When BSM had 500s, a lot had the wipers incorrectly set on their spindles so that the driver's side one caught under the passenger one as they started to move. .
Hi portland_bill
We test drove quite few 500s before we committed to buy.
On one of the test runs it started to rain, only lightly, so I put the wipers on "intermittent" . Well what a performance - now this "demo" car was in fact a new car that someone would buy as new - not a demonstrator as such. The wipers jumped all over the screen. Watching them carefully, I noticed that they seemed to just jump at the beginning of the wipe stroke and in doing so the big blade was right off the glass surface for the first 1/4 of the wipe. On closer examination it seemed that the top of the RH, big blade was catching on the bottom of the LH, small blade, causing the jump, confirming what you have said.
Mentioned it to the sales guy and he just said that the DID jump around a bit and it was OK.
So it was with some degree of trepidation that we used the wipers for the first time on our new 500. Ours don't do it at all - yes they do bounce a little when the screen is only slightly wet, probably the same as most cars, but nothing to worry about. If memory is correct, the wiper blades on the Fiat are the same as those on our Skoda Yeti and they work perfectly. So this has to be a 500 problem of some sort
Quite difficult to rectify as the arm had now got grooves in it from the spindle splines, so you could only move them one tooth. That then placed them too far one way or the other, causing them to either park too low and not wipe far enough, or to park too high and go off the screen edge. Several had arms replaced. Needs careful watching to see if this is the problem as they move a bit quick.
Is this a recorded known problem ?
Seem to recall a post on another thread mentioning that there are guide marks on the screen for the location of the wiper arms/blades.
If so, this would be a quick way to determine if they have been installed incorrectly
Even so, guess it will take a bit to get Fiat service to change the arms - wonder if you could video them and then step it through frame by frame and then print the one that shows the offending arms caught ?