Stilo Wiper Linkage repair Kit - Wipex

Wipex wiper linkage repair kit guide

I recently had the pleasure of my wiper linkage breaking while driving in heavy rain on the A3 at Guildford – Not very fun at all, LOL
So after eventually getting home I stripped the wiper arms and scuttle panel off to find that the passenger side linkage bar had popped off it’s balljoint as the rubber insert was very worn. Below is a picture of my linkage bars after they were removed from the mechanism. The top left insert is the one that was worn, can you see how much larger the hole is than the others?



Simple you might think to replace just the linkage bar(s), fair enough really as the cars now covered 120,000 miles so can’t really grumble as that’s a lot of wiping. So I do some research here on the forum and the web and find that you can’t buy the linkages from Fiat separately; you must buy the whole wiper mechanism including motor for £140 but you can buy the motor separately for £100...............strange that isn’t it, why can’t they then supply the mechanism for £40??

So after searching some breakers and then ebay I drew a blank until I stumbled across an ebay item http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200282209633=

This is a Snap On Push Rod wiper linkage bar set sold by Wipex Ltd for the Fiat Stilo 2000-2005 - Price - £30.80 including delivery.
http://www.wipex.co.uk/index.htm 01684 569733 or e.mail [email protected]

It is a direct replacement for the two linkage bars that have the rubber inserts that wear due to movement.
I then did some more research on the forum and discovered that some of the Punto boys and gals have used the company before as the Punto is well known for failing linkages on very low mileage.

It was Friday midday and I needed the car back on the road ASAP, I am very wary of ebay and some of the products that are sold on there but I took a gamble and ordered the part from ebay about 1pm.
Saturday morning 930am it arrives through my door, well that’s 1st class delivery for you I thought.

I forgot to take a photo prior to fitting of what you get in the kit but here is a photo from the website.



The two bars below the complete mechanism is what you receive along with full fitting instructions. As you can see from the photo which still has the old linkage bars fitted, the Wipex linkage bars are wider in the centre and appear to be made of a thicker metal making them stronger. The inserts at the ends are a plastic secured with circlips and again appear to be of better quality.
See next few pages for step by step guide.

So the important bit, fitting. Well in short it does exactly what it says on the tin. It will take you longer to remove the wiper arms and scuttle panel than it will to fit this kit, below is a step by step guide to follow if required and a conclusion of my experience with this product. Thanks for reading


1 –Remove plastic nut covers from base of wiper arms and remove nut/washer from both wiper arms.


2 – Loosen wiper arms by wiggling them from side to side, the arms are on splines which can get dirty and very tight so you may be surprised how difficult this simple procedure can be! You can lever the arms up with long screwdriver or grips while wiggling it or strike the top of the spline while holding the arm but neither of these worked for my passenger side arm. I resorted to a small amount of WD40 squirted into the spline area allowing it to run down and penetrate inside, after a few minutes it wiggled off with no effort at all, (don’t you just love WD40).
NOTE: remember which arm is which, they are not the same, drivers arm is longer.


3 – With the arms off you get to work on the scuttle panel, this is held in place with 3 plastic push fit lugs/clips into the bodywork. These are easily removed by GENTLY levering them up with a flat head screwdriver then using long nose pliers to get either side of the shaft and persuading it out of the body work. This way you don’t snap the top off of the lug and render it useless.


4 – Remove the scuttle panel – again it’s a Stilo so it takes some persuading and wiggling to get it out from under the bonnet but with it removed you have loads of room to see what’s going on under there.
NOTE: if you just want to replace the linkage bars, you could probably do it with the unit in place BUT it is much easier out of the car and I wanted to clean up everything that moved and degrease the motor housing as mentioned in other “juddering wipers” threads so I completed he next part of the process as described below;


5 – In front of the drivers position you’ll see the wiper motor and mechanism as per the above photo. The whole unit is held in place with only 3 bolts. Disconnect the electrical plug connector for the wiper motor, remove the 3 bolts and lift out the unit.

6 – Prior to removing make a note of whether the mechanism attachments are all up, down, left , right, etc as when you attach the new ones they’ll need to be the same.
Remove linkage bars, the mechanism has 3 ball joints; 1 on each wiper spline and a double on the motor where the 2 bars overlap.
The older linkage bars can easily be removed by levering them with a flat head screwdriver or pulling off with grips. Mine nearly fell off as they were so worn.


7 – Clean up everything that looks like it moves, you might as well do it know and save doing it in the future. Make sure that all the ball joints are smooth with no rough edges which may damage the new parts. I wire brushed everything down, WD40’d it, dried it off and then added white grease to moving parts including the 3 linkage bar ball joints.

8 – Ensure the mechanism attachments are in the same position as when you removed the old bars.
Fit new Wipex linkage bars – as the adverts says “no tools required”. Now technically this is true and they are push fit and you could push them on but I struggled slightly and felt I needed quite a lot of force so changed tactics. I used a small mole grip to gently press them into place. I found this a more controlled way for me to do it.
The instructions supplied with the kit explain the order that the bars should be fitted and the ends of the bar are numbered 1,2,3,4 and have a numbered photo. It is really easy.
#1 & #2 go on first with #2 being the inside motor linkage bar, then #3 & #4. #3 insert is slightly smaller (11mm) as it’s the outside motor linkage bar on the double ball joint.
This part of the procedure took approx 20 minutes including cleaning.


9 – Refit mechanism to car – as Mr Haynes says “reverse the order of removal” refit scuttle, this can be fiddly, take the time to get it to line up right as it will look odd if you don’t. At each end are plastic flaps that need to be tucked in or they look weird.
Refit arms, nothing special to mention here other than lubing wiper arm springs and putting a very small amount of copper grease onto the splines prior to fitting the arms, this will help greatly should you need to change them in the future.


10 – Job done, I found the entire wipe was more solid and a bit quieter. See next page for my overall conclusion.

Conclusion

So what do I think of this repair kit?
Well to date brilliant, only time will tell how long the upgraded inserts last but I would think they will out last the original Fiats ones by far, shame the rest of the car won’t last another 120,000 miles.

I was angered and dismayed when I attempted to find the simple spares required to fix this job and found that Fiat have not had the forethought to supply a repair kit but feel happy to sell the entire unit for £140 to Mr Joe public who has no idea that for a few quid he could have the job fixed and do it himself.
The service was first class with delivery in less than 24 hours, just what you need when your car is off the road.

Fitting the kit is straight forward and easily achievable by someone with no mechanical experience as only basic tools are required to remove the wiper unit from the car.

Wipex have produced a high quality repair kit that is DIY and for a price that is very affordable. I cannot recommend it highly enough; it got me out of a big hole. Thank you Wipex.