Hi folks, The time has come for me to replace all three wipers on the Prius - I performed a search, but the options are endless and the opinions are all over the place. What are the best/most popular options that match or exceed OEM quality? Thanks a bunch!
This video has the most detailed comparison of all wipers. I'd follow their advice. As for me I'm using some Micheline from Costco. They are pretty good but don't work really well in hard downpours SM-G965U ?
Assuming you have original gen 3 wipers, there are OEM refills available on eBay: TOYOTA OEM FACTORY FRONT AND REAR WIPER BLADE INSERTS SET 2010-2015 PRIUS | eBay
I'm in the process of ordering the OEM front inserts through Amayama (Japan). Their prices are reasonable. There's typically a $10 or so shipping charge for small items. Price break down: Especially considering it's just the front wipers, a little pricier than the eBay link, but very accessible for me. FWIW, we're still on the wiper blades from the factory, build date was August 2009. The car is low miles and garage stored though. And they're still fine, just thought it might be time.
Thank you all! I’m a the second owner of the car and it was dealer maintained - I purchased it from the original dealer that sold it. I haven’t looked at the wipers up close, but I’m assuming these are factory wipers (hopefully the blades/wipers themselves will be identifiable/branded?). If so, the inserts sounds like a good option.
The originals should have the Toyota brand and can have the inserts replaced, but the dealers now sell only Sightline blade assemblies with non-replaceable inserts. The Denso-branded counterparts of the Toyota-branded originals are available, as are the inserts for them. I bought Denso-branded blades on Amazon, but the original insert on the driver-side one lasted less than a year; I've replaced the insert, but who knows how long that will last.
I've gone through a zillion wiper blades over the decades. Nothing has even come close to matching or exceeding the durability and lifespan of Toyota's factory wipers. I bought inserts from my local Toyota dealer for about $8 or $9 each. They last for years. In fact, yours are very likely the original wipers. If you decide to buy the $20-30 replacements from the auto parts stores, hang on to the Toyota blade holders so you can put them back on in a few months and get the Toyota inserts when the aftermarket blades wear out.
Agree with jerrymildred above. I've owned different Toyotas for over 30 years, and whenever I tried 3rd party wiper blades, I've always returned to Toyota OEM. It's easy enough to buy the wiper blade refills from Toyota (~$10 each). My local dealer will install the refills without labor charges.
So I ordered these and they didn't fit. The blade/insert is relatively thicker than the one that is currently in place, so it will not slide through the clips. Has anyone had similar issues, or was I sent the wrong set?
Are you sure you have OEM wipers? Toyota's inserts are super-unlikely to fit anything other than Toyota's wipers.
Is the frame metal, or plastic? If it's metal, you can take small needle nose pliers and spread them so they slide through. Over the decades I've used several types and brands of wipers. None were really better than the other. For me, Bosch and Michelin seem more consistent with quality. The day I bought my Prius I had to replace them because it was raining the once the guy had only smeared the water! I bought Bosch from walfart. They lasted a year! I replaced them with some there were supposed to be aerodynamically designed for Prius. They lasted about 3 months. A replaced them with another set of Bosch wipers. They are not as good as the first set I bought. To me, they are just wiper blades. I'm not going to waste my money on so called better blades.
I don't remember if I ever changed wiper blade on my previous 2015 Gen3 during 2+ years of my ownership. Even if I did not, I did keep a pair of spare wiper blade from a local store. Can't remember what model though. Anco or Michelin or RainX? When I got PRIME, I immediately looked for spare wiper blades. As turned out PRIME and Gen4 has special attachment on the arm that regular aftermarket wiper blade from store did not attach. I ordered a pair of OEM wiper blades and additional pair of OEM rubber refills. This was over 2 years ago. I am still using original OEM wiper on my PRIME, and those spares are just sitting in the back of my car. OTOH, the video shown above by @Fifen was good enough to convince me to order a set of Bosch Clear Advantage wiper blades for our Nissan. We bought it early this year used. It is 5 years old, and I don't think it has Nissan OEM wipers. It is still working, but I wanted spares before going bad. Will see how true the video review is.
Those are the right part numbers for the OEM wipers or for the Denso counterparts (identical except for lacking the "Toyota" branding).
My experience has been that the spray hits the arm if you use aftermarket because of the universal adapter height, which I personally find annoying. (The arm is about a cm lower when my OEM blades are installed) Last known part numbers: Wiper Assembly: 85212-47040 85222-75011 85242-47030 Wiper inserts 85214-30390 85214-68020 85214-0E050
I just switched mine out, the issues I had were streaking, but I think it was just the initial use, after cleaning the edges with a pad it cleared up, but the main problem I had and still sorta of have is on these euro style wipers, I went with the Aero's from Amazon, the initial set I got had streaks and the bottom of the driver one skips, right where your main field of vision is. The bottom hops along and is very annoying to see it skip right in front of your face. mostly because its a huge 28' wiper. I took a video the company gave me the new upgraded model which seemed to be a little better but I still notice some skipping on the blades. I'd like to try others now, but I would look out for the bottom of the 28" wiper skipping in your field of view/vision, it is very annoying. I went with the Michelin rear in the back and it seems to be good, I would also try those on the front?
Folks, mystery solved. They are indeed OEM wipers, however, they are not the wipers that Toyota was originally using on the Gen 3. As it turns out, at some point in time, Toyota switched over to a Toyota-branded wiper blade (logo can be seen on top side of wiper blade, right over the clipping mechanism) that is intended to be disposed - as a result, the size of the rubber inserts changed. These Toyota wipers are known as the SightLine wipers, and I have verified that they are indeed what Toyota uses now - I returned the inserts that did not fit, drove over to my local dealer to buy a set of blades, and they were identical to the ones on the car. My guess is this was done on purpose since charging for blades is more profitable than charging for just inserts. Thank you all for your help! Cheers!
I'm sold on just replacing the inserts as others have mentioned, but I'm having a hard time determining whether I have the OEM wipers that would fit the inserts. Does anyone have advice on this or can someone post a photo of the OEM wipers for a 2015 Gen 3? Thanks!