Review: The 2006 Wiper OEM Swap
02-17-2006, 03:40 PM
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Review: The 2006 Wiper OEM Swap
Aight folks, here's the deal. Today I've seen some of the wildest weather ever. I've been through almost all of the spectrum of weathers you will find during fall, winter and spring. In 6 hours and 400km.
I started with ice rain pouring, temps went up above freezing with semi-torrential rain, then the wind started coming in. Gusts were recorded in MTL in excess of 105kph. Then the temperatures dropped from 6°C down to -12°C in about 2 hours. So I've dealt with a combo of wet snow showers topped with steady 90kph headwinds.
Fortunately (or maybe not actually) this incredible sampler let me find out the nature of those reflex wipers pretty quickly.
Selling advantages
And by this I mean what the reflex wipers are said to be capable of in the commercials. Most Canadians will have seen the Canadian Tire commercials about those wipers I assume, so you'll know what I'm talking about.
- Wipers can handle any conditions (water, snow, slush, ice) and won't get jammed, thus will give an optimal wipe at ALL times.
- They're an improvement over what's been done so far in the aerodynamics: The wind will actually glue them to the windshield instead of lifting them.
- Lower profile means less drag
And there may be more.
Observations
As far as what conditions the reflex wipers will handle, here it goes:
- Rain: Not better, not worse than conventionnal wipers. If dirt gets on the rubber inserts, they'll streak just like any other.
- Wet snow / snow: Not much difference, if any. I was disappointed by this. The wipers still have some profiles (at the bottom edge of the blades, in front and behind the inserts, as well as the wind deflecter section of the blades) where wet snow and ice may accumulate and freeze the wiper, preventing it from wiping with uniformity.
- Ice rain. Same thing. If ice can get a grip of those profiles, they'll freeze the wiper.
- Iced windshield: Obviously, no wiper is strong enough to wipe ice of a windshield, so use your scraper accordingly.
In the aerodynamics department is where I was mostly impressed. Driving at 100kph into 90-100kph headwinds for a stock wiper = completely useless. With the reflexes, they didn't bulge. They wiped as well as if there was no wind. I found the wiper motors actually seemed to have a harder time bringing them back down the windshield, probably because of the downward deflection.
This feature is definitely very worthy.
As for the lower profile of the wiper, it is sensible, though the blade is still somewhat high. The reason why I went with OEM parts was because the arms were much lower. Seeing it at first it looked awkward, but I got used to it pretty quickly.
In fact, and you will see this on the pictures, at rest the wiper gear laid completely below the hood line. Pretty discreet, and for a fussy guy like me, might help reduce drag somewhat.
One last detail I like about them, is that when you at speed, and you squirt the windshield washer, wash & wipe the windshield with conventionnal wipers, there always seems to be some washer left on the wipers that splash on the (clean) windshield for a while until it all dries up. If what you've just washed is salt, them your windshield gets dirty again. Well the reflex are a good solution. Since they lie behind the hood line, wind doesn't blow the leftover dirty windshield washer back onto the windshiel, letting it stay clean.
And no adjustment is required for the squirts, they're correctly aimed even with the new wipers.
And voila the pics (notice how they're positionned below the hood line):
I started with ice rain pouring, temps went up above freezing with semi-torrential rain, then the wind started coming in. Gusts were recorded in MTL in excess of 105kph. Then the temperatures dropped from 6°C down to -12°C in about 2 hours. So I've dealt with a combo of wet snow showers topped with steady 90kph headwinds.
Fortunately (or maybe not actually) this incredible sampler let me find out the nature of those reflex wipers pretty quickly.
Selling advantages
And by this I mean what the reflex wipers are said to be capable of in the commercials. Most Canadians will have seen the Canadian Tire commercials about those wipers I assume, so you'll know what I'm talking about.
- Wipers can handle any conditions (water, snow, slush, ice) and won't get jammed, thus will give an optimal wipe at ALL times.
- They're an improvement over what's been done so far in the aerodynamics: The wind will actually glue them to the windshield instead of lifting them.
- Lower profile means less drag
And there may be more.
Observations
As far as what conditions the reflex wipers will handle, here it goes:
- Rain: Not better, not worse than conventionnal wipers. If dirt gets on the rubber inserts, they'll streak just like any other.
- Wet snow / snow: Not much difference, if any. I was disappointed by this. The wipers still have some profiles (at the bottom edge of the blades, in front and behind the inserts, as well as the wind deflecter section of the blades) where wet snow and ice may accumulate and freeze the wiper, preventing it from wiping with uniformity.
- Ice rain. Same thing. If ice can get a grip of those profiles, they'll freeze the wiper.
- Iced windshield: Obviously, no wiper is strong enough to wipe ice of a windshield, so use your scraper accordingly.
In the aerodynamics department is where I was mostly impressed. Driving at 100kph into 90-100kph headwinds for a stock wiper = completely useless. With the reflexes, they didn't bulge. They wiped as well as if there was no wind. I found the wiper motors actually seemed to have a harder time bringing them back down the windshield, probably because of the downward deflection.
This feature is definitely very worthy.
As for the lower profile of the wiper, it is sensible, though the blade is still somewhat high. The reason why I went with OEM parts was because the arms were much lower. Seeing it at first it looked awkward, but I got used to it pretty quickly.
In fact, and you will see this on the pictures, at rest the wiper gear laid completely below the hood line. Pretty discreet, and for a fussy guy like me, might help reduce drag somewhat.
One last detail I like about them, is that when you at speed, and you squirt the windshield washer, wash & wipe the windshield with conventionnal wipers, there always seems to be some washer left on the wipers that splash on the (clean) windshield for a while until it all dries up. If what you've just washed is salt, them your windshield gets dirty again. Well the reflex are a good solution. Since they lie behind the hood line, wind doesn't blow the leftover dirty windshield washer back onto the windshiel, letting it stay clean.
And no adjustment is required for the squirts, they're correctly aimed even with the new wipers.
And voila the pics (notice how they're positionned below the hood line):
02-17-2006, 04:48 PM
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Crazy Weather you say...
Here on the North Shore of Montreal it was real crazy. I know the winds were not as high as at your place (YHU recorded 60 Knots 
) but here we had some major squalls, like less than 5 feet visibility at times...
Can't wait to be in Dallas next week
although I hear they are expecting some ice on the weekend 
) but here we had some major squalls, like less than 5 feet visibility at times...Can't wait to be in Dallas next week
although I hear they are expecting some ice on the weekend
02-17-2006, 05:52 PM
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yup, our winds today in montreal was horrible!
i heared on the radio that windows of a building off highway 40 just burst due to the winds.
man, i am sooo happy i am going to cuba in 1 week. cant wait to chill under the sun vs this ice, snow and winds we get here in montreal
i heared on the radio that windows of a building off highway 40 just burst due to the winds.
man, i am sooo happy i am going to cuba in 1 week. cant wait to chill under the sun vs this ice, snow and winds we get here in montreal
02-17-2006, 05:57 PM
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My part of Ontario just experienced the same weather. The wind gusts were so bad last night that it knocked over my BBQ!!!
sauceman, thanks for your review of the retrofit. It seems that the retrofit offers the same amount of benefit as my swap to the Valeo Ultimates. I've found that they too are great in the rain, not much better than stock when trying to get the winter road spray off the window, and just phenominal in high-speed conditions where standard blades usually skip across the windshield.
sauceman, thanks for your review of the retrofit. It seems that the retrofit offers the same amount of benefit as my swap to the Valeo Ultimates. I've found that they too are great in the rain, not much better than stock when trying to get the winter road spray off the window, and just phenominal in high-speed conditions where standard blades usually skip across the windshield.
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02-17-2006, 09:05 PM
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Yup, I found them loud too. And yet even louder pretty easily when they get packed with snow and ice.
Encylco, correct me if I'm wrong but 1 knot is like 1.9kph, right? And what airport is YHU, is that Mirabel?
Edit: Nevermind, I just checked on FS9 and it's St-Hubert. I don't know them all right off the bat yet.
Encylco, correct me if I'm wrong but 1 knot is like 1.9kph, right? And what airport is YHU, is that Mirabel?
Edit: Nevermind, I just checked on FS9 and it's St-Hubert. I don't know them all right off the bat yet.
02-25-2006, 06:54 AM
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Originally Posted by tuoncan
so does this mean that we can replace our windshield wiper hand with the 2006 ?
How much did it cost you totally? I might be interested in doing the conversion
How much did it cost you totally? I might be interested in doing the conversion
The whole deal cost me around 250$ CDN.
02-25-2006, 08:38 AM
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Having an 06, I can relate to your article. On my 385 mile trip to Memphis, TN in the snow, sleet and ice, I found the wipers to be good IF clear of ice and other debris. However, in 15 degree weather traveling at 80MPH, just about any liquid instantly freezes to the blades if in use. So, half of the blades were frozen over limiting them to be useful at all. We've got heated washer nozzles, can we get some heated blades? Haha. Good review!
02-28-2006, 02:16 AM
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Great review sauceman.
Speaking of wipers though, anyone seen the wipers on the new Civic SI coupe? They might also be on the non-SI version, but the arm has slots in it.....?
Speaking of wipers though, anyone seen the wipers on the new Civic SI coupe? They might also be on the non-SI version, but the arm has slots in it.....?
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