I am on my 3rd set of wiper blades trying to get rid of the skipping motion. I did not notice this problem with original. I bought one set at Autozone that skipped, went back and bought an expensive pair of blades, they skipped. I went then to Advanced and bought the best wipers they sold, they skipped. I just went to the dealer and got a pair of blades, they skip just as bad as all the others I've tried. Now these I bought at dealer were not the original, the guy said the original wipers was pretty expensive but that may be where the problem is. I did a search here and didn't find any problems anyone has had. I have tried cleaning the windshield, This last time I used clay bar on the windshield but that made it worst. It would skip after each swipe after I used clay bar. The last thing I done was use some waterless wash on windshield that has it temporally stopped skipping. The wipers run smooth so there is not a problem with any jerking or motion or anything like that. Any ideas? I have 115K on 2011 Prius, not had a minute trouble out of it except for this skipping. I also have about 65K mile on this set of Michelin Energy saver A/S tires, they will go another 10K. I'm averaging 51 mpg Summer and Winter.
Drop 2" off the large wiper and use rainx, and use their wiper fluid, or.... keep fighting with it, expensive blades, you really won't notice an inch on either end of the big wiper and then they are much smoother.
Sounds to me like you have wax/residue buildup on your glass. Try using a solvent and clean the glass really good, possibly using a rasor blade to scrape it clean of any residue left from the inferior blade/rubber. Then as URSLE mentioned, apply rainx to make it slippery. You probably can reuse any of the blades you've purchased recently, as long as they are not worn.
The clay bar might have made it worse......instead of it being slippery, now it beads water and keeps it from moving.
Gary, I can appreciate your frustration with the wiper blades and am surprised that the solution has taken so long. This one that I learned about years ago. Rather than explain it, there is a good video and don't concern yourself that this involves a MINI. Wiper blades are wiper blades.
Yes, that may very well be my problem, was next on my list of things to try. The blades look perpendicular to the windshield but its really hard to tell. It really wouldn't take much to make it off. As much trouble as I've had, something like this may be the problem. Thanks for the video
Just reporting back in after aligning the wiper blades perpendicular to the windshield. This seems to have corrected the problem, when the blades would come up the were pushing instead of wiping.
I use rainX on the glass and use RainX wiper blades, they work great, no skipping or streaks. At speed,(40+), the water beads and shoots right up over the roof, you can run with the wipers off.
