Can you lube a single wiper mechanism??
 

I would like to know if you can lube the base of the single wiper mechanism. My 1998 is much louder than my 1991. I t seems to come from the base of the arm where it slides in and out.

Intruder

Mr./Ms. Intruder,
You can put a small dab of silicone grease on the stainless steel shaft which pushes the blade out in the corners of the windshield. The best way to do this is to pry up the plastic cover over the shaft, and do it when the wiper is at 45 degrees up from the resting position (by using the ignition key to run the wiper motor while the wiper switch is on.) You'll see that the shaft is out maximally when the wiper is positioned in the corners . . .

There MAY be a way to open up the big plastic cover which covers up the gears, but I haven't figured out how to do it. I'll be very interested to see if anyone else knows how to do that.

I have the same problem, you could barely hear my 86 300 E , my 94 E320 it is very annoying. You can lube the shaft and the rollers from the outside, yet the results are marginal. I am in the process of changing the base molding on the windshield, and have to take the wiper and the motor off. This seems to be a nightmare.
Engineered like no other car in the world!! I cant belive that this whole mechanism, albeit great to watch during operation, really has no clear advantage. Plus you dont have a backup, hence the bullet proof and therefore noisy design.
Anyway I will let you know what it looks like once I have it apart.

Try this page, not sure if it is for your model/year but looks very complete. Hope it helps, just happened to see it.

http://hsb.baylor.edu/html/easley/autofaqs/wiper.htm

silver boat,
I can't thank you enough! this probably should be posted on the DIYer section.

Intruder

I'll let you know how it comes out

I'll be interested in how that works. I've read that info a while back and have tried to open the big cover several times without success. Those instructions talk about using a probe to unlatch a couple of spring clips underneath the gear housing, but for the life of me I can't seem to do it (nor have folks I've talked to on the Easley list where the DIY instructions originated).

I ryed following those directions last night with no luck, as 400E said the wiper system must be different than on the W124 Chassis cars.

Anyone have any insight on how a lube should be done on the W124?

Thanks

Fixed
 

Silver Boat,

I was even easier than the directions you posted.

I set the wiper arm at about 45 degrees as instructed. Both of the covers over the base of the wiper mechanism are plastic. By gently spreading the plastic they popped right off their bases exposing the mechanism.

Wiped off the old grease, wiped on the new, popped the covers back on. Quiet as a mouse!!

Even NOT sure what to do, the whole process took about 5 minutes.

Thanks a lot,

Intruder

My monowiper had been slowing down as of late and had momentarily stopped several times during its wipe. I removed the wiper and its' articulated arms last night. It took the whole thing apart, removed the old grease and regreased the interior mechanism iand reinstalled the system. It is SOOOO much smoother now. And boy does it go when it is on high speed.

The only thing is, I must have not gotten the alignment correct when repressing the arm onto the wiper assembly because the action goes too far down the driver side and returns back up the window a couple of inches before stopping. I am going to have to think this through and figure out which way I need to adjust the arm on the splined gear.

So Intruder, you just popped the big plastic top on the base? Did you need to start at the bottom or top, the seam seems very tight to be prying apart? Looking at the underside of the base with a mirror, I see a phillips head screw at the bottom of the base. Is this the same setup as you have?

Roas,

There are 2 covers; 1 larger than the other. One covers the base and is about 4"x6" the other is on the base of the wiper arm and is about 1.5"x4". I removed the smaller one first. I spread the base at a point farthest from the wiper tip and closest to the glass. I actually just pried one side first then the other.

I don't have any screw holding the covers in place that I saw; I didn't disassemble more than that.

Hope that helps.

Intruder

The covers you refer to are covering the shaft only correct? Or are you referring to the mechanism cover (large oval cover at the wiper base)? I had the same experience as ROAS when trying to lube the wiper gearing on my 88' 124, did not find any spring clips to release, just some hex screws on the bottom. I settled for lubing the shaft by removing the two shaft covers, but would really like to know how to properly open the base cover.

Happy Holidays!!

Ed C.

Yes, its the 4x6 oval base that doesn't seem made to come apart. Any tips or should I be disassembling the control arms below the base?

The plastic cover over the shaft only snaps in place. Remove it from the bottom first and it pivots at the top and will pull off. To take apart the large oval cover will require that the whole unit and articulating arm be removed.

1) Remove the leaf screen.

2) remove the nut that presses the arm onto the wiper motor. Then pry off the arm. It will pop off given some elbow.

3) remove the three bolts holding the motor in place. Also the bolt holding the bracket in place next to the motor and there is a nut above the motor against the firewall.

4) Remove the two nuts on either side of the center pivot assembly. Thay are also up against the firewall. Then the bolt at te bottom holding a rubber grommeted bracket.

5) The whole assembly can be removed.

6) Remove the bolt at the center of the back that the arm is attached. Be carefull of any washers and o-rings that are removed and their order of their removal.

7) The body can be rotated and at ONE specific point can be pulled apart.

8) Clean the slide rails and relube. I used a spray lithium grease.

9) Clean the gear and mating teeth on mating side. I used good bearing grease.

10) Hand turn gear until the shaft is at it's most fully retracted position.

11) Mate the two halfs back together. Rotate until the rectangular hole on the side mates up with two side-by-side marks. Keeping in this position. Put the o-ring, washers and arm back to place and tighten the nut. This must be in the same position as you removed it.

12) Put the unit back in in reverse order.

13) Pray that I didn't forget anything important.

I think I did not align the arm on the center unit as it was originally because I underwipe the passenger side and over wipe the driver side.

If someone can. Take a pictue of the underside of the oval unit before disassembly. This can be used to make sure orientation is correct.

Post it so I can check mine.

(Yes, I should have taken pictures too...)

On the 1998 w210, E320, the large cover just snaps off also; no need to pull the whole assembly out.

Intruder

FYI, while you are lubing and maintaining your wiper system, you might want to put a little grease on the spring detent that hold the wiper arm off the window. This is the detent that allows the wiper to remain off the window while cleaning the windshield at a gas station. My 87 got very stiff and I was afraid I would break or bend something when pressing the wiper back against the window. A little lithium or silicon grease works great and will last for another 10 years!

I must have a different setup. Under the wiper hub is a large rubber grommet/membrane and the surounding plasic. I can see no obvious way to remove the plastic to get to the control arms and the wiper hub retaining bolts? I'll have to takle this some other day as I need to figure out what the deal is.

Thanks for all the input guys, and Merry Christmas!

Superb advice from Silver Fox!
I wish I had read the tip first on releasing the cover to the slides; I have just managed to shatter the large cover on my C220 by prying a bit too energetically in cold weather. I had lubricated the twin-shafts about 12 months ago, with waterproof grease, which has turned out to be too thick in winter, and tends to stick sometimes.

A bit of encouragement for the faint-hearted, last year the nut holding the whole arm to the wiper drive came loose, so that the arm was not moving at all. You can imagine my distress at the thought of what this was going to cost me!! What's worse, I was due to travel 150 miles to an unmissable meeting the following morning, it was now 8:30 PM and getting dark, with heavy rain due overnight.

Desperate situation requiring urgent action!

I removed the whole wiper mechanism, just tightened the nut enough to hold the arm in place, then offered up the whole assembly, and corrected the position of the arm on the windscreen/windshield, then very carefully removed the whole assembly again and fully tightened the arm-nut in the right place. It was then straight forward to replace the whole lot back in.

This all took me only 1 hour and 45 minutes, with the car on the driveway, (garage occupied with rebuild project) and my long suffering wife passing tools and holding an inspection lamp. The hardest bit was removing the leaf shield without breaking any fiddly little plastic trim clips.

The point of the above, is to emphasize the comments elsewhere in this thread, that it is not difficult for a (supposedly) competent DIY'er to avoid big charges for wiper mechanism repairs.

1992 300TE Will this darn plastic cover over the base (Not the wiper arm attachment plastic piece) snap off/on or not?

Wayne gave step by step instructions with photographs stating to pry base cover from the sides and then guide he base via the hole nearest the driver (Where the wiper arm attaches) to remove the base.

For the life of me I cannot figure out how to pry the sides of the base up ???