Last week's wet snow left me with a driver's side windshield wiper that would sweep water away, but otherwise I could move the arm by hand at will with only minimal resistance. I figured I was going to have to pull both arms off and get into the mechanism under the cowl. Nope. The base of the arm is aluminum, and it's mounted on a splined steel stud, held in place with a nut. Much to my surprise, with the frozen wet sludge on the windshield, all that's happened is that the splines in the aluminum have been lathed out, the steel stud and its splines are fine. All I need to replace is the arm, amazingly enough. It's still going to cost me the better part of a C-note, doubled if I decide to replace the passenger side arm as well (as a pre-emptive strike.) Not about to complain about this, I can fix this outside in the chill.
Well, that's an interesting failure mode. [automotive]
- Thread starter JKalchik
- Start date
Steve Hoch
TVWBB Hall of Fame
Ouch! $100 for a windshield wiper arm? What kind of foreign car is this for? That's a $25 part on a Chevy.
2012 Dodge Ram 2500..... even the aftermarkets start at $70.
Steve Hoch
TVWBB Hall of Fame
Got it, pickup truck parts are usually more than for a passenger car. At least you'll save some money doing it yourself.
I'm quite familiar with car-part.com, bought seats, a dash panel, some switches, etc. for my old Heep (that just needs to go for scrap.) For something nominal like this, I'm awfully tempted to go OEM as long as the arms are available, and the cost isn't horrendous. Car-part.com is a highly useful site.
Scott Smith
TVWBB Pro
1. You don't really need the part to get around
2. You've identified the problem
3. The old part is bad anyway.
I would look into finding a way to make that sucker work. Something like scraping up the inside of the hole with a file and then using a little shim or deliberately bending it out of round and pounding it on there. Shouldn't hurt the steel part much.
2. You've identified the problem
3. The old part is bad anyway.
I would look into finding a way to make that sucker work. Something like scraping up the inside of the hole with a file and then using a little shim or deliberately bending it out of round and pounding it on there. Shouldn't hurt the steel part much.
The arm, the outer surrounding part, is aluminum. That won't bend, it'll crack. I'd expect it to be tapered a bit, but I'd need to upset splines like knurling. Carving new splines..... That'd be difficult as they're interior splines. I wouldn't see any engagement on the edges of the splines, it'd still be all on top. If I didn't have options for replacements relatively readily available, yeah, modifying the existing part would a much more important project. I really do want to be careful to not damage the splined stud at all, getting into the cowl gets much more difficult at this time of year. Spending a little now, especially on the right replacement part, to keep me out of the cowl and spending more under there, makes sense to me.
TomRc
TVWBB Pro
I agree. Rock Auto has been hit and miss (with more missing than hitting) for me. With the exception of a couple of deals on some really nice KYB shocks for 2 different vehicles, anything else that I have been able to save $$ on has been inferior quality. I now use Rock Auto mostly to find OEM part numbers and then plug those into a Google search to find the best value.
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RockAuto developed a reputation for goofy shipping quite a few years ago already, you have to pay attention to S&H. They're also far from the only site like that, Webstaurantstore.com does the same thing. Still, if I can get OEM arms for the same price (okay, for both sides, LESS than Dorman,) I'm more likely to go that route. It'll be interesting to see what the Dodge parts counter has to say in a couple of hours. They're very competitive on some things, not so much on others.
Ouch. $130. Guess I'm either ordering from RockAuto, or aftermarket/Dorman from O'Reilly's.
LMichaels
TVWBB 2-Star Olympian
Check Amazon and EBay. You might be amazed
I've had just enough bad luck with discrete parts through Amazon that I'm just a bit uncomfortable, considering that i really do want to get this addressed in the next couple of days. eBay...... bit of a crapshoot there as well. I have both arms coming from RockAuto, OEM stuff, to the house tomorrow for about what the Dorman parts would cost me from O'Reilly's.
In a REAL pinch, I could pull the passenger side arm and mount it on the driver's side, it's a bit shorter. I wouldn't want to have to mount the other way, I'd suspect that the wiper would run off the top of the windshield.
In a REAL pinch, I could pull the passenger side arm and mount it on the driver's side, it's a bit shorter. I wouldn't want to have to mount the other way, I'd suspect that the wiper would run off the top of the windshield.
Steve Hoch
TVWBB Hall of Fame
I used a Dorman window motor in my daughter's car a couple years ago when original failed. It was relatively cheap and is still working fine.
GaryP
TVWBB Pro
I've seen some of the newer mirrors well over a thousand. That's what happens when you have heated glass, signal indicators, power telescoping and folding along with temp sensor and a camera. Oh and don't forget the price to have it painted to match and the single use panel retaining clips. Just crazy expensive.
Well, I think that RockAuto may have just graduated to one of my lists..... and it's not a good one. I spent a significant premium when I ordered on Monday for overnight shipping so I'd have the arms for Tuesday (and time to figure out alternatives should something come up wrong. And it did..... box didn't get here until today. 2 day vs overnight was over $20. RockAuto is now refusing to stand behind their shipping commitment, and making it at least very difficult to dispute. I ordered at 9:00 or so Monday, and I had a shipping confirmation around 4:30 PM on Monday as well, along with a card charge the same day.