Intestinalworm

Intestinalworm

Well-Known Member
2003 Discovery 2 facelift model

I have the original front wiper arms (use a flat blade screwdriver to slide the lock across and hold the wiper blade) - the driver's side has the spoiler on the wiper arm, the passenger side has no spoiler.

Now, the front blades I had on were Bosch Twin 807 - they were great. Recently replaced them with Lucas LWCB21B No Spoiler (21" 530mm). The Lucas blades look fine, but there is a spot in the middle of the windscreen that is missed - the blade skips over it. Any suggestions?

Any thoughts on good wiper blades?
 
sierrafery said:
Why dont you buy those which worked? are they obsolete?
Click to expand...

Couldn't find the Bosch ones second time around - not sure if they are obsolete. The Lucas ones came from a good/popular online LR parts supplier - just said "aftermarket" and found out they were Lucas when they came through the mail - they look perfect in every way, but the spot the passenger side one misses in the middle of the windscreen is annoying. I'll play around with them a bit and see if I can improve things. The other option is LR genuine wiper blades from a dealer, but I suspect these are a lot more expensive.

Not many wiper blades made for the slide attachment, nearly all of them are for the hook style attachment. Will have another look for the Bosch!
 
Received a reply below from the LR parts supplier - so will give it a go and see if they (passenger side wiper) conforms to the windscreen a bit better.

"...thanks for the email, its common for wipers to be a little rigid as new but……..
Put the wiper in the up position and gently flex them across all joints in the wiper arm as it will help them conform to the windshield
Also, when next washing the car, activate the wipers while watering the windscreen for a few minutes
As I said though it’s a new product and can have a bit of a breaking in period, but these 2 steps should help."
 
I checked with Tridon and they said they have a wiper blade refill (metal rail or plastic-backed option) that will fit the D2a slide attachment wiper arm:

Tridon refill MRN24-2 (metal rail) - these refills are 24” (610mm) long, so 3" will need to be trimmed off each so that they will fit the original D2a wiper arms with the slide attachment - 21" (530mm). I was told the metal rail refills are better than the equivalent plastic-backed ones (TNB24-2) that will also work.

Has anyone used refills successfully with these blades (pic below)?

The thing is, there are no retaining clips at the ends on the blades, just eight clamps (two circled below) that tightly hold the refill in place. I'm assuming each one of these clamps have to be levered open (needle-nosed pliers/pick) in order to pull the refill out, and then when the new refill is slid in, they have to be carefully clamped down again to hold it in place? {Maybe that's why no one uses refills?}

Wiper Arm_LI.jpg
 
Intestinalworm said:
I checked with Tridon and they said they have a wiper blade refill (metal rail or plastic-backed option) that will fit the D2a slide attachment wiper arm:

Tridon refill MRN24-2 (metal rail) - these refills are 24” (610mm) long, so 3" will need to be trimmed off each so that they will fit the original D2a wiper arms with the slide attachment - 21" (530mm). I was told the metal rail refills are better than the equivalent plastic-backed ones (TNB24-2) that will also work.

Has anyone used refills successfully with these blades (pic below)?

The thing is, there are no retaining clips at the ends on the blades, just eight clamps (two circled below) that tightly hold the refill in place. I'm assuming each one of these clamps have to be levered open (needle-nosed pliers/pick) in order to pull the refill out, and then when the new refill is slid in, they have to be carefully clamped down again to hold it in place? {Maybe that's why no one uses refills?}

View attachment 264573
Click to expand...
I've been doing this for years and there was always a means of holding the blade in place at the ends.
Sometimes it is not obvious, until you take one right apart/destroy one!;)
This is because the whole blade needs to be able to flex to follow the angle it takes up as it moves across a screen that is not absolutely flat.
I am prepared as always to find out I am wrong, but that is just my experience.
I'd be prepared to make some mechanism to hold the ends in place!;)
 
Maybe I'll find the time to look at mine and if I find anything of interest to you I'll put it up with pics.

One other important tip, do make sure the screen is spotlessly clean before fitting the new ones;)
 
Stanleysteamer said:
I've been doing this for years and there was always a means of holding the blade in place at the ends.
Sometimes it is not obvious, until you take one right apart/destroy one!;)
This is because the whole blade needs to be able to flex to follow the angle it takes up as it moves across a screen that is not absolutely flat.
I am prepared as always to find out I am wrong, but that is just my experience.
I'd be prepared to make some mechanism to hold the ends in place!;)
Click to expand...

They're well held in place - eight (8) clamping metal tab pairs along the length of each blade - need to prise open with pick/needle nose pliers to remove the metal rail rubber wiper blade and reverse the process once the new refill is in place (metal rail Tridon MRN24-2). I'm sure there are equivalent refills (other than Tridon) out there - 6.5mm across the top/back and 21" (530mm) long.
 
Maybe the springs in the arms are worn or the spring pivot points are corroded and don't hold the blade to the screen with enough pressure? I have that problem on mine.
 
DefenderPilot said:
Maybe the springs in the arms are worn or the spring pivot points are corroded and don't hold the blade to the screen with enough pressure? I have that problem on mine.
Click to expand...
I agree with this. This is why they say you should always replace the whole arm, quite apart from it being much less fiddly to fit.
But you can lube all this and free it off. Which he could do temporarily, if not for a more permanent fix.
This is enough to almost make me go outside and look at mine!!!!!;)
 
Right!
I've just been and looked at mine.
The driver's side one.....the TOP two clamps are on tight all the others are slack enough to allow the blade holder to slide through and the blade to conform to the shape of the windscreen.
Passenger side........the BOTTOM two clamps are tight and the rest are slacker.

Hope this is of some use!!!!;););)
 
DefenderPilot said:
Maybe the springs in the arms are worn or the spring pivot points are corroded and don't hold the blade to the screen with enough pressure? I have that problem on mine.
Click to expand...

Previous Bosch blades were perfect, only happened when I put the new Lucas blades on - will move them a bit and see if they conform better with a bit of time! The wiper arms are in excellent nick no damage and springs perfect - I checked when I had the windscreen plenum out for repair and lubricated the mechanism with some lithium spray.

Can always put the Bosch blades back in again, but will wait a while.
 
Stanleysteamer said:
Right!
I've just been and looked at mine.
The driver's side one.....the TOP two clamps are on tight all the others are slack enough to allow the blade holder to slide through and the blade to conform to the shape of the windscreen.
Passenger side........the BOTTOM two clamps are tight and the rest are slacker.

Hope this is of some use!!!!;););)
Click to expand...

Okay - thanks for that - will have a close look at this!
 
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