Flat Wiper Blades

[highlander]

Hey all,

Went to Halfords on Saturday looking for new wiper blades, when I spotted that they had flat blades. So I bought a pair of them, 24" / 22", for the princely sum of £34, and asked the guys there to fit them. I chose that size because that's the size their flip-book recommends for the 406 saloon/estate.

We went out to the car, the guy took one look - from about 20 feet away - and said that these blades wouldn't fit, and that I need to have specially-adapted wiper blades fitted, and that Halfords don't sell them, it would be a main dealer function.

Then he took my old blades off and went back inside, came back out with new blades, and fitted them, and then we both went back inside to process the refund (the blades that fit were £17 less than the flat blades that I originally bought).

That's when I saw the packet for the blades he fitted - 22" / 22" - different to what their flip-book said. I told him this, and he then measured both my original blades - they're both 22".

Is it true about needing adapted wiper arms in order to use flat blades?

And what size of blades should I have for an early D9 saloon?

Cheers
Graeme

[eoin27]

Although the flat blades are 24/22, this doesnt mean that they fit, they are attached much differently that the older blades.

You cant get any attachment from the stealer either. You can type "406 flat blades" into ebay and you'll find retro fit wiper blades that are compatible with your existing wiper arms (they're not very good though)

Id recommend just buying a good set of Peugeot ones. Ive had all types on my pugs, including the flat ones and I prefer the originals.

[puggy]

As eoin says you can get them to fit off fleabay , about £8/15 a pair . They dont
look as good as the new one's as you would need to change the arms to do that ,
but i have to disagree with eoin they are the best wipers i have had on my car

[omega]

bought some bosch ones from halfords with trade card discount for about 7 pounds that work well on my d8.
hate the wiper arms as they dont bend back so a pain to fit
will have to inveast in a puller one of these days so i can remove the arms and paint them,anyone any tips for what tool to uses to remove them

[DiscoPol]

on this topic,
I was wandering around the local Tesco's here the other day and saw the wiper section in the car aisle and saw that they had the flat blades and original style on the shelf, checked the backs of the packs and found that they all seemed to recommend 22" blades for both sides, so had a think and decided to go down the route of standard blades, well here the cost of standard blades were 4.55 zloty a piece, thats just about 99p at todays exchange rate .

bought, fitted and working a treat!!

in my opinion the flat blades are good, but the standard arms just dont do them justice, you need the flattened arms to get the best from them both in practical use and for the look,
I had them previously on an other motor and had the correct arms and they were awesome, but the stand off arms of the pug just negate the whole look IMO.

oh and 22" both sides is bloody wrong!
but for me it worked well as the passenger side one now seems bigger whilst i have lost an inch or two from my side, but Im in a RHD car in a LHD world so spend most of my time looking out the passenger side of the windscreen anyway

[eoin27]

If you really want to do it properly, you can get the arms off a last-gen C5 and use them. The later ones came with Flat Blades and AFAIK, they were the same type arms as the 406

edit: same size arms, not type. They will fit the standard PSA flat blades

[mjb]

I've always found Valeo flat blades work very well on my 406s as long as the wiper arm hasn't seized up too much... The cheap ones you can get on ebay are ok to start with but are next to useless after a couple of thousand miles

[Welly]

I got some flat blades for my 406 from 'Aceparts' and they came with a black adapter thing to adapt the existing set up. They worked a treat! the only slight negative was a slightly surprising black 'box' which stood out a tad when sweeping the screen but I soon got used to it.

[plod]

If you really want to do it properly, you can get the arms off a last-gen C5 and use them. The later ones came with Flat Blades and AFAIK, they were the same type arms as the 406

edit: same size arms, not type. They will fit the standard PSA flat blades

What reg does last gen C5 encompass?
Got flat blades on mine, but arms are horrendous, so would be nice to get some replacements, and if years are known would make sourcing easier

[STALLED]

Bosch Aerotwin - Well worth the coin!

[steve_earwig]

Valeo I think, all I could get hold of here

I reckon Eoin means the C5 II - 2003-2008. Not sure, the blades are 26" and 18" so the l/h arm is possibly stupidly long. Might be worth inestigating though, if they work on the C5 like that and they shouldn't be too expensive out of the breaker's (you'll need a puller tho)

[mjb]

I reckon Eoin means the C5 II - 2003-2008. Not sure, the blades are 26" and 18" so the l/h arm is possibly stupidly long.

The coupé uses 26" and 20"!!!

I actually run 26/22 on mine to get better coverage of the rain sensor... (plus I had one lying around )

[Gary406]

bought some bosch ones from halfords with trade card discount for about 7 pounds that work well on my d8.
hate the wiper arms as they dont bend back so a pain to fit
will have to inveast in a puller one of these days so i can remove the arms and paint them,anyone any tips for what tool to uses to remove them

i only ever use bosch standard wiper blades, cheap ones from tescos make stupid squeeky noises (nothing worse then your wiper blades squeeking) i hate it
when i fit new blades i always remove the full arm on the 406 as omega says they dont bend back , its a bloody pain that

[plod]

i only ever use bosch standard wiper blades, cheap ones from tescos make stupid squeeky noises (nothing worse then your wiper blades squeeking) i hate it
when i fit new blades i always remove the full arm on the 406 as omega says they dont bend back , its a bloody pain that

I used to always buy "Silencio" blades, which I think are made by Valeo IIRC
Made no noise, and had a spot on them that turned yellow when the rubber was deemed to be at the end of it's lifespan

Didn't do them last time went in local motor factors, so bought some flat ones, neoform I think they are?

[Gary406]

i think i will try these flat blades next time