When my XF arrived two weeks ago the right wiper was up an inch and a half or so where I'd assume park is. The left one was a bit below the edge of the glass in the front.

Recently I accidentally turned on the wipers - though I'm sure I didn't turn the stalk. However, the right wiper parked as far down as it can go, the right one sticks up two or more inches.

My plan was to remove the 8 mm nut and reset the wiper. That nut is really on to stay and the only way I know to remove it is with my impact wrench - which I hate doing on plastic.

After I figured out the entire wiper doesn't lift up, I lifted each wiper and the left wiper mount wiggles all over the place, the left one seems solid.

I gather I need to remove the panel below the wipers, to see what has loosened, or perhaps broken.

If I could have easily removed the wiper arm I would have gone ahead without bothering you folks.

I would like to hear from someone who's gone through this without breaking anything and whose wipers now park as they should.

Wiper blade suggestions: It also needs new blades. Any suggestions? Bosch?

 

I have no advice on getting the nut off, and as I recall it was 12mm or 14mm - certainly not 8mm.
( they are standard right hand thread - lefty loosey, righty tighty - CCW to remove )
Once that is done, use a small puller to remove the arms.
When you remove the cover panel, make sure you also clean up all the old leaf debris.
I would go with Bosch, mainly because they look so much better.
If the plastic cover cap(s) are missing, you can get them from Rob at NeedsWings.

 

ala_xfire, thanks for the reply. You read my mind regarding the missing cap/cover.

When I said 8 mm nut, I was referring to the inner diameter, not the wrench/socket size which is 13 mm.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Biba

 

This is a thread which shows what it looks like under the cowl. It shows the wiper mechanism and the part that may be loose because the screws are not tight.

 

onehundred80, you did it again. Thanks. Do you know if that is a Chrysler part number or...?

 

Just whining. The impact driver on low removed the two nuts with no drama.

Now I'm stuck trying to unstick the wiper arm from the wiper unit. I'm surprised because when I was just pulling the arm back, it turned a bit - so figured I might have a too loose problem.

What composite is the center of the plastic arms? I'm thinking it might be a fairly hard rubber insert so that it expands once the nut is tight. Perhaps I'm old fashioned but hoped to see splines which would then just slip off. I squirted in some Kroil so letting it work a bit.

 

You can see the splines in the last part of the PDF under "Job Done" and in the second photo.
The part number for the Isolator is the Chrysler part number.

 

I know it's old school, but I just grabbed the bottom opposite the wiper arm with a pair of ChannelLock pliers while grabbing the loosened nut with the other jaw and applying a little pressure while wiggling the arm up and down.
( I didn't have a puller small enough to do the job properly )

 

As I said, 'whining'. You can see I was able to remove the wiper arms.

But this one has me somewhat stumped. When I removed the top cover, the stub for the steady arm on the wiper was slightly inside the steady tube. You can also see how chewed up it is.

While there's really no room to hammer, most likely I can get the tube in all the way like it is on the passenger side. However, I'm sure the mounting stud won't be anywhere near the hole. It is obvious that this problem has existed for a very long time (car has 51K miles).

If the tube was about an inch or so longer, it wouldn't be a problem.

Back to it.

 

Frankly I am not sure I know what you mean. The rod end seems as far out of the rod as shown in my second picture in my PDF posted up the tread, you can see the same circular mark in the rod end and the end of the swaged tube..

 

Yeah, I noticed it didn't seem to be 'all the way in'. Once I thought about it, it was designed to only push in about 5/16". I doubt it was a press fit.

The center/passenger wiper has the stout base for the motor only a few inches away, and I doubt it will ever move. The driver's side is sort of out there in the wind, regarding having a substantial stabilizer.

In any event it certainly wasn't enough for this particular XF. I've made a 'slight' modification. I'll know tomorrow how it works.

Biba

I've forgotten to thank you all on this project, it's very much appreciated.

 

I do not suppose that if the rod is slightly different to that shown in my picture that it would make much difference. The rod should be a tight fit on the pivot rod end however as it has to hold the pivot in position.

 

As you can see this was my solution for fixing the loose male pivot rod end once and for all. Lots of JB-Weld. Sorry about the poor focus. I gooped up the male rod end that goes into the steady tube, and the inside of a short piece of tubing which slid on behind the rod end. Gooped up the outside of short tube and the inside of the longer tube, slid it on all the way on, pushed the rod end into the steady tube, then slid the outer tube all the way on. Let sit overnight.

Obviously I tested it out before installing anything except the nut/washer on the pivot pin (am I getting the terms correctly?). Solid as a rock.

It crossed my mind that the reason the nut on the pivot pin was so incredibly tight was that someone tightened it as far as it would go with the hope the pivot pin wouldn't move around.

I'm sure it has come up but I don't remember reading anything about cleaning out the three drains. Removing loose leaves, sure, but not the drains. Mine were really plugged up but only had a few loose small leaves which were visible. I kept blowing out the center drain until I spied the missing cap for the driver's side w/wiper under the car.

I have a new, correct isolator coming in a few days, but was later called and the part is on order.

 

Cleaning the drains is mentioned quite often in threads on this area. In fact my thread referenced in this thread says ".... done with the cowl in place but I removed it to see if there were any blockages in the drains".
JB-Weld is not going to be too secure if there is any load of any substance here. Maybe a screw could have been used through the tube and rod end? You say the rod end only goes in 5/16". is the end broken of the rod end? It looks like it was swaged and more than 5/16 would have been used I'd guess.

 

If I could have gotten three screws to hold the parts together, that would have been a more elegant way to go. But I just wasn't up for removing the entire wipers.

I refer to this tube as a steady rod/tube in that is all it is really doing. I wouldn't have used that solution if it had been one of the rotating arms.

If my left wiper starts to 'act up' and turns out to be loose, I'll then remove the entire unit and go with the screws solution. But J-B Weld Is very strong, so I'm doubting it will loosen up again.

As is well known So. Cal. gets only about 10 to 12 Inches a year of rain, so the wipers won't get that hard of a work-out.

I also switched out the wiper blades with Bosch ones, so they should last for quite awhile.