Does anyone else have issues with wipers in the cold? It’s -5 °C here in the UK at the moment, and my passenger-side (left) wiper is wiping at the wrong angle, knocking the driver-side wiper which keeps flicking it up and out of position, into the service position, which is annoying and dangerous whilst driving. It all started the other day when I went to wipe my windscreen after clearing the ice with a scraper, but I must’ve missed some ice on the wipers. The driver-side wiper wiped, but the passenger-side wiper didn’t move. Perhaps something mechanical has become misaligned?
No, I haven't had an issue like that ... but, when I did some work on my 2004 Prius last summer it involved removing the wipers and other parts for access. First time I had removed them, and it was not that difficult. It is entirely possibly the wipers got misaligned, as that was one of the cautions I remember reading about when I had to re-install them. There are serrations where the arms mount that are supposed to keep the arms in proper position. Sounds like one or both of the arms may have slipped. Attached is an excerpt from a service manual I found and downloaded regarding the Wipers and Washers. More info than you probably need, and also written for left hand drive vehicles, but hope it helps.
Generally take the wipers off of their mounts undo the nut take them off turn the wipers on see the little threaded shaft moving back and forth back and forth now turn them off they return to their rest position reinstall the wipers in their resting position down where the lines are at the bottom of the windshield that your wipers always leave there when you tighten them down tighten them down rather smartly if before you install the wipers you noticed the serrations under the threads are starting to look rather crappy You can take some loctite blue and put a dab on the serrations now mount the wiper arm correctly hold it in place tighten the nut giving an extra little oomph realizing it's only a very small threaded diameter year wumping on. Let that mess dry for about 40 minutes and then see what you have
I think UK gets simpler wipers, without the double-jointed passenger one. In any case, it sounds as if at least one wiper may have been reinstalled carelessly at some point with damage to the shaft splines, or with the nut insufficiently tight so use of the wipers then damaged the shaft splines. Tom's loctite suggestion may work; otherwise it'd be a matter of replacing the affected wiper arm(s) and the linkage. Reposting from another thread (note it assumes the US double-jointed passenger side): Remove the two pivot nuts and lift the wiper arm off both pivots, carefully, straight up. Use a brass bristle brush up and down (with the direction of the splines) to clean out the splines on the shafts (protruding from the car) and the holes in the wiper arm. Line up the arm (not pressing at all down onto the shafts yet) so that the tip of the wiper is at the small round dot that marks the park position of the Toyota windshield. (If you have a replacement non-Toyota windshield that doesn't have the dot, you're on your own.) When lined up, press carefully straight down onto the shafts, paying attention to feeling it onto the nearest matching splines. Hold the arm from moving, and tighten both nuts to the specified torque without letting the arm move on the shafts. The italicized be-careful-here parts are because the shaft splines are very shallow and fine, and easy to smush flat if you let the arm twist on the shaft. Other than that, it's all easy.
Believe it or not they make a tool that you can stick over this fitting I don't know what it's called and tap the thing on there and it'll cut new well not cut new but restore the business
Thanks everyone for all your help. They intermittently working fine, then sometimes I have the issue. How odd.
