Rear Wiper Blade. Can A Longer Blade Be Used?

[BenN74]

Hello people,

I have noticed on my recently acquired Hatchback 53 plate T Spirit D4D Avensis that the rear wiper blade is only small (16inch I believe) and so only actually wipes a small portion of the rear window. I was wondering if anybody knew whether it is actualy possible to replace this with a longer blade (possibly 20inch) so that a larger area of the rear window is cleared?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

:D BenN74 :D

[T600]

Longer, possibly yes,

4" longer, probably no.

Put some water on the rear screen and sweep the blade once, to see the arc that the blade covers. Chances are it won't reach the edge of the window anywhere.

Measure how far the arc is from the edge of the glass at the nearest point. Double that distance, and that's how much longer your blade can be. But watch out for the end of the blade not curving around the contours of the screen near the edges; they're flexible, but not enough to deal with a lot of curvature on some rear screens.

Longer blade = slightly more load on your wiper motor; beware of the blade running dry and you should be fine though. It's not as big a problem on the rear as it is on the front due to air pressure differences, but you will wear your motor out quickly if you run a longer blade on a dry screen.

HTH

[BenN74]

Cheers mate, I'll measure it and bear your advice in mind!

[Shuggie]

Hi Ben

I noticed that on my 06 Hatch too. I had the same thoughts. Let me know how you get on as I may follow suit.

Thanks T600 for your valuable advice again.

Regards

S

[BenN74]

I've measured it and these is just barely a two in gap between the end of the blade and the side of the window when the wiper it is resting at the bottom, this is the nearest point and the window doesn't seem to curve excessively if at all towards the end. So theoretically I should be able to fit a 20inch blade and get a much better cleaning arc. However, on closer inspection I noticed that the blade doesn't seem to be a standard one, it has some kind of special arm holding it, and I am not sure whether this is part of the blade or the car, I didn't want to start forcing anything in case it broke but it doesn't seem to attach the same as the front two!!

Does anybody know whether this blade has a standard 'hook end' fastening? Or if not, how does it attach??

Once again, Thanks in advance for any advice, it is most apreciated!

:D Ben N 74 :D

[T600]

Does anybody know whether this blade has a standard 'hook end' fastening? Or if not, how does it attach??

At a guess the blade has a short connector riveted to it and that attaches to the arm with two screws?

Used to be a standard fitting, but very rare these days; to the point that not all manufacturers of blades supply the necessary fittings for that type of arm.

But this could be your lucky day because I think I may have some; I had bought some because my Celica had that type of blade and I knew I'd need them eventually. But I've since sold the car and forgot to pass them on to the new owner.

One issue you may find though is that I think they're the opposite hand to what you need - currently your blade is probably on the outside of the arm, whereas I believe these were made for the front wipers and therefore probably wrong for the rear without putting the blade on the inside. On the Celica I think that would have been OK; not sure about your car.

[EDIT]Actually, I've now found another pair of these that I got with a 19" TV48 universal Truepart blade. These are very good wipers for the money and seem to come with the adaptors that I think you need. And these ones will allow you to mount the blade either side of the arm. (That's if my guess about your car's fitting is correct).[/EDIT]

[BenN74]

Does anybody know whether this blade has a standard 'hook end' fastening? Or if not, how does it attach??

At a guess the blade has a short connector riveted to it and that attaches to the arm with two screws?

Used to be a standard fitting, but very rare these days; to the point that not all manufacturers of blades supply the necessary fittings for that type of arm.

But this could be your lucky day because I think I may have some; I had bought some because my Celica had that type of blade and I knew I'd need them eventually. But I've since sold the car and forgot to pass them on to the new owner.

One issue you may find though is that I think they're the opposite hand to what you need - currently your blade is probably on the outside of the arm, whereas I believe these were made for the front wipers and therefore probably wrong for the rear without putting the blade on the inside. On the Celica I think that would have been OK; not sure about your car.

[EDIT]Actually, I've now found another pair of these that I got with a 19" TV48 universal Truepart blade. These are very good wipers for the money and seem to come with the adaptors that I think you need. And these ones will allow you to mount the blade either side of the arm. (That's if my guess about your car's fitting is correct).[/EDIT]

Hi,

Thanks for info T600,

I will check the car tomorow, I'm not totally sure what you mean 'the blade has a short connector riveted to it and that attaches to the arm with two screws?'

From what I can see, the whole arm is encased in a plastic covering and is completely different to the front ones, I can't see any screws, it looks like the whole thing is attached to the car and I would need to unclip just the blade section of the wiper, I will check again tommorow armed with your info, if I have no luck in locating any screws I will take some pictures and post them. If you are correct about the fitting I would be interested in purchasing a longer blade from you thank you. I will report back. Thanks again.

:D BenN74 :D

[T600]

Thanks for info T600,

I will check the car tomorow, I'm not totally sure what you mean 'the blade has a short connector riveted to it and that attaches to the arm with two screws?'

From what I can see, the whole arm is encased in a plastic covering and is completely different to the front ones, I can't see any screws, it looks like the whole thing is attached to the car and I would need to unclip just the blade section of the wiper, I will check again tommorow armed with your info, if I have no luck in locating any screws I will take some pictures and post them. If you are correct about the fitting I would be interested in purchasing a longer blade from you thank you. I will report back. Thanks again.

:D BenN74 :D

Oh, sorry ignore all that; I forgot what year your car was - was thinking of a much older arrangement. I should have checked.

So it's one of those arms. That's going to be much more difficult to change. You'll probably need to find an arm and blade combination on another car that fits your needs, which I think will be rather difficult to do, though not impossible if you look long enough. I recently was trying to find one for my IS200 because some git ripped off the wiper and snapped the arm, and I looked at all sorts of cars that were being scrapped, before finally having to stump up the cash for a new Lexus one.

[tccar]

I've measured it and these is just barely a two in gap between the end of the blade and the side of the window when the wiper it is resting at the bottom, this is the nearest point and the window doesn't seem to curve excessively if at all towards the end. So theoretically I should be able to fit a 20inch blade and get a much better cleaning arc. However, on closer inspection I noticed that the blade doesn't seem to be a standard one, it has some kind of special arm holding it, and I am not sure whether this is part of the blade or the car, I didn't want to start forcing anything in case it broke but it doesn't seem to attach the same as the front two!!

Does anybody know whether this blade has a standard 'hook end' fastening? Or if not, how does it attach??

Once again, Thanks in advance for any advice, it is most apreciated!

:D Ben N 74 :D

I was in a main dealer getting a new rubber for my rear the other day, I noticed the new avensis in the dealers show room had a conventional wiper arm, like the ones on the front of the car. So I guess if you wanted to go that far, you could replace the arm and fit a longer wiper from Halfords.

The older type plastic arm does un-clip. You have to gently remove the cover that is over the arm retaining bolt. The arm will then lift all of the way up. This allows the wiper blade to un-clip.