Technical Brand new Fiat, windscreen wipers skipping and loud

[divapink]

Hiyo,
I bought a new Fiat 500 Pop and drove it home yesterday. It rained last night and I used the windscreen wipers for the first time and while they work rather well, they are awfully loud and seem to get stuck and skip as they move across the windscreen.
I have tried turning up the music to no avail and lifting them and placing them back carefully. They seem to be a bit banana shaped and floppy, on my last car the firm and straight so is this normal? Just call my dealer on Monday?

 

[306maxi]

Yes, they're working as expected. They will wear in a bit, but Bosch ones will be quieter.

 

[jrkitching]

Hiyo,
I bought a new Fiat 500 Pop and drove it home yesterday. It rained last night and I used the windscreen wipers for the first time and while they work rather well, they are awfully loud and seem to get stuck and skip as they move across the windscreen.
I have tried turning up the music to no avail and lifting them and placing them back carefully. They seem to be a bit banana shaped and floppy, on my last car the firm and straight so is this normal? Just call my dealer on Monday?

The 500 wipers will stick & drag across the screen unless they are spotlessly clean. It's a very common issue, but you don't have to put up with it.

Cleaning both the screen and the blades with Autoglym CGP will fix the problem.

 

[Tidus72]

Yes, they're working as expected. They will wear in a bit, but Bosch ones will be quieter.

I had the exact problem, but after they bedded in they are fine now, this took a few months.

I know its really annoying but they will get better with use

They are supposed to be banana shaped and floppy when you lift them off the screen as this is the way the new generation of wiper blades have been designed.

If you want to bed them in a bit faster you could always just put your wipers on the fastest setting and constantly pour some water onto the windscreen with a hose pipe as not to scratch the glass

 

[306maxi]

The 500 wipers will stick & drag across the screen unless they are spotlessly clean. It's a very common issue, but you don't have to put up with it.

Cleaning both the screen and the blades with Autoglym CGP will fix the problem.

Tbh I find it worse when you put anything on the screen whether it be autoglym cgp or rainx, in fact rainx makes it 100x worse....

 

[JTD_Liam]

Sounds pretty standard for Fiat wipers. The ones on our 500 have moments when they jump across the screen, and the smaller passenger side wiper doesn't even touch the screen along some of its length. It's been like this from about 2 months from new. We'll have to order a replacement.

I like Fiat and their cars are not unreliable rust buckets like many members of the public & motoring journalism would have us believe, but the penny pinching on their groups' current cars seems to know no bounds & lets down what's otherwise a decent car.

 

[jrkitching]

Tbh I find it worse when you put anything on the screen whether it be autoglym cgp or rainx, in fact rainx makes it 100x worse....

Try claying the screen before applying CGP.

Just like with bodywork, you need to get rid of the bonded contaminants before applying the final finish.

For all the gripes about the OEM wipers, mine have proved durable - 3 1/2 yrs and still perfectly functional.

I like Fiat and their cars are not unreliable rust buckets like many members of the public & motoring journalism would have us believe, but the penny pinching on their groups' current cars seems to know no bounds & lets down what's otherwise a decent car.

:yeahthat:

Understandable and perhaps even acceptable on a Panda that's £6495 OTR, but when you're forking out north of £12k for a car, it's disgraceful - and terribly short-sighted.

 

[brynrosa]

An old tip for non scratch cleaning for any glass is simply to apply a little toothpaste with a damp cloth. As it will not harm tooth enamel it will be fine for glass, removes grease etc. Hope this might help .... and it`s a cheap fix too.

 

[RobW]

most importantly get some decent screenwash like shell ready mixed

 

[306maxi]

Try claying the screen before applying CGP.

Just like with bodywork, you need to get rid of the bonded contaminants before applying the final finish.

For all the gripes about the OEM wipers, mine have proved durable - 3 1/2 yrs and still perfectly functional.

:yeahthat:

Understandable and perhaps even acceptable on a Panda that's £6495 OTR, but when you're forking out north of £12k for a car, it's disgraceful - and terribly short-sighted.

Annoyingly I bought 2 spare sets of OEM wipers......

 

[ahmett]

My advice? Get rid of the stock ones immediately and replace them with the Bosch Aerotwins. The second i did this the juddering stopped and i never had a problem again.

Do not buy any of those windscreen wax or cleaners like the guys above are recommending or any of those 'accessories' just spend the money on bosch aerotwins and your problem will go away.

Do not buy the Fiat OEM ones ever again they are horrible.

 

[ahmett]

Try claying the screen before applying CGP.

Just like with bodywork, you need to get rid of the bonded contaminants before applying the final finish.

For all the gripes about the OEM wipers, mine have proved durable - 3 1/2 yrs and still perfectly functional.

:yeahthat:

Understandable and perhaps even acceptable on a Panda that's £6495 OTR, but when you're forking out north of £12k for a car, it's disgraceful - and terribly short-sighted.

you know jrkitching, i was wondering, how many miles a year do you do with your fiat 500?

 

[portland_bill]

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. 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.

For cleaning the screen, try Halfords Intensive Glass Cutter. Find it near the screenwash. Highly recommended.

 

[jrkitching]

you know jrkitching, i was wondering, how many miles a year do you do with your fiat 500?

About 8000 in the 500 & 12000 in the Panda

 

[Just Dirk]

+1 for the bosch blades

 

[Boodajuda]

Still have a bit of a problem even with Bosch. Cleaning helps, as does RainX and other products, unlike the experience of others.

If you don't have fancy products a few drops of vinegar in a little water helps. Never forget to clean the blades themselves, most people do.

 

[portland_bill]

My advice? Get rid of the stock ones immediately and replace them with the Bosch Aerotwins. The second i did this the juddering stopped and i never had a problem again.

Do not buy any of those windscreen wax or cleaners like the guys above are recommending or any of those 'accessories' just spend the money on bosch aerotwins and your problem will go away.

Do not buy the Fiat OEM ones ever again they are horrible.

Disappointing advice from Ahmett. Regardless of how good the Aerotwins may be, all wipers will work better with a clean screen.

 

[doggydoctor]

I had the same problem with mine when new. Tried all sorts of cleaning, including autoglym car glass polish on a machine polisher. The screen has never been any cleaner, but he wipers still jumped over the screen. Bought a set of valeo xtreme wipers and never had a problem with juddering since.

 

[Aussie500nut]

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 ?

 

[JTD_Liam]

:yeahthat:

Understandable and perhaps even acceptable on a Panda that's £6495 OTR, but when you're forking out north of £12k for a car, it's disgraceful - and terribly short-sighted.

Exactly. I think a few of the 500s troubles are that it's heavily based on the 2004 Panda, which was built down to a price as it sold cheap (especially when first launched, £8000 for a top spec Eleganza), and I suppose in Fiats defence they weren't to know the 500 would be able to take multiple price hikes and still sell like hot cakes so I guess they thought they'd better go steady on expensive parts so as to still make a profit. Now we're left feeling slightly short-changed in certain areas (wipers, suspension, tailgate release to name a few) because we've got £7000 car parts on a £10-£13k car.

Doesn't let them off the hook with the door handles or boot wiring mind you, since neither of those affected the Panda Even the wipers weren't too bad on the Panda but they used (at least initially) the rigid ones rather than the floppy blades used today.

What is most poor is that they're now well aware of how much more a 500 sells for over a Panda, but instead of spending a bit more so as to make a good car perfect, they've carried on churning them out with the same niggles - the leather seats is one of the only things where I've seen a quality improvement since launch, though I may be wrong of course. Even though the important bits (engines, gearboxes etc) actually seem very good, these niggles really don't inspire confidence on the longevity of the car & would make a less clued up punter think if they've screwed up the wipers, what else is about to pack-up.