It seems as if the wiper arms on my 2000 S40 are the wrong type. When the hood is opened, it scrapes against the left side arm. The right arm lifts off of the windshield at the top of its stroke.

I Googled this issue and found others with the same problem. Is this an inherent problem with the early S40s or do I have the wrong arms on mine?

I just bought the car a few months ago and don't know much about what the previous owner did to the wipers.

Thx.

 

the wiper arm sits on a spline and is held on by one bolt. Usually the problem is the arm itself bends over time (had similar issues on my 850T). You should check to make sure the nut is fully tightened and if it is sitting in the proper park position. Other than that, you may opt to replace the arm.

 

I had to replace the arms. The spring holding it to the windshield gets weak.

The scraping happened on mine too. I never did find a fix for it.

 

It's not the arm - it's the spindle. To confirm, place your hand over top of the spindle and attempt to shake it side to side. If it clearly moves, you've worn out the plastic spindle. I'd show you some pictures but stupid photobucket has banned me from posting to third party sides. To fix this issue, you can replace the whole linkage (kind of expensive) or you can head to the junkyard, find some V/S 40's and shake the driver's side wiper spindle of each until you find one that's solid. Pop the plastic cowl off and proceed to remove the triangular-shaped base that the wiper is fixed to (the piece with three mounting screws). Replacing this piece alone should do the trick. When you remove yours you will clearly see that what was originally a circular opening has been worn into an oval allowing for movement of the arm towards the hood.

 

you can upload pictures directly to the board - use the Go Advanced button and do a file attachment of your pic.

 

Here are the pics of the wiper spindle, etc. You'll see the triangular piece that wears over time. Where it was once a circular opening you can clearly see that an oval has been worn in. This creates movement in the spindle and shifts the wiper downwards towards the hood which creates the rubbing.

 

I have the exact same problem with my 2002 V40. Failed the Mass.safety inspection yesterday.

 

same problem on a 2003 V40 ... which is odd, since we live in an area with little rain - so the wipers get hardly used at all...

I have seriously thought about bending the long metal link (that goes between the spindle and the actual wiper) to get rid of the lifting issue on the top of the stroke. probably worth a try to pass inspection ...

cheers, Al

 

A clock maker would bore it out and re-bush it.

 

As for the right wiper lifting off the glass at the top of its stroke, which seems to be rather common, the spring in the arm must weaken over time and not be based on use. My 2002 V40 was bought new and has only about 22,000 miles on it. I bent the wiper arm into a sizable arc and it now stays on the glass and got me through inspection. Concerning the other issue of the hood scraping the left arm, pierremcalapine’s explanation certainly makes sense after wear, but in my case, there is no apparent wear, yet the hood scrapes when opened. Seems to be a design flaw.

 

interestingly, we had the same issue on our 2000 S40 (arm touching the hood when retracted). I replaced the arm with a new OEM part and no more touching. I also got firm contact for the full sweep to boot.