*New Michelin Stealth Wiper Blades

[rollercoaster]

Originally Posted by mcguire

Does anyone remember the good ol' days when you could walk into a car parts store and buy replacement rubber inserts? I haven't seen them in years.

(Am I a crotchety old man yet?)

I concur. This is annoying and another way off showing how lazy (or stupid?) of a society we have become.

[jtbo]

Originally Posted by rollercoaster

I concur. This is annoying and another way off showing how lazy (or stupid?) of a society we have become.

I believe that there is one shop here that still has those rubbers.

Also I use old blades for my Volvo headlamp wiper blades, I get several from single old window blade

[zedhead]

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

Taking the arms and blades off will likely have next to zero reduction in drag.

Why so? Given that radio aerials are said to be bad for aeros, and they appear (to the eye) to be more aerodynamic than wipers?

[Frank Lee]

Because on the typical 3 box design there is a bubble of relatively slow moving (not free stream velocity) air at the base of the windshield where the wipers live. The story may be different on one box designs or any design where the angle of hood and windshield are very close.

There are many threads here about it if you want to go more in-depth.

[Tango Charlie]

Right, remember Bernoulli's principle. Higher pressure at the base of the windshield means there is slower moving air there. The air molecules are piling up like schoolkids in the hallway after the recess bell has rung.

That said, I have noticed wind noise from my wiper blades since they don't seem to fully retract on their own.


pushed down manually;

So maybe I could throw a pair of the low profile blades on there, instead of fixing the mechanism.

And I love Rain-X and don't consider it a waste of money, but it is completely useless in town when you're traveling less than 45 mph, which is why I'm not removing my wipers.

[larrybuck]

I don't like even looking at the wipers. I like the way early 70's Chevelle's, and Mustangs
hid them nicely.

Is there some negative airfow problems w that solution?

[jtbo]

Originally Posted by larrybuck

I don't like even looking at the wipers. I like the way early 70's Chevelle's, and Mustangs
hid them nicely.

Is there some negative airfow problems w that solution?

Added complexity and perhaps 1c of added cost to manufacture. I had Pontiac Safari once, 1986 model and it had such feature too, but I was told it was rather unreliable mechanism. I managed to do better than 26mpg on long trips with that one, but I doubt hiding wipers had much to do with that