This sounds like the dumbest thing ever…I have owned the car for nearly 3 years now, and have put 65k miles on it. I haven’t replaced the wipers. Last year they were finall awful enough that I went and bought new blades. Only they didn’t “fit” despite buying what the manual said. I’m not necessarily stupid, having helped restore a '66 F-100, and having worked on cars for a number of years. The problem here is the shape of the wiper. The manufacturer’s blade has a weird tapered section that fits under a bullet-shaped cap that holds the wiper to the arm. (This sounding muddy enough for anyone?) After several attempts and failures to secure ANY brand of new wiper to the arm I gave up and bought blade inserts, and replaced the rubber on the original blades. Not fun, but certainly not difficult. So now it’s time to replace them again…I do not want to spend $60 at Honda for new wipers. But replacement brands just don’t FIT because of the design of the arm and the cap that holds the blade ON. What the heck am I missing here? How can multiple people have looked at this and all been left utterly confounded?
This is the first I’ve heard of any car for which you couldn’t obtain replacement wipers at a parts store, but I suppose there’s a first time for everything.
If I had this problem, and could not find an aftermarket blade that fit, I’d go to the dealer and buy the Honda blades. Good wipers are important to me, and I’d spend the money to make sure they worked as well as possible.
Which brands have you tried, and who are all these confounded people?
Of course, there’s a difference between whole wiper blades and the rubber wiper inserts. There is no need to buy the whole metal blade assembly when all you need is a new rubber insert. If you are having trouble finding aftermarket rubber inserts, just go to the dealer. They aren’t THAT expensive. Also, all inserts are not created equal. Cheap rubber inserts don’t necessarily work as well or last nearly as long as quality ones. In my experience, I’ve tried cheap inserts from chain stores and found factory inserts better.
Try doing what they do in Moscow when they need wiper blades. Rocketman
I’ve been researching this today, as the wiper blades for my '06 Honda Civic also need to be replaced at ~60,000 miles.
It looks like Honda uses a proprietary wiper for the Honda Civic since 2006, and most replacements won’t fit into the arm. The Owner’s Manual doesn’t give any details about how to replace anything other then the rubber insert. So, I am going to go to the dealer to buy the rubber inserts for about $15, total.
You can order the rubber inserts online at http://estore.honda.com.
ok, I’ll bite. What do they do in moscow when they need wiper blades?
Traditionally, Muscovites have stolen wiper blades from parked cars. This probably resulted from the chronic shortages of everything in the old Soviet Union, ranging from food and clothing to items like wiper blades.
Because of this problem, most knowledgeable residents of that city removed their wiper blades every time that they left their car unattended. Whether this problem still persists in the new capitalist Russia, I am not aware. However, since automatic weapons have become the new method of resolving disagreements in that city, I think that it would not be a good idea for locals to “borrow” wiper blades in the traditional manner.
If the owner’s manual explains how to replace the inserts, then that must be the preferred method of wiper replacement.
$15 is WAY cheaper than the last set of replacement blades I bought for my Acura. I’d say replacing the inserts is the way to go.
Yeah, this is what I had to do last time; the new wipers were $30 EACH through Honda, $60 for wipers. UGH.
The inserts cost me $30 total at the dealership. What a PAIN.
And trying to find help with replacing wipers you get a lot of nasty responses from people!
I took my Honda to a shop where four guys stood there and said they were all stumped and that I should go to the dealer. I went to an auto parts store and dared the guy who was nasty to me about how “easy” it is to show me, and he couldn’t.
I love that the manual tells you what size to buy, but never really specifies that the wipers are specific to Honda only, and that store-bought brands don’t fit. eyeroll
Why hasn’t there been some sort of outcry over such a stupid design? Shouldn’t we be able to get wipers that fit without going through Honda?
I know this is an old thread, but I just replaced the wiper rubber inserts on my '06 Civic. I have almost 30,000 miles on my car, but because I live in Minnesota with all the snow and rain, my wipers have begun to smear badly. Anyway, I went to the Honda dealer in town and got the 2 rubber inserts for $12.14 total, which is much, much cheaper than the blades you could get at Walmart or any car parts store (at least $35 for the set). Getting the inserts was cheap and easy, but getting them inserted was a bit of a pain. I have not figured out how to get the blade assembly off the mount, but I was able to get the old rubber inserts off and the new ones in with the blade assembly still attached to the car. Basically, raise the wipers. At the end closest to the windshield, carefully pry out the old insert. (Look at the new inserts–it’s actually quite deep; I initially just tore out external portion of the old insert and made it more difficult to dig out the rest) Anyway, after the end is pried out, you can slide the old insert out, along with the 2 metal “braces” on either side. Just be careful not to gouge your hood or windshield! Don’t throw these 2 metal braces away! You’ll need to use them in the new insert. If you look in the manual, it’ll tell you how to put the metal braces into the your new inserts, that is, if you didn’t see how they were seated in the old inserts. Now, look carefully at the new inserts: the longer one goes on the driver’s side, and the shorter one on the passenger side. Once you have figured out which one go where, find the side of the insert that has “lock” printed on it. Start sliding the insert into the wiper mount on other end that does NOT have “lock” on it (making sure, of course, the metal braces are in place). First, lift up and hold on to the rubber end cover on the wiper mount (this is the end closest to the windshield with the wiper mount up). Press the about the first half inch of the insert (with the metal braces) into the mount (from the bottom to the top), and start sliding the insert in along the grooves. When you get the whole insert in place, just make sure the rubber end cover is pulled over the insert, and just press the end of the insert with the “lock” on it securely into the mount. It takes a little bit of bending the insert when you are inserting it so you won’t gouge your hood, but it doesn’t hurt anything if you are careful. I think 12 bucks of original Honda parts and 15 minutes of my time was totally worth it. Heck, my old inserts lasted almost 3 years, and at 12 bucks a set, I could totally replace them every year now that I’ve figured out that it isn’t so hard to do.
Gosh, for 30 bucks apiece, you must’ve bought the whole wiper blade/mount. The rubber inserts are typically the only part that needs to be replaced, and a pair should cost less than $15. (See my response below).