E90 wiper blades??

[Philip Foglar]

Stupidly I had Auto Atlantic replace these this time last year when the existing ones were perfectly fine, and of course they would not give the old ones back, but with motorplan running to an end I thought it made sense to get fresh new wipers. Well, I was wrong! They were very noisy from the start and have been shuddering a bit on the drivers side on the down motion near the bottom of the windscreen. Now this evening it was it was really misbehaving (and it there is anything I cannot tolerate, it's a shuddering wiper) and shuddering all the way on the down motion! But more annoying, it seems be be missing an area from the upper most position in the middle of where the blade runs, as if it's bowing or as if the wiper blade has torn away. On getting home I removed this wiper blade and there is absolutely nothing wrong that I can see.

What does not make sense is that as said, these blades are only just a year old now, and the car never sits in the sun, as in it's never parked out during the day, so the blades have not been subjected to sun damage. In terms of usage in the rain, also not that much. So I can't believe that this is normal wear and tear. And if the old blades lasted under the same conditions, then these should still be 100%. But as said, they were noisy from day one, but was expecting them to settle which obviously has not happened! Maybe defective...

And this brings me to the main question: Is it possible and going to be cheeky to ask BMW to replace since parts supplied and fitted cover a two year warranty? Was covered by motorplan when fitted, but clearly defective from the start.

Apparently overseen you can get Bosch A073S Aerotwin which I gather is designed for the newer fitting method compared to what the E46 has, but not sure if Bosch locally has them...

 

[msm]

IMO going to be a tough argument with the dealer on wiper blades, as they will pass it off a wear and tear, seeing that it has been about a year.

 

[Philip Foglar]

IMO going to be a tough argument with the dealer on wiper blades, as they will pass it off a wear and tear, seeing that it has been about a year.

And probably not worth rushing the blood pressure up! But very annoying!!

 

[AdiS]

No ways Philip. Their counter argument will simply be, "if they were defective from the start, why did you not return them for replacement then?"

To be honest, consider it from their perspective. A customer walks in claiming that wipers replaced two years ago were defective and wants a replacement now for free. What would you do?


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[Philip Foglar]

No ways Philip. Their counter argument will simply be, "if they were defective from the start, why did you not return them for replacement then?"

To be honest, consider it from their perspective. A customer walks in claiming that wipers replaced two years ago were defective and wants a replacement now for free. What would you do?


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No I get that, and in reasonable terms, if these wipers had worked hard and been exposed to what most cars would go though in a year, or more, then fine. But in reality we are talking about wipers that were noisy from the start (probably even have a vid of a wet road trip showing this which was taken less than a month after fitment) but as said, was thinking that they would eventually settle in, and for a while it did seem like they were better, especially in heavy rain, but when it it light rain or drizzle they are really noisy and shudder, and as mentioned, on Saturday night they were terrible. In terms of mileage, we are talking probably less than 6k km too! So definitely not a normal wear and tear issue, but yes, I am going to be wasting time even trying to take this up with them. What annoys me is simply that the old wipers were actually fine, and I reckon would still be if they were not changed.

I am going to price some new ones from the agents tomorrow and also see if Diesel Electric has the Bosch Aerotwin's for the E90.

Otherwise I know that G-Drive has replacements too, and price might be better than the agents of course.

 

[Jakkals_F30]

Not a nice situation to be in and i would be more than tempted to tell them that they take decent stuff off the car and replace it with crap 3rd grade wiper blades to make a bigger profit.

IMO this is what the dealers do or BMW as a whole cause please tell me how replacement parts can be worse than the originals ? If it's OEM it should be up to the same standards but unfortuneately it's not...

 

[Dippies]

Just Buy new once i don't think a set of wiper blades will be worth the insult to injury argument.

And it's not like you will will have to take out another loan on your house for them to be replaced and your irritation over and done with.

 

[AdiS]

Philip I bought g drive ones for my e46 and they were the Bosch flat blade style and very good!

 

[Sabretooth tiger]

I agree, rather just buy new blades

 

[Rayzor]

Good advice from everyone above :thumbs:

 

[Quickie]

Just replaced wipers on the TI this weekend.
Paid R115 for a front set of Bosch.

How much do they cost on the e90?

 

[Fayz]

I had mine replaced about a month ago via motorplan and I'm having the same issues with mine Philip.The driver side shuddering and moving around like those cheap wiper blades.I'm going to ask them to replace this set as well.:fencelook:

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I am going to price some new ones from the agents tomorrow

It cost about R550.

 

[Philip Foglar]

Okay, agents (Forsdicks Tygervalley) want R650 for a set, so phoned Diesel Electric and they do have the Bosch A073S Aerotwin wipers specifically for the E90 for R365.

So went out and bought a set which I have just fitted this evening, so have not had chance to try them out, but they seem pretty well made. There are some differences between them and the OEM wipers which I hope these photos can illustrate.

The Aerotwin "wing" is a bit more pronounced than the original blades, and the back edge of the "wings" are slightly further back but still fits perfectly within the plastic retaining clip. The hole for fitment goes all the way through on the Bosch blades whereas the OEM blades are closed on the other side. Note how the upper OEM blade bows more than the Bosch blade - these are both the drivers side in these pics:

Will update and give feedback once I've had chance to put them through their paces, and with the weather we are having currently, should be plenty of opportunity.

I did speak to one of their service consultants about the faulty blades and eventually they said that the two year warranty for fitted parts does not cover wear and tear items like brake pads and wiper blades, so bad luck basically.

 

[NavZ]

How are these Aerotwins doing?