newer wiper arm

[red vtec 186]

Do I have to mod the bonnet if I fit a newer style wiper arm? I belive it is from a renault Twingo?

[red vtec 186]

anyone?

[Bibs 11,380]

You need to change an awful lot, including the motor I believe as the car was built around the wiper motor, it's not a 5 minute job.

[mc21.8 1]

why would you want to?

[red vtec 186]

Thougt it might just bolt on.

why? because the one on it constructed from paper straws or rice paper, i.e its sh!te

[mc21.8 1]

[OwenGT3 184]

My wiper arm as always been a problem on my Esprit since I got it. The original wiper set up had already been modified because of the pin breaking, so someone welded on a head from the new style spring blades. I didn't know this until I had to buy a blade and found out it was not original.

 

Since then I've modified the complete arm and control arm because the ball had worn on the control arm making it a sloppy wiper, which made in noisy and not the most efficient at clearing the screen. The new set up was a considerable improvement, but it still had problems with juddering from the wiper blade when the screen was not so wet, just a little, plus it was still noisy.

 

fed up with this I decided over the weekend to have another go at fixing the wiper set up. I went to the local scrap yard and just went around looking at all the cars for a decent wiper arm I could modify to use on my car, I did find one and it's worked out fine. 

 

I got an arm off a Peugeot 107, which has a wiper arm with a control arm set up, so perfect. Yes, the arm did need modifying, but not major work, just a little time sorting out the best set up on the car and making the changes to the arms. The best thing was I didn't need to make a two arm head unit, it was already made, the wiper blade as well was perfect because it was a 26" in length, so 2" bigger than the Esprit blade.

 

The wiper arm just needed a small amount of material removed from the taper to get it to fit on the motor drive, the only other thing was just making it shorter, that's all I had to do to make it fit. The control arm, again just making it shorter and for my arm, as I have new ball joint fitted for the pivot, it just needed that welding on to work.

 

With that all done, painted satin black again it looks great. I clear more water from the bottom of the screen, that half moon area that never gets cleared, but then runs up the screen. The longer arm doesn't run off the top of the screen, the only bit it does that at is the top of the sweep on the drivers A pillar, about 2" sweeps onto it. This can't be helped, I tried to stop it, but it then doesn't sit right at the bottom of the screen, so it's something to live with. The new arm is fantastic, quiet with no judder. It cleans the screen really well and a bigger area, also parks in the same place and no play in any of the joints.

 

In all the whole conversion cost me, £15 for second hand wiper arm, £17 for a new style spring wiper blade, but with a normal fitting and some time welding and painting. If anyone with the same set up like mine and needs to fix their wiper and has the skill to convert the arm, then let me know, I can provide my measurements.

 

here are some pictures of the converted arm and fitted to the car. the first picture shows my old arm with the modified head unit. The next arm is the Peugeot 107 arm unmodified and lastly my new arm modified to fit my Esprit. I purchased two just in case I messed one up beyond repair while finding the best set up.

 

 

I notice the new Toyota Yaris has a single arm with a control arm. I wonder if these could be made to fit and work?

 

Edited November 25, 2013 by OwenGT3

[Roberto Esprit 1]

I am replying to this to simply bring it up the list.   Why would you put this at the end of wuch a wonderful job now I am wondering the same thing!!!! In the land of the rising sun there has to be many of these.

[Glyn Harper 55]

Owen, I’m going to get a Peugeot 107 arm and try and do this. Would you mind (if you can remember!) describing the measurements of where you cut and welded the wiper arm, and what mods you had to do to the actual car? Really would love to do this mod.

[OwenGT3 184]

On 21/12/2017 at 00:05, Glyn Harper said:

Owen, I’m going to get a Peugeot 107 arm and try and do this. Would you mind (if you can remember!) describing the measurements of where you cut and welded the wiper arm, and what mods you had to do to the actual car? Really would love to do this mod.

Hi Glyn, I will take some measurements and post the details, also some detailed images of the conversion. The main arm doesn't need much alteration other than shortening it and trimming some off the bottom of the motor mount hole (107 arm pillar mount is too long). Most of the work is in the control arm and making a new base plate, as the control arm mount hole needs moving, otherwise the arm will go off the end of the screen on the drivers side.

When it's all done you can fit a 26" original wiper arm for the 107, which is the new style spring steel blade. Also you get a better clearing screen, especially the half moon at the bottom of the screen. It works very well, but like all blades nowadays, once they get some age and go hard, the blade does judder if there is minimal water on the screen. It's still a lot better than the original, especially being bigger.

I've now purchased a complete arm and blade from ebay, from a Toyota Yaris. I'm going to see how well they will fit as the arm looks like it shouldn't need cutting down to fit the Esprit screen. It was only £30 so worth the effort to see if it fits.

[Glyn Harper 55]

Excellent, thanks. If the Yaris arm fits with less modification that’s a bonus!

[Roberto Esprit 1]

Keep me up on this. Heck I don't get on much since the cold set in.  So a PM is welcome.

 

[OwenGT3 184]

Hi, I've been able to try on the Toyota Yaris wiper arm on my Esprit. First thoughts are this could be an alternative wiper arm replacement. It fits on well onto the wiper motor splines, just requiring some additional washers to take up the distance to the thread. I've done no modifications to the arm and it fits on well on the taper, with about 1.6mm clearance from the base on the splines.

I had the motor running with the arm attached and it moved well, once I had sorted the washer spacers to allow the spline nut to clamp the arm. I didn't have the control arm attached to anything, but the action of the arm looked good. The Yaris has a 24" wiper arm, so the same size as an Esprit. There seems to be plenty of clearance so the arm misses the screen, also enough so the control arm runs under the main wiper arm when at full sweep. I parked it a few times on full travel and the control arm looked like it will change the angle of the blade correctly. I won't know until I've attached the control arm, for this I need to purchase a ball thread. I've measured the cup on the Yaris arm, it's either a 10mm or 11mm ball required. I've found a ball joint with thread that is 10mm, so will get one to try.

The problem with the setup seems to be when the arm is at full sweep. The bonnet when shut is hitting the arm, albeit just a small amount. As its not much and my car is going for a full respray, I'm going to remove some of the material from the edge of the bonnet, as I don't think it's a lot required to clear the arm. If this is the case, I think this will work with just a new base plate with repositioned control arm and threaded ball to complete the conversion.

As the edge of the bonnet is painted black, removing some material and retouching this shouldn't be a major job, and won't be noticed that much. I'm willing to do this to have a wiper arm off the shelf that fits with no mods to the arm. My screen has a plastic trip at the bottom, this is because the screen got damaged by the wiper arm when I had a new screen fitted, the screen sat in a different position and the wiper arm gouged into the screen. Luckily I was able to repair it, but need to add a trim to hide the repair. Although this does help with the bottom edge going milky over time.

Wiper motor splines and nut thread

Wiper arm on with splines exposed

Washers added to take up spines so nut can clamp wiper arm on splines

Top view of arm in park position. Note the washer jet on the Yaris arm, could possibly be used if so wished

Wiper arm in park position and 24" wiper blade

Again parked wiper arm with 24" blade

Wiper motor stopped at full travel, still seems clearance and not a problem to located the control arm. Blade also clears top of screen

View of control arm sitting under main blade. This will sit higher once located on the ball threaded joint.

Another view of the control arm under main wiper arm. you can see it touching bonnet

Contact with bonnet, I don't think a lot will need removing from this edge

Bonnet contact again. I will be getting a cap also to see how this fits over the threads. It might sit higher than normal

Template new wooden base plate for positioning ball threaded joint.

 

Edited May 9, 2018 by OwenGT3

[Glyn Harper 55]

Awesome work. Just ordered a Yaris wiper myself! Should be interesting to see if I can make any of the required bits on my new mini lathe.

[OwenGT3 184]

I will see if I can get a nut cover tomorrow from the Toyota dealer. Also see if I can get a ball threaded joint locally.

[Glyn Harper 55]

Could you buy a couple of each if you can, and I’ll send you the money?

Ill try and make a nice aluminium spacer instead of those washers you have and send you one.

[OwenGT3 184]

5 minutes ago, Glyn Harper said:

Could you buy a couple of each if you can, and I’ll send you the money?

Ill try and make a nice aluminium spacer instead of those washers you have and send you one.

I can draw up a spacer in CAD to get made, washers are just for testing at the moment. It might even need a 3D printed cover if the Yaris one doesn't fit as the threads are too long. If it all works I would like to create a kit to do the full conversion, but need to just test for now.

Another angle showing contact with the bonnet. I'm sure this will be minimal material removed from bonnet to clear wiper arm. I'm talking a small amount of filing off the fibreglass in a shallow curve.

[Glyn Harper 55]

Ah right, got you. Well I’ve got the arm coming so if you do put a kit together for the rest, I’d certainly buy one off you. Excellent work!

[OwenGT3 184]

34 minutes ago, Glyn Harper said:

Ah right, got you. Well I’ve got the arm coming so if you do put a kit together for the rest, I’d certainly buy one off you. Excellent work!

I will try what you said about the striker pins and spacing them off a little first, before removing material from the bonnet. Did you buy your wiper arm from new? Mine was secondhand costing just £30 from eBay.

Edited May 9, 2018 by OwenGT3

[Glyn Harper 55]

eBay as well. £35.

[DaKa 49]

Sorry for my ignorance here, I've read this post before and probably should have asked sooner. My wiper works well, perhaps I'm lucky or the previous owner did some work here. Interestingly the car did come with not one but two spare wiper arms and blades.

Is there some generic fault with the motor mechanism or arm that prompts replacement with an alternative?

Presumably the motor doesn't need replacing as this would be a tough job, so is it primarily the cost of the original arm/blade that is the main factor making you look for alternatives?   

 

 

[OwenGT3 184]

6 hours ago, DaKa said:

Sorry for my ignorance here, I've read this post before and probably should have asked sooner. My wiper works well, perhaps I'm lucky or the previous owner did some work here. Interestingly the car did come with not one but two spare wiper arms and blades.

Is there some generic fault with the motor mechanism or arm that prompts replacement with an alternative?

Presumably the motor doesn't need replacing as this would be a tough job, so is it primarily the cost of the original arm/blade that is the main factor making you look for alternatives?   

 

 

I don't know if this applies to all early wiper arms, but I have heard that they break on the wiper blade pin, it's a weak point. I think you can still get replacement pins to hold the blade, but not replacement wiper arms, so some people have sourced other wiper arms as it's a recurring problem. This is not a problem with the wiper motor, just the wiper arm.

I'm replacing mine because the original on the car when I got it, was the original arm, but with a modified head to hold the blade, for the reason I've just mentioned. This didn't last ages, I repaired it a couple of times, but I then sourced another alternative wiper arm. I got the Citeron C1 wiper arm, purchased two from a scrapyard, but they need modifying to shorten them and a piece removed from the taper mount. Also the control arm can need modifying to work correctly. Also whatever arm is fitted, the base plate needs a new one with the control arm in located in a different location.

I purchased a Toyota Yaris to see if this would fit, but I'm perhaps changing my mind again having seen another alternative wiper arm. It's another Toyota model, the wiper arm from the current Aygo, not Yaris. I visited the local Toyota dealer today to get a cap for my Yaris arm, then spotted this arm on the Aygo's. 



I've measured it up against the Yaris blade I have and it's the same length, but fitted with a 26" wiper blade. A 26" blade will fit on the screen of the Esprit as I used this size with the C1 wiper arm.

I've been able to source a second hand Aygo wiper arm for twenty quid from eBay to test it will work, but if I wanted a new one they are only £66.23 (Part No. 85211-0H020) brand new, so not an expensive item.

I will still need to source the ball for the control arm, but hopefully this will not be a problem. This wiper arm doesn't look as big around the mount of the arm, so hopefully will not hit the bonnet like my Yaris version is currently doing.

Here's a video of the Yaris arm up against the Aygo.

 

Edited May 10, 2018 by OwenGT3

[Glyn Harper 55]

Bah. Just bought the Yaris arm as well.

I think I’ll wait now until you’ve finished all your testing.

[OwenGT3 184]

16 minutes ago, Glyn Harper said:

Bah. Just bought the Yaris arm as well.

I think I’ll wait now until you’ve finished all your testing.

To be fair, I think when I first looked at the Yaris wiper arm, the Aygo was not this new style arm, it was like the Citroen C1. Early Aygo's were basically the same car, it's only these new generation ones with the new arm design, that are different, so haven't really looked before.

The Yaris arm I think will work, it's just this one looks so much better for our needs. Plus being under £70 quid for a complete arm, was expecting over £100 when I asked, we won't need to buy secondhand. I've only got a secondhand one to test, if it works I might buy a brand new one. If it all works (I've just ordered some threaded ball joints in a couple of sizes for the control arm mount), I will look at getting a batch of base plates laser cut.

[Glyn Harper 55]

Yeah, it’s worth it to get the best possible option.

super, I’ll eagerly await your results.