A 5 cent clip broke on a $25 windshield wiper and apparently I have to buy a whole new wiper blade. I do not accept this result.
Possible options include
Any suggestions?
Thank you
Junkyard. This will always be the cheapest option, and speaking as someone who, with NO OTHER OPTION, once rigged a broken accelerator pump for a carburetor with a paper clip and duct tape, this takes a long time (which is money, after all) and never works very well. In my case, it was a stop-gap measure until a store could get the right part in. Your jerry-rig will probably not last, and will fail at the most inopportune time possible (like a cloudburst when you are on the highway).
Find a car that was in a rear-end collision, and pay the $10 bucks or whatever, and then install it yourself.
I had a wiper arm (which is what I assume you are referring to, not the actual blade, which wears out and needs replaced all the time) go flying off in traffic one, and I watched an SUV run over it through my rearview mirror. I went the junkyard route, and replacing it was a matter of one bolt. I got the bolt from the junkyard as well (I pulled the part myself), and used Locktite on it.
Lucky for me, it was the passenger side arm that went flying off when this happened.
A dealer is not going to give you a spare out of the goodness of his heart. Forget this one right away.
ETA: If you really are referring to the wiper blade, and not the arm, and it broke when you were installing it, take it back to where you bought it and demand an exchange. If it broke randomly after some use, suck it up and buy a new one.
Depending on exactly what broke and how, I’ve fixed such things with epoxy, wireties and just letting the wiper pressure hold things together.
Like Rivkah said, a dealer isn’t going to give you something for free, they’re going to sell you a new part.
As far as making something by hand, maybe, I don’t know, but I probably wouldn’t do that, especially for something that keeps my windshield clean and is exposed to the elements.
I’m not sure what part you’re talking about, specifically, but it’s pretty common that if you can’t replace a specific part, you have to buy the entire assembly that the part is mounted on. You can refuse to accept that, but it’s life. In your case, it’s a blade…wait, is this just a new blade, like the blades you get from the auto parts store or Target? Is it brand new? Just return it and get a new one.
I was thinking you had to replace the whole arm.
Oh, and I did once rivit my friend’s windshield wiper arm back together once. I know I said you probably shouldn’t hack those types of repairs, but it was pretty solid, and these were rivits, not like I was doing it with paper clips and bubble gum.
I used a barrel screw to replace the broken main pivot on a new wiper once.
All the various options to just buying the new part have hidden costs of their own, and the best one for you essentially depends on how much time and resources you have.
If you’ve got a ton of little metal clips, wires, bending tools, and time/experience fabricating things, then it might be worth making or fixing the part yourself. Most people don’t have that and it ends up being a frustrating time-consuming endeavour resulting in a fix that lasts a couple weeks and breaks again anyway.
Similar for the junkyard option. The ones in my town now charge an entry fee (whether you salvage any parts or not), and because of the size of the town it takes at least 1/2 an hour to get there x2 for the return trip and there’s an hour of your time blown. Also, although better yards have all the makes of vehicles they have viewable on a computer system, there’s still no guarantee they have the exact part you’re looking for or that someone else hasn’t already picked it. For a $200 van door it’s probably worth it, but unless you live right by the yard and know the part is there, you’ll likely spend a good $35 in time and fees to get a used part worth $25 brand new.
It’s an annoying fact of life that usually only a small cheap component of a larger expensive piece of machinery breaks. But in general it will cost most people as much or more to strip down the equipment to find the busted spring, replace it, and reassemble the whole thing than to just buy a new or rebuilt part. I remember my dad once disassembled a washing machine motor and found the only thing broken and causing it not to work was some tiny clip or spring, which the local hardware store just gave him a replacement for free. Great - he saved $100+ buying a new motor… but it took him all weekend to replace a 25-cent part. It depends what your time is worth to you, and how much aptitude you have for such tedious little fixes.
[quote=“RivkahChaya, post:2, topic:781386”]
Junkyard. This will always be the cheapest option, and speaking as someone who, with NO OTHER OPTION, once rigged a broken accelerator pump for a carburetor with a paper clip and duct tape, this takes a long time (which is money, after all) and never works very well. In my case, it was a stop-gap measure until a store could get the right part in. Your jerry-rig will probably not last, and will fail at the most inopportune time possible (like a cloudburst when you are on the highway).
<nitpick>It’s a jury rig, not gerry<nitpick>
I totally agree with using recycled parts from a scrapyard. If it’s just the little plastic clip, it will probably cost a Dollar.
In my early years I cooked in a nice Pittsburgh restaurant for a bit and was friendly with the dishwashers ( I bought them shots after work. They broke down and cleaned my broiler racks each night).
I drove an MG Midget. On my way to work one day I had an extremely minor fender bender that did no damage to the other car, but broke both my headlights. I wouldn’t be leaving work until midnight; I didn’t know what to do.
A dishwasher heard my story, asked where I’d parked, and said he’d take care of it. And he did!! He shrugged off money, I insisted he take what they cost him (I assumed he ran to a parts store), but he laughed and walked away.
I eventually learned that he had driven around the parking lots, found an MG, and took the headlights. Yikes.:eek:
TL/DR: ask a dishwasher to fix it.
Will the rubber blade slide out of the $25 assembly so that you can put it into the Walmart cheapie? [The advantage would be that the your expensive blade is made of longer lasting rubber than the Walmart cheapie]. Or perhaps engineer comp geek is just talking about using the clip from the Walmart cheapie–which may or may not fit your blade assembly.
If it’s a name brand wiper, the mfg will probably mail you a set of the plastic clips free
I have had Anco do it
Not the arm or the blade but a tiny plastic clip that hold one to the other.
i did this exact thing the day I was leaving on a several hundred mile road trip. I tried duct tape and pressure. It last about 30 miles then snapped off and flew into rain behind me, hopefully not hitting another driver. I had saved the old blade just in case this happened, so I remounted the old blade in the pouring rain at the next exit.
I think the only realistic option is to take the broken blade back to the car parts store with your receipt and exchange it. The clip snapped while you were installing it. I personally think that’s a fault with the bleeping design of the blade mounting system.
The one I didn’t break is going strong.
Maybe a zip tie or two, then? I mean, I personally would just go to the auto store and see if they could help me out [perhaps even just ask for an exchange–don’t wipers have some sort of guarantee or warranty on them? If you just bought it, I would assume the product was defective in some way] or write the manufacturer if I have the time to waste (or just say fuck it and buy a new one), but, depending on how it connects, maybe it could work as a stop-gap solution.
Junkyard for the part. In the future throw one of your old wiper assemblies in the trunk as a spare.
The last time you went to a junkyard what was your time expended (travel there and back, waiting around, having someone get the part or tell you where to get it…)? For most people here it’s just not worth the time–it just takes too long.
It was worth 1/2 hr of my time to replace a $250 part for $15. The $250 part would have to be ordered so that avoided down time.
YMMV depending on the part, the cost, time involved replacing it, etc…
They sell those on Amazon, search for Wiper Blade Clips.
I think I’ve seen them at the Auto Parts stores, usually in kits so that you can pick up one pack and one of them will fit your blade and your car.
ETA, Wiper Blade Adapter works well as a search string too.
I drive a Chevy Cavalier (hold the applause), while It’s probably the best looking one I’ve ever seen and modified a lot, I had this happen to me twice. So here is what I did.
I took one of those medium sized black binder clips, took off the prongs sized it up and cut it roughly in half with tin snips, drilled a hole in the sides of the piece in question, then bent the tips down and outward. Put the blade on, put the clip in the place of the other and put a small bolt and nut in the hole (MAKE SURE it does not touch the window, it’ll probably be a big scratch) and tighten.
Had it working on mine for nearly two years, bad weather, highway driving and all, and hasn’t come off. Doesn’t even look bad either. Hope it helps, I’m sure as someone above mention, instead of a bolt, a small zip tie or two may help.
Around here replacement arms come with a selection of these clips.
The autoparts stores fit the arms, so they may well have a large pile of these clips being thrown out each day.
Also people dropping into the shop to buy these things then fit them onto the vehicle straight away… the spare clips are thrown away.
Basically, the generic parts shops and the mechanics will have oodles of these clips !