Wiper Touching the Hood

[chester284]

The passenger side wiper on my 525i is touching the edge of the hood. It does not interfere with movement of the wipers but it has scratched the edge of the hood. I've looked at a few other e34's and they all seem to be touching the hood.

Does anyone know if this can be fixed.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[Brian C.]

....and love it for what it is. A small mark surrounded by uncompromised beauty. E34s all have it, or all get it sooner or later.

Brian C.

[winfred]

2 choices, get use to it they all do it, or i've herd of a updated arm from the dealer but i've never seen it

[avitt2]

I bought the updated arm from BMA, and it solved the problem.

[Scott E]

I bought the updated arm from BMA, and it solved the problem.

[Phil Sanderson]

so that it does not touch the wipers. Pop the hood and look below the windscreen where the rubber rollers on the hood fit into that chanel. The 2 bolts securing that chanel, loosened, will allow the chanel to be moved vertically up and down. Raising the chanels up will move the hood away from the wiper arms.

Phil

[chester284]

I have already tried that. I have moved them as far up as I can.

Thanks again.

[avitt2]

I've discarded my receipt, but I believe the price was about $30-35. Don't have the part number, but BMA knew what I was talking about when I called them.

I wanted to get the situation corrected before getting some body work and the hood painted. Glad the new arm took care of it.

[Bellicose Right Winger]

Save yourself $35 + shipping...use a half round file and black touchup paint.

http://www.bimmer.info/bmw/pshovestul/sRGB9995c.jpg

Paul Shovestul



I have already tried that. I have moved them as far up as I can.

Thanks again.

[Mas (UK)]

repositioning the wiper so that the arm rests a little higher up on the windscreen. Under the plastic cover at the end of the arm there is a nut which you need to remove. The bolt hole in the arm is grooved so that it fits securely to the motor shaft, which is also grooved. I know on the European models there should be about a 2-5mm gap between the arm at rest and the edge of the bonnet (hood). I found this out after my windscreen smashed and was replaced by the RAC windscreen guy, afterwhich the arm position didn't look right and touched the edge of the bonnet. So I repositioned it with more clearance. I'm not sure if the US models differ in the design here to allow this, but maybe worth a try.

Cheers,

Mas



The passenger side wiper on my 525i is touching the edge of the hood. It does not interfere with movement of the wipers but it has scratched the edge of the hood. I've looked at a few other e34's and they all seem to be touching the hood.

Does anyone know if this can be fixed.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[Raz]

My car has the same fault and is due to the wiper spindle bearings wearing out. This allows the wiper arm to go a little off course and therefore clips the bonnet edge. The problem is worse on the fast setting - it really makes a racket!

I have just bought another wiper mechanism from a breaker (with good bearings) and have just got to figure out how to get enough access to fit the damn thing

[SBC]

Standard problem with a standard solution.

The problem is that the hood is too heavy, thus it sinks in the middle due to gravity. To fix, simply bend the hood back!

You can do it with the hood closed and one hand resting on top of one of the hinges, while you pull upwards in the centre of the hood with the other. Or you can open the hood and grab one side of the hood and the centre and pull/push, while a friend does the same on the other side of the car.

Yes, it can be done. Been there, done that :-)

[632 Regal]

Just kidding!!!!!!!!

[rickm]

BMA can get the notched arms, my car came with them when I purchased it.

[JoshsE34-M50]

I also had this problem. Here is what worked for me:
-Adjust the pass. arm slightly farther up onto the windshield

-set the rear catches to their highest points (this will set the hood plane to a level just slightly above the fenders, but it looks acceptable in my opinion)

-you can gain a small amount of clearance by pulling straight up on the center section of the closed hood with both hands. This step does not change much, but every little bit helps.

Also replaced the scratched-up pass arm (just used one from BMW dealer), rubber inserts, painted the rest of the parts with Griot's paint, polished winshield, Rain-X, intensive washer fluid, redyed the cowl grill black,etc. Now I have a great wiper system intead of one that hits the hood that I don't even want to use.

[Dan in NZ]

It's likely to be a combination of all the above issues, but if you're like me and don't want to raise the resting position of the wiper arm, there is another solution. Open the hood and look at the wiper arm. Between the sheetmetal and the underneath bit of the wiper there is a spongey washer, the washer compresses, goes brittle and breaks after many years, this causes the wiper to stick up a little bit more. If you can replace this washer, the wiper will sit a few mm closer to the glass, and not touch the hood so much.

[70383roadrunner]

Within the past few weeks I noticed the same problem. I raised up the back positioning of the hood and raised up the resting position of the passengers side wiper and now it doesn't hit. You don't really notice the wiper is up any higher.

[wingman]

It's part of the E34 character just like the crappy 'shrinking' vinyl on the door cards and the erratic dash.

[genphreak]

It's part of the E34 character just like the crappy 'shrinking' vinyl on the door cards and the erratic dash.LOL

For sure. However the main culprit - the first thing to try when you see this problem surface is:

Adjust the bonnet locks (near the firewall) up.

They all sink, not because the bonnet/hood is too heavy, but because when an e34 gets older the hood struts don't work so well and some idiot slams the hood on the latches (even the wind can do it when you aren't looking (beware not to have your head in there on a windy day!!!)

The locks are located in the upper fender areas by 3 10mm bolts, you need a ratchet and an extension to re-position the latches.

If you leave your wipers hitting the hood you wiper motor will wear out (slow down) and if it gets real bad the wiper motor cog will crack. (Don't ask me how I know)

Fix it before you f** it I say...

PS. On models with the driver's side Pressure Adjuster Device (PAD), (ie 535/540 and maybe others) there are more problems as the device bends the driver's arm near the base, twisting it and causing it to hit the bonnet also.

UPDATE:

Always check to see if you can get away with moving the bonnet forward a tad. To do so you must remove the grille (follow the procedure by first loosening the fastener clips (Phlips screwdriver) above the kidney grilles, then get bind a large flathead screwdriver with tape to prevent scratching anything. Use it to pop the plastic tabs holding the grille assy under the main beams (carefully) and then get the ones (carefully) in the bottom middle of each kidney grille.

Remove the grille and then you can get a wrench in to loosen the bolts holding the bonnet hinge brackets. Pull bonnet forward as much as possible without going too far out of kilter with the fenders.

If you go too far the grille may not clip in properly at the top of the kidneys. On mine I removed some grille material to allow the mount to interfere more co-operatively wth the grille.

This procedure is probably required in order to make up for bad adjustment of the bonnet after a PO tried shoving something with your bimmer's nose...

btw, I've said all this before so its searchable :) Nick