I bought my 1992 convertible 6 weeks ago with only 9400 miles on it, but since it was 21 years old, the previous owner had changed the wiper blades - more than once I suspect over 21 years.

Because Austin, texas is in the midst of a serious drought, I had only ever used the wipers up to now to clear condensation and light sprinkles off the windshield. I had not yet needed to run them for more than a pass or 2 across the windshield.

Yesterday, it was raining lightly but fairly steadily, so I needed to run the wipers a bit, when even the steep backslope of the windshield was not enough to clear it without wipers.

As the wipers moved ack and forth, I thought to myself "Boy, those 2 wipers get AWFULLY close to each other at one point in the cycle!"

Imagine my surprise when they actually collided once, and then a short time later, again. I quickly guessed that perhaps they were not the right length. So, I let the backslope of the windshield clear the rain instead.

When I stopped at an Advance Auto Parts store, I asked for a new pair of high quality wipers, and the clerk quickly determined that the car requires 19" blades. When we went otuside to change the blades, you guessed it, the old ones were 20" blades!

I shudder to think what a string of collisions of the 2 wipers could do to the wiper drive mechanism (plastic parts) in the wiper motor cover. I'm glad it was not a deluge of rain when I discovered the problem.

Just a caution to other C4 owners . . .

Jim G

 

What would you say if I told you that OE is 20"?

 

I would say that the aftermarket apparently noted that the 20 inch wipers were occasionally colliding (perhaps when one of them experiences more friction on a lightly wet windshield), and clearly shows in their equivalence tables that a 1992 Corvette requires 19 inch wipers!

Sometimes the aftermarket is smarter than GM. And after reading the story about how GM's qualification team changed the size of the moisture drain holes in the Optispark AND changed the material spec for one or more parts in the Opti to something cheaper that was problematic, I'd say getting the aftermarket's opinion has merit.

Jim G

 

maybe they were timed wrong !!

 

Sometime around late-94, early-95 GM changed the passenger wiper arm to one that has a small bend just before the wiper end of the arm. It was to help with collisions. Apparently they retrofitted older cars that reported collisions because both of my 94's have the updated arm.

The problem with much of the aftermarket's opinion is that I have trouble translating Chinese.

 

I usually buy 1" shorter windshield wipers because when it is heavy rain and I have to put it on high they go off the windshield and it annoyed me so the 1 " shorter blades fixed that. I have never had any problems with them colliding before.

 

Thanks for sharing your experience and giving new Vette owners heads up. After having flown to a far away city to buy my 93 last year I have a bad taste in my mouth for anyone selling a car to someone that has worn, and torn wiper blades. I had to change mine in a rain storm. Thanks for the heads up.

 

if buying separately, only 1 of them needs to be shorter

 

If doing only one shorter, make it the one that is LOWER than the other when they cross, to minimize the collision opportunity.

Jim G

 

The place I buy from is local and makes their own wiper blades and it is about $5 cheaper to buy them as a pair. But the one time I did buy separately I did what you said and bought the driver side wiper blade 1" shorter and the other regular size.

Anyways, thanks for posting that for others so that they know.

 

I changed over from 19" to 18" blades Tuesday evening just in time!

Today, it rained buckets in Austin, Texas, AND because of the resulting insane traffic, the commute home took 1.5 hours, with the wipers running ALL the time - either on LO setting or on interval wiping. NO wiper collisions!!

Jim G

 

I had a similar issue, I did notice that the lower blade with some aftermarket wipers has a different sweep if you flip it around.

 

I recently purchased new wipers and the drivers side is hitting the hood. It clunks out to wipe and hits the hood when I switch it to off.

What is my option as I have thrown away the old ones.

Thanks,
Chris

 

If it BOTH (a) "clunks out to wipe" (i presume you mean it hits the OUTSIDE edge of the windshield, and (b) hits the hood when parking, it is too long. 19" blade lengths work for me.

Jim G

 

czeban: Just occurred to me: I am assuming you have the correct, factory stock wiper ARMS. If the wrong arms were installed at some point, they may simply be too long even with the correct length wipers blades installed.

IF you had said that the wiper blades hit EITHER the hood or the outside edge of the windhsield, but not both, I would say your wipers are mis-indexed. i.e. the arms were installed at the wrong "clocking" angle relative to the sweep range of the wiper motor assembly.

Jim G

 

The wiper arms are original to the car as far as I know. I have owned it about a year and a half. On my way across this great country of ours, the wiper was hitting the left side of the windshield moulding and the wiper was ripped, so I replaced the wiper and discovered it would not fit under the hood when turning the wipers off.

 

You may have gotten a wiper blade assembly whose PROFILE is too high for the Corvette available space. Get a pair of blades that have a lower profile (measured from blade surface edge to topmost part of thickest portion of the arm assembly).

Jim G

 

I just purchased a 1993 Corvette. The previous owner had replaced the Blades with after market which were too high and hit the rear edge of the hood.
I bought another set (these were 19" as per some suggestions on this thread). Two Vettes ago on my 1986 I recall some difficulty with the height of the blade and I believe I had to buy a Special very low Blade from somewhere.
Does anyone know where to get a set? I have been searching thru the web with no luck.
Please let me know.
Barrier

 

we bought our "low blades" through the dealer we deal at. cost was equivalent to the auto stores

 

For your car these are considered A FIT ACD 8-2202, GM 89001009 and Trico 20-2 OR if yours still had the original blades you could buy just the inserts. I've only used GM OE inserts for years. The GM OE blades are likely still available from a dealer - check maybe.