I know this is a bit "off thread" but we seem to have a theme running in this thread about "safety" and there seem to be some very sensible people reading it, so having got you all buying Phillips X-Treme headlight bulbs and PIAA wipers for that extra bit of safety, I'm going to throw in my other hobby-horse - tyres.

Just like you can buy any make of bulb and it will light up and you can buy any wiper blade and it will work OK and wipe the screen, I believe that the same goes for tyres.

But - They're the only thing that connects your car to the road, so the grip they provide is critical.

Again, you can buy cheap tyres for £25 or so that appear to do the job - they're black and round and appear to drive ok, but when the chips come down, my view is that the extra money spent on a premium brand is money well spent to secure my own safety.

This Autocar test provides frightening results:

http://www.conti-online.com/generator/www/..._article_en.pdf

They tested some cheap tyres against premium makes.

Braking in the wet from just 50mph, the premium tyre stopped 28 feet shorter than the budget tyre - that's two car lengths. How many times have you pressed the brakes late and "only just stopped"?

In another test, when both cars braked from 50mph, at the point that the premium tyred car had stopped, the budget tyred car was still travelling at 30mph....

I'd much rather have spent a few pounds more and stopped with a fright and a stain on the drivers seat than saved a few quid and hit the car ahead at 30mph....

So I shop around very hard to buy my tyres at the cheapest price I can, but I buy specific branded tyres that do well in tyre tests at the best price I can find them at rather than simply buying the cheapest tyres I can.

Just hope this info helps others and keeps you safe......

Other info here for anyone who's still awake and has some interest...

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/products/tota.../tyre_test.html

http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArticle/...-Mondeo/228552/

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/products/tota.../tyre_test.html

[Cherry Red Pocket Rocket]

I tend to either buy manufacturer recommended tyres or brands that I know are trustworthy and decent. I steer clear of budget tyres and brands I haven't heard of!

[Raeman]

Well i fitted some Philips x-treme visions (H7) to my Accord today and i can say that i am impressed.

Could'nt test them properly tonight as the fog was so thick near us, all i could see was a great big white blanket but they will get tested again tommorow in the dark and i'm sure i will be pleased with them. :D

Tyres then, well i actually need 2 new fronts for the Yaris and was thinking about some Avon's like i have on the rear, which seem to be excellent but the rear's don't drive and steer the car so they might not actually be that good afterall.

As a rule though, i allways but the best i can and do some homework about anything now before buying.

I have 4 firestones on my Accord and they are faultless in all conditions, didn't cost loads aswell but great value.

The main problem i have in the Yaris though is wheelspin, not intentionally at all but when the roads are wet, i have to be so carefull pulling out from junctions ect because it just wants to pull and there's no grip sometimes.

Then again the front tyres i have on now are quite worn Michelin somethings and i want a tyre that offers brilliant wet weather grip, looks good, lasts well and does'nt slaughter my wallet.

So on that, can anyone reccomend such a tyre? ;)

[Cherry Red Pocket Rocket]

Continental perhaps? I've got Dunlops or Good Year on my rear (will have to check).

[SlamHamwich]

Save Yourself Some Time: The Toyota Yaris' 14" passenger side replacement windshield wiper is very hard to find in the newer-style beam blades. The 12" rear is also very hard to find because its a special rear blade that fits the special rear arm.

After exhaustive research, I've only found one aftermarket set-up that works: 'Trico NeoForm Beam Blades' on the front (yes, they have a 14") and 'Trico Exact Fit Rear Integral Blade' on the rear (yes, it fits the special rear arm). All of the above come with step-by-step, illustrated removal and replacement instructions - easy install. Got the whole set-up online.