Looking at RainEx Weatherbeater. For passenger side, one big chain store says length is 18-in. Other big chain store says 20-in. Both stores say 20-in for driver side.
Any way to find out what’s right w/o going to Dealer (who is likely to tell me that all they know is factory p/n)? Or does it not matter – just use either size?
(Owner’s Manual is with car, which is out of town.)
Try the Rain-X website OR if there is someone with the car out-of-town, measure the wiper blades.
Well, that should have been obvious to me! But, no. Anyhow, Rain-X website says 18-in, which is nice because…
I had actually already gone to Store #1 and bought the 18-in blade, and driven over to daughter’s work to pop on the new ones (she reported the need; she lives 35 miles away but works ner here, and I had to run an errand that way anyhow). Got there to find that the old one was 20-in. No time to run around, so I put on the 18-in. It seemed to cover OK, so I left it, and figured I could correct later. Now I feel better.
Thanks!!
(BTW, after I posted I remembered my Haynes manual – it has no info on length.)
To be honest, it doesn’t really matter much. I have a 2003 Cavalier with one beastly 22 inch drivers side wiper and a 17 inch passenger side one. I am very certain neither of those sizes are stock, I only replaced my driver side one since my passenger side one is so far over I realized I don"t need to see much out that side (only is there a car there or not for the most part), and the store didn’t have the right pattern blade.
The only thing that really matters is: does it fit on the windshield, and does it interfere with the other wiper? If the answer is yes it fits and no it doesnt hit the other wiper, you"re fine.
Thanks for that info, too. That’s what I thought, but it’s good to have confirmation.
Of course you could remove them and bring them with you to the store and get the same size.
So, what’s the big beef against the dealer ?
The Motorcraft number IS the length and they’re only 11 bucks each anyway.
WW1800 right side 18"
WW2005 left side 20"
As you’ve found out you can put anything on there you want within operational reason .( my 92 Explorer said 18" blades but I successfully put 20s on it all the time )
One caveat: if your blades tend to lift at highway speeds, you may be able to correct it by going with a shorter blade. I use rubber-booted wiper blades in winter, and I go 2" shorter (24" instead of 26") for the driver side and 1" shorter (16" vs 17") on the passenger’s side. That raises the speed at which they lift about 10 mph, from about 65 to about 75.
I don’t recommend ignoring the passenger blade for too long. If the rubber starts to tear, the metal that holds it in place will probably dig into your glass and leave some nasty permanent scratches.
Wow, lots of replies after I thought we were done (my posts at 9:56 and 9:59 PM on 11/23).
lion9car – I had already changed the blades; just wanted to be sure 18-in was OK.
Mr. Meehan – Yes, but I did not have the time for that. (Interestingly, if I had done it that way, I would have wound up with 20-in, or pondering at the store as to why their guide said 18-in but the old blade was 20-in.)
Mr. Green – I guess I don’t have enough experience with Ford dealers. As you have mentioned many times here, some dealers are good (and if I lived where you work, I’d be happy to take my cars to your dealership). Thanks for that info.
Mountainbike – Useful info, even though I expect/hope that the Escort will not be going that fast :>).
Thanks, all. Maybe someday I’ll be able to repay all the help and education I’ve gotten from this site.
My plan was to replace both but my car had double bladed wipers, and Canadian Tire didnt have the wiper size or pattern (yeah yeah yeah I know I drive a cavlier what does it matter the pattern) to fit. I could try again soon. I might. The rubber is still okay it just smears a lot.