Yes, exactly. The mono-wiper is the kind of thing that people always point out who don't like German cars because they're "overengineered." In this case, unfortunately, I think they have a point. It's obvious that a lot of design effort went into the thing... if you take the cover off the linkage and look at the gears (that's another thing you can do, BTW, to make it work better---clean and relube the linkage) you'll see that the way it's made is pretty darn clever... but the end result just doesn't work that well.

I was pleased to see that the latest C-class has gone back to an ordinary dual-wiper system like the 123. Unfortunately they seem to be sticking with the mono-wiper for the E-class. Makes the E320 CDI somewhat less desirable to me. (Not that I can afford one!)

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AlexTheSeal: hack mechanic, inadvertent drifting champ, builder of infernal devices, professional epistemologist

'87 300D Turbo, roadtrip mileage champ (for sale!)
'92 Isuzu Trooper, mudder extraordinaire (for sale!)
'82 Honda Silverwing, cockroach of motorcycles
And various boring daily drivers...