For the last few years my windshield wipers which work fine but with each sweep they slap down into the rest position very hard and are very noisey. Since I live in a very dry climate it has not been much of a problem but it seems to be getting worse. Is this an adjustment problem or just the fact that the car is almost 12 years old?
The wiper arms need to be repositioned on their splined shafts.
My Legacy is older than yours, but it doesn’t do this.
I agree with VDCdriver. The wiper arms are incorrectly positioned on their shafts. They should not contact anything in their rest position, nor at the other end of their swing.
The end caps of the wiper arms pivot up to reveal the nuts that hold them in position. Adjustment is fairly simple, just don’t move them very far. A small change is all you need.
Years ago, my boss had a Pontiac LeMans whose wiper arms were not properly positioned.
Every time that he turned off the wipers, the noise when they contacted the bottom of the windshield frame was…startling…to say the least. And, since this doofus had cheaped-out and refused to pay for optional “interval” wipers, if you drove with him during a light rain, there was a fairly constant barrage of noise as he turned the wipers on and off continually. I told him about the need to reposition the wiper arms on their shafts, and he saw fit to ignore my advice.
This same guy also refused to ante-up for the optional rear window defroster on his LeMans, with the obvious result that at the end of the workday in the winter, he was frequently faced with a severely iced-over rear window. Since he also was apparently too cheap to buy an ice scraper, he would attempt to scrape the ice from the windows with the back of his greasy pocket comb. It was consistently amusing to see this guy trying to deal with adversity that he had essentially created himself.
One of my favorite things is when people attempt to use the wipers to clear ice and/or heavy snow from the windshield. This often results in stripped splines, blown fuses, or worse, and it’s always fun to watch.
Using a comb as an ice scraper. That’s a good one.
…and a greasy comb, to boot.
Imagine him trying to hold onto that with his gloveless hands (Yup, he never seemed to remember to buy gloves either!) as he attempted to scrape ice with that comb.
If you want an idea of this guy’s appearance, as well as his level of competence, think of the clueless boss in the Dilbert comic strip. The resemblance–on all counts–is uncanny.
Thank you… my wife’s Subie does the same thing… but intermittently… time to go outside, and fix it!