PRIUS REAR WINDSHIELD WIPER MOD REMOVAL

If you ever visit a place with snow or ice, you will wish you left that wiper where it should be.

 

Looks well. I did it on two of my cars in the past as well. As you love in SoCal, you probably won't expect too much rain!

 

Seeing this makes me think I will try to get my car to run on 3 wheels.

Allen

 

Living in New England I have used my rear wiper a bit. Is the general consensus they are useless? Can't see out or bother with that window anyway.

 

Here, failig to see closing traffic can be dangerous; originally we hatched a double wiprer to clean the whole back window using cheap wipers but didn't like the action(see utube). We finally bit the bullet and use a OEM rear wiper arm and blade to make a double wiper acting together to clear the back window. Just image the circular wiped area duobled in width with a second wiper blade matching the OEM. Much like the windshield wipers.
The iyems are pretty much the same, usding large suction cup to pivot the new arm and adjustable linkage between the two arms. Clears the back window even in snow conditions. Anyone interested in doing that contact me and I'll show you how or provide the wiper, linkages, and wiper arm for $99 if you want to avoid the ferreting.

 

It's a personal preference thing. People take them off because it looks cleaner without it. I say put Louvers on the rear window like the old camaros and Mach 1 mustangs.

 

Will this fit Gen 2 models? The 1/3 of the glass that my rear wiper actually clears of rain isn't worth the blind spot it causes when I'm not using it. Plus it obviously couldn't hurt fuel economy.

 

You can do a rear wiper delete on most cars with a rear wiper....as for fuel economy, I can't see there being any difference without it

Many people do it on Mk3 & 4 Golfs, for the cleaner look

 

Oh yeah I'm sure the difference would be negligible. Just sort of thinking out loud. Does look very nice though. I never use my rear wiper, and when I do it only irritates me with how small of an area it clears.

 

lol at $6.50 Lowes plug with silicon mod. LOL DAFUQ

 

Something that I'll never do to my Prius.

 

It has rained quite a bit in the few weeks that I have owned my Prius and so far I haven't seen the need for that rear wiper. With how the aerodynamics of the car are, rain rarely builds up on that rear window and as others have mentioned, the blade hardly has much reach to do any good, anyway.

 

I prefer to think that is there if I need it than need it and don't have it there.

 

It would depend on how much back up driving one does!

 

It never occurred to me to remove the entire wiper motor, but I found this thread because I want to know how to just remove the entire wiper blade assembly (for now ;o)

 

I decided to remove the motor. )

OK, with protruding wiper drive larger than I thought, I just went ahead and removed the entire wiper motor. It was VERY easy to do.
To remove the plastic back door liners, start with lower first. At sides you will see raised sections to insert a pry tool. pry away and it starts to pop off. Just work your way around popping all 8 or so attaching plastic retainers away from back door. Then starting at the bottom of the mid plastic piece (this one is just below the glass), pry/pop it's lower retainers. Before trying to remove this piece from it's top most area, pull with your hands on the skinny window trim 'just above' where the 'middle piece' joins it on each side. The middle piece is tied into the upper side pieces, so it needs to be moved away from the window enough to remove middle piece from it's 'tabs' into upper sides.

Remove wiring harness and the three 10mm bolts holding the motor and it is out.

The remaining hole is 1.40" in dia. This is 35.56 mm, so a 35 mm plug is just right.
1.375" is 1 3/8" , this should work well too. For now, I just cut a piece of cardboard, inserted into hole and covered both sides with electrical tape until I can get to Lowe's or Home Depot to find a plug.

 

Still got plugs available? I'd rather buy one from you than 25 from Grainger @15.00 ------ contact = twreilly with gmail

 

I would have loved to have found a black nylon plug 1 3/8" ! I found a metal plug at Home Depot for $2-3, I don't recall. But I had to sand, prime and paint it. When I was cutting away the small amount of silicone sealant that oozed out, I nicked the paint job a bit. Even for $6.50 an already black plug would have been easier and worth it.

 

I can't wait to do this mod. Next, I'll cover over the headlights and weld the doors shut.