Last week I had my tires rotated and when I picked up the car naturally there was a list of stuff that needed to be done. One item was new wiper blades but when I examined them the material was pliable and there were no tears or gaps. It rained a couple of days ago and the wipers worked well. No streaks, gaps, noise, etc. I’m cheap but a set of wiper blades won’t break the bank. Should I replace them on principle or is the shop yanking my chain?
If they work, don’t fix 'em.
Tester
5 Likes
You just answered your own question . Seriously , anyone here that answers questions should be able to determine if they should replace wiper blades .
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It was always possible their guy could see something I couldn’t and I like to give people in general the benefit of the doubt. But it sounds like what he’s seeing are dollar signs.
Giving people the benefit of the doubt is very costly. I approach any monetary transaction with the attitude that the other person is trying to screw me.
One option, shop around and buy a replacement set for the best price available, but don’t install them. You’ll have them on hand when the current ones stop working.
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…and bring a lawyer.
Giving people the benefit of the doubt certainly can be costly but again wiper blades are comparatively cheap. Frankly, I was halfway expecting to be told “You can’t always tell by looking,” or something similar.
Not a bad idea. I’ll be passing a couple of parts places later this week and it couldn’t hurt.
I’ve noticed Rock Auto seems to have pretty good prices on WW wipers. If you need some other stuff for routine maintenance, tune-ups, light bulbs, etc now might be a good time to buy everything you know you’ll be needing via mail order. The total might add up to enough it might qualify to come with free or reduced cost shipping.
Tell us about the free shipping from Rock Auto, this has never been offered to me.
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One of the things we check on our “courtesy inspections” is wiper operation. But that’s a subjective thing. One person might not care if the wipers leave streaks or chatter or are torn. The next one might not tolerate anything but a perfectly clear, quite swipe. Perhaps the windshield was dirty when the mechanic checked them, or made some noise because the window was dry? Some people replace blades when they stop working, some do it proactively once a year.
Anyway, if we notice anything odd with the wipers we offer to replace them. The downside is some people are less picky than others and don’t want to pay for a pair of blades. We have solved that problem by offering to replace them at no charge. Yup, if you’re having your car serviced here and it needs blades, we will install a set of Bosch standard or beam type (whatever your car came from the factory with) for free.
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I have found that the customer is trying to screw the business far more often that the business tries to screw the customer.
I got some goodyear wiper blades at costco, replaced driver side one, some really weird connector, High speed, 50+ mph the aerodynamics made it useless, went to the autozone store, bought a new pair they installed for free, and they are fine. You will know when you need them. If they work fine no problem, but erring on the side of caution never hurts if you can spare the bucks.
Thanks. This is what I meant about the benefit of the doubt. Honestly, I had assumed the guy looked at them and found something wrong, and I wondered what since I couldn’t find anything. Naturally, wipers would behave differently on a dry windshield than they would in the rain. The shop may well have tested them dry and concluded it was time to replace them. Nobody is trying to screw anyone. Everybody can stop and take a breath. I can live with that and it means I wasn’t necessarily wasting my time asking because now I know more than I did. I’ll still wait a while but I can keep an eye on how well they work.
One thing to do is clean the blades every so often with a damp paper towel. Where do you think all those squashed bugs end up?
Nope!
Alcohol wipe.
Tester
Even better!
+1
For the next few weeks, Costco is running a nice sale on Michelin wipers.
I will buy a set, and hold onto them until they are needed, which will likely be before they run that sale again.
Their website says they don’t offer free shipping. However there’s a substantial shipping discount for volume orders. For example for starter motors for my truck shipping is $5.50 per starter if I buy two, vs $8 per starter if I buy one. 32% shipping discount. You are right that there’s no “free shipping”; but there appears to be a substantial discount on the shipping fee if you buy a lot of stuff.
LMC truck offers free shipping if you buy enough stuff I think.