Aero Wipers?

Post by **DaiRees** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 9:21 am

Welton wrote:So who makes the ones you see on brand new Golf's and that?

Bosch. What he means is they don't do the "retro-fit" with the fitting for existing "hooked" wiper arms in a 24" RHD variant yet. Plus, to make things more confusing, I think there are several different versions of each size where the spring is "tuned" to the curvature of the screen - hence 3 different part numbers of 24" retro fit blade from Valeo....

Essexdad · Post by **Essexdad** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 12:26 pm

Like I said earlier guys,and I wish it was possible to attatch a photo so you could see how unobtrusive these things look,the set I got from https://www.autobulbsdirect.co.uk/home.php?cat=628 last year are no problem at all and work quietly and efficiently.

Post by **DaiRees** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 2:12 pm

What make are the ones you've got Essexdad??

neildavies · Post by **neildavies** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 4:56 pm

Not sure what make he had, but someone had them on the 406 coupe forum, and said they were OK, but just OK. Wouldn't have them again he said.

mjb · Post by **mjb** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 6:47 pm

WTF? I thought I was buying Bosch ones! Everything on that bloody site leads you to believe they're Bosch. FFS I'm so pissed off now!

Post by **DaiRees** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 7:38 pm

mjb wrote:WTF? I thought I was buying Bosch ones! Everything on that bloody site leads you to believe they're Bosch. FFS I'm so pissed off now!

They might be....

The bloke I was talking to was from a different shop, he might have been talking bolox.....

If they are Bosch let me know

maglite · Post by **maglite** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 2:48 am

have a section on their site about these "retro fit" wipers here. according the the diagram below they should fit fine:

I'm gonna have to put my Halfords tradecard to use

Post by **DaiRees** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 9:15 am

This is the bit that I'm not sure about

Superb wipe quality across the entire windshield thanks to customized spring strips

It seems that the blade is customised to the shape of the screen, so if you don't get the right one it might not work as well as it should.

Essexdad · Post by **Essexdad** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 1:43 pm

"Customised" in as far as the length of each wiper goes.....they mould to the shape of the windscreen on contact, are one-piece items with no metal framework.....mine are embossed Bosch in tiny letters on the only bit of metal on it,(the bit that attatches to the U arm)....i'm sure a quick phone call or email to the sellers should further clarify things,and i'm sure also there are other online & retail outlets that would explain all there is to know...(not a lot in all honesty)...just remember to get 1x22" + 1x24".
Kevin

maglite · Post by **maglite** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 3:29 pm

Ok guy's I just took a trip to my local Halfords and got these:

They are the Valeo ones. I did try and ask about the Bosch ones, but as you probably know, the Halfords kids arn't very helpful... Anyway I managed to pick these two up for £19.34 using my trade card. I think the retail for both would have been around £34.

They fit perfectly and sweep the screen very nicely. I'll just have to see how long they last now.

Drivers side is 24" and the passenger is 22".

If anyone else wants to order them from the net, Speeding.co.uk will sell you both for £34.98 Total:

mjb · Post by **mjb** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 10:34 pm

Got mine today from Autobulbs but haven't had a chance to work out HTF to fit them. They're a no-name brand with an odd fitting mechanism and no bloody instructions

Out of the box they curve into a pretty tight bow, so I reckon they'll stick to the screen nicely if they're not too tight.

Need to bleed my coolant again in the morning too

Damn leaky pipe, takes ages for the heater to blow moderately warm again... Not goot at 5:30am

mjb · Post by **mjb** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 8:08 pm

I've fitted them! They're good! Ish...

The fitting's fairly worrying. Basically after studying the blades and the wiper arms for about 15 minutes I realised you can just push them into the loop at the end of the arm, where they're held in by a kind of clip action. You can remove them easily enough by pushing them towards the base of the arm, but they seem solid enough to survive against the wind. Looked at some ways of zip-tie'ing them on, but there's nowhere to grip.

They look strange. Being so flat you can really notice the curvature of the wiper arms from inside, but you do get used to that. Can't say I stare at the outside of my car for ages though, so you'll either have to try them yourselves or wait until I take a picture of the beast

As for performance, well they work just as well at indicated 80 (ain't been any faster for a while, soz) as they do stationary, so that's a HUGE improvement. They also splash much less water about on their return stroke. The bad point is they appear to create 'pools' of water on the windscreen. I can't describe it better than that I'm afraid. They've worked well in moderate spray, but I've yet to get them in some real rain. Actually I ain't cleaned the car/screen for a week or so, so the pools may be just caused by grease from spray on the screen...

These are the ones from Autobulbs (link earlier in the thread) by the way.

Rating: 4/5

(Standard Bosch ones 1/5 for sh*t fitting, and dealer-supplied ones 2/5 for being useless over 40mph)

Benner · Post by **Benner** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 8:29 pm

Has anyone actually tried these?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BN-QUALITY-FLEXIB ... dZViewItem

Any good?

neildavies · Post by **neildavies** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 7:20 am

We recently had a 406 coupe meeting, and one of the owners had the aero wipers on his car. They didn't really make a lot of difference cosmetically (No-one noticed them), but when they were spotted, he said he only put them on for that morning to show others as they were useles.

Basically the problem is their not as flexible as normal wipers and then miss huge parts of the screen (about a third of the screen).

Sorry if you didn;t want to hear it, and still, maybe bosch are better.

mjb · Post by **mjb** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 10:28 pm

They're really not that bad actually and they DO work at speed, unlike normal spoilered ones, although 1) there's s still some splashing on the downstroke and 2) they're weak where they rely on the wiper arm to push down (mine's very very stiff

)

There's definitely an improvement though - I've got to be careful to use the washer jets while the wipers are at the top of the stroke otherwise the door window gets dribbled on a lot more than it used to.