wiper blades

[notorious]

Originally Posted by Adrian E

Etka lists a set of Valeo blades with wear indicators for £25.50 (4b0 998 003) or separate drivers (4b0 955 425) for £16.79 and passenger (4a0 955 425b) for £13.88. Not sure why they offer 2 different options, as presume the individual blades aren't Valeo and will most likely be Bosch?

You can buy just the wiper rubbers (895 955 429a) for £8.10 if you know you've got the OE blades, but on mine I'm not sure I have an invoice for when they were last changed so would rather buy complete new ones.

Just wanted to say that Valeo kit 4b0 998 003 is of awful quality in comparison with separately ordered driver (4b0 955 425) and passenger (4a0 955 425b) ones from SWF, whcih are great. Wiper rubbers wiper rubbers (895 955 429a) are also SWF and are of great quality. No tools required to change rubbers.

[Adrian E]

Originally Posted by notorious

No tools required to change rubbers.

I know this is an old thread, but I bought a set of the Audi replacement rubbers and looking to change them before we set off to the West Country this afternoon!

Any tips on how the old rubbers come out? I'm very good at applying force in the wrong direction and don't want to break the old ones if I can't get replacements today....

Cheers all

Adrian

[HPsauce]

Adrian, I just had a look at my spare set and I think the only way is to use small pliers to slightly prise open the metal retaining lugs on the arm so that the blade and stiffeners slide out.

If you look carefully you'll see it's only retained at one end with the lugs fitting into recesses in the rubber. The stiffeners in turn have projections at that same end that lock them into the rubber.

So "no tools" means "apart from small pliers".

[Adrian E]

Thanks Andrew

The driver's side one is definitely past its best and looks like it's going to be a wet driving weekend for me!

I'll go grab mine off the car and see if it looks like I can do it without breaking anything lol

A

[Adrian E]

Scratch that - just rang TPS and they have the whole blades on the shelf so I'm grabbing those instead! Will experiment on the old ones and keep them to one side for next time, assuming I can swap the rubbers

[HPsauce]

I've just got cheap aero-style blades on mine for everyday use, they work fine. Cheap as chips and replaced regularly.
Both are straight and IIRC it's 24" driver, 23" passenger.

I keep the originals as backups or for "show", so they might go on at Goodwood on Sunday.

[Adrian E]

I'm pretty sure this is the first time I'll have actually changed mine in 5 years! They've been OK, probably because the car is always garaged so escape the worst effects of the weather when the car isn't in use.

[oldnick]

seeing this thread is back in action , just a quickie

I have what I presume is the correct set up , one straight , one curved [ my wife insists the correct description is one plain , one purl ] branded bosch

condition looks good , but they are really noisy !

is that normal ? or is it a function of age [ car wasn't used for 3 years , sat in the barn under a dust cover ]

[Adrian E]

Mine were exactly the same - no signs of cracking etc but driver's side was noisy at the top end of the sweep. I'd also noticed the wipers seemed a bit slower than they should.

New blades fitted for last weekend's road trip and not only has the annoying judder gone (which only happened in rain heavy enough to require the wipers on all the time, but not quite enough to wet the screen constantly) and they are sweeping much faster too. I presume the old rubbers had deteriorated to the point they were putting more drag on the screen, hence the judder and slowness.

I just checked my receipt and TPS gave me 28% discount on the replacement blades! Came in at just under £26 for the pair (the recommendation is to buy the individual blades rather than the set, as they're made by different companies)

The part numbers are:

Drivers: 4b0955425 RRP £19.36
Passenger: 4a0955425b RRP £16.32

[Borys]

Had a dilema with which wipers to buy for my d3
Finally went to audi 54£ for a set and they are brilliant
Few quid more will not bunkrupt me and its well worth it