Wiper cover test

[whokilledthejams]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

Reminds me of when I was airing the tires on the Tempo and forgot I set one of those standard black plastic valve stem caps on the cowl panel. 350 miles later when I got home I discovered it still sitting there!

Anyone still think there is "flow" there?

I know there isn't on my car. When my xB is dirty, and there's rain or dew on it in the morning (not so much now, since it's winter all of a sudden), one can very easily visualize the flow along my hood:





I think a lot of this is due to the odd shape of my car, but even more conventionally shaped vehicles can't possibly have the wipers sticking all that far out into the flow. Like basjoos pointed out, the main advantage is to reduce noise and ram pressure.

[groar]

As you can see in the 3rd picture of the 1st message of this thread (forget about the coroplast sheets), the angle between the windshield and the hood of my scenic is nearly flat, so I think the wipers are in the air flow.

In the newer version of the scenic, the wipers are hidden behind the hood. I can't find a static link on renault.fr/.com with an adequate picture... I should get a picture of my parents in law's scenic next Xmas.

Denis.

[wagonman76]

On my car I have noticed, fill panel or not, identical behavior of raindrops on the windshield. That is, on about the bottom 1/4 to 1/3 of the windshield, the drops just sit there even at highway speed, whereas on the rest of the windshield they are blown up and to the sides.

On mine, raindrops hit the entire windshield regardless. But before the cover, driving to work in the morning would burn off all the morning dew. After the cover, the dew on the bottom third or so would still remain.

Below is my van, just a different color. The wipers are RIGHT in the airflow.

[Christ]

That's a Chevy Lumina APV or copy of it... those were always decent vans, that I remember, and easy to get parts for, b/c of the relative number of Lumina models that were broken and no one wanted to fix them.

[i_am_socket]

I can tell from the bugs impaled on the wiper arms that they sit in the airflow, also from the wiped water that tries to flow up the windshield between the wipers.

[groar]

Originally Posted by groar

In the newer version of the scenic, the wipers are hidden behind the hood. I can't find a static link on renault.fr/.com with an adequate picture... I should get a picture of my parents in law's scenic next Xmas.

Here they are :

• Right :
• Front :

Denis.

[winkosmosis]

The reason some of you guys have stationary air on the lower few inches of the windshield might be because of the wipers blocking flow

[Frank Lee]

On my car the raindrops reacted to air currents on the windshield the same with or without wipers.

[winkosmosis]

I bet the wipers on that van make a huge difference in aero. The more equal the angle of the windshield is with the hood, the less of a high pressure dead spot there will be, so the van would have none.

[HyperMileQC]

Originally Posted by echo-francis

Whiper Deflector in Coroplast DIY Fabrication :

Realized the wipers was really in the airflow so I decided to make a coroplast and duct tape whiper deflector to respect airflow near the wipers zone. It took me maybe 2 or 3 hours to build it. I made tests with the deflector but they are lost in the Void. We know that it is a 1.5% gain in MPG (US). Based on a A-B-A-B test. Inconveniant : some leaves and maple scrap get stuck in there.

Some Picture of the Wiper Deflector :

This is what we have done so far for the wiper cover.