W124 Wiper Blade
 

? why do you think the E series has this one giant wiper blade? I have looked at this several times while repairing other things and can only speculate that it reduces the need for linkage(s). What?.......

It did make the deck more compact and it fit into the design of the blower box being below it, so there was space. Plus, it covers more of the glass than typical wipers, giving better visibility....and its unique and cool. :D ;)

Low cost. MB can use the same wiper system on both right hand drive and left hand drive cars. (MB builds all their models in both RHD and LHD.) With a conventional two blade wiper system you need two different designs, one for RHD, another for LHD.

Doesn't the right hand drive monowiper park on the right though?

you know what? those are all killer answers.....excellent....thanks

ah, the monowiper park, yes; in fact mine will 'park' on the right (wrong)(passenger) side once in a while, for no reason it seems. Then it straightens itself out. Same thing with the rear wiper. Mercedes wants to do so much for you, as if you are a dottering old idiot wandering around in your automobile, not quite sure what the hell is going on. I like the mentality here..... I find the corporate policy between BMW and Mercedes to be quite profound from a product standpoint. Both excellent, but catering to two completely different demographics. I say this with experience because I am currently keeping a 1988 BMW 325iC and a 1990 MB 300TE alive by the skin of my teeth, the game.....

different demographics
 

is for sure - I feel most MB owners are far more conservative than the average BMW owner - though we all can appreciate the German engineering of BMW - due to BMW's emphasis on the driving experience, wheras I feel Daimler goes for the whole ownership experience.

my .02 ....


John in San Antonio

That's weird....ours has never done that....it always stops on the left. It did decide to not move at all one winter day when it was ULTRA cold (-2F)....but the next day it was a bit warmer and it decided to work again. :D (Relay had probably frozen or something)

None of which are correct.

The single wiper covers more of the windshield and is a safety factor. Period.

It was also very cool but didn't stand the test of time. The LAST thing it was is cheaper.

And you know this how???

Lkchris is right. I read about their patented mono-wiper years ago and I can't remember where. It works on an eccentric cam and is able to cover approx. 88% or 93% of the windshiield area. Jaguar has a mono-wiper too, but it's no comparison to MB - they don't use an eccentric cam, just a regular sweep. It was done with safety in mnd though. Kind of like how every component in the engine compartment has a "destination" upon impact, anything to avoid penetrating the passenger cage.

I realize the eccentric monowiper covers a larger percentage of the windshield than a conventional setup - I was around when the 124 debuted and remember the reviews and advertising. I find this to be a bit of marketing fluff.

Let me ask you this - Do you think every part of the windshield is equally important for the wiper to cover, or do you think it is better to be more thorough directly in front of the driver, but decreases in value to clean the windshield away from the driver? The monowiper misses the top outside corner of the windshield in front of the driver. In exchange it does a thorough job of the passenger side lower corner. Frankly, not the best tradeoff.

A conventional two wiper setup does a more thorough job directly in front of the driver, though it leaves a larger swath uncleaned way over on the passenger side. I find this to be a better tradeoff.

That said, every car I've owned since the middle 1990s has had the monowiper and it gets the job done. Folks in places where it rains really hard have remarked that a two wiper setup does a better job keeping up with a downpour, but it doesn't rain that hard here in Dallas. I still think it was largely a cost driven decision. Perhaps not so much in that the monowiper is less expensive than a conventional setup, but more because they didn't have to design, specify, purchase, and stock parts for two different wiper setups for LHD and RHD. Fewer different parts = lower overall cost.