ok lovely ty, then the rainx should definitely help, especially with juddering
I've decided not to use RainX for windows that have wipers. It's excellent on the side windows and mirrors, but a wiper always leaves a smear (of tiny droplets) for a brief moment. Distracting at night - and confuses the rain sensor (it puts the wipers on high speed when there's hardly any rain).
I've tried strip-type pedestrian-friendly modern-car wipers and they last about three weeks before taking on a 'set' in the sunshine - so they don't flip-flop as they pass over the screen, and instead make a pained shuddery shriek as they lead in rather than trailing.
For my FIAT 500 I ended up with genuine new strip-type wiper blades - $180 special-order - they lasted nearly a month before also failing to flip-flop.
On my Stilo I've replaced my wiper rubbers three times already since Christmas with the type that has two stainless-steel rails in grooves of the rubber. These fit into the original curved blade carrier on passenger side and original spoiler-type carrier on driver's side. Last year I tried straight blade carriers (Bosch, Valeo, and some no-name brand).
My biggest success though was to clean the windscreen with brake cleaner (to get rid of the RainX) followed by "Glass Scrub" (an abrasive paste in a tube), which has finally got rid of the water spotting. Now, the wipers no longer squeak or smear (as much... Every now and then, RAaaaaAAARK!) and the rain sensor works quite well.
Rain blew out of a tree yesterday and my wipers didn't activate even though I couldn't see - also, the spray from a passing truck might not activate the wipers either - simply because no rain landed on the sensor
It's like TV ratings - no-one actually knows whether 587,441 people tuned into Who Wants To Be A Millionaire last night. Likewise, the rain sensor is only a tiny sample of the windscreen area. It can never really be accurate, and it can't respond quickly enough for spitting-to-monsoon in three seconds which is typical around here for summer. It's winter now, so at least the rain is more constant.
Sadly, my Wipex linkage still creaks loudly on the driver's side. There was nothing wrong with my original links but I think I damaged (scratched) one of the balls getting the original links off (to fit the tighter-fitting replacements). So, tomorrow I think I'll buy some rose joints and make a higher-quality slack-free linkage.
As you can tell from how I'm writing this on my phone at 2:10am, wipers make me very angry - they never seem to work properly in any car I've owned in the last five years. And around here, you need them every three days on average
-Alex
