LOVE my mono wipers....why discontinued?
 

As I drive around today in the New England rain, I am reminded of the simple beauty and elegance of the mono wiper, which I have on both my MB's. Is not any two wiper arrangement clumsy and ugly by comparison? Ah, life's simple pleasures!

It's so obviously superior aesthetically, I guess there must have been mechanical problems (none of which I've ever experienced). Anyone know what the issue was?

Anyway, just can't imagine how people can drive cars with two wipers...;)

The W126 wiper is very nice in how it moves. On high it is a bit faster to clear the window than the monowiper, just because there are two.

I do like the monowiper though, its a good engineering bragging point. :D I have one of each.

Blame ricers- The poorly done single wiper that all Hondas seemed to grow overnight cast a bad light on the ones that Mercedes used. Similar to the way Lamborghini no longer uses scissor hinged doors.
http://i487.photobucket.com/albums/r...Played-Out.jpg

the w126 wiper was weird

I agree. haha i really like my W114/5 wipers which wipe from the middle to the outside.

I have like 12 of the mono wipers now lol, I pull them off when I see them at pick n pull, I hope one day to be sitting on a fortune

I agree. The 126 is indeed weird. When at high speed the quicker movement of the other makes it appear to curve as it goes across the window.

I do like my w124 monowiper setup.

I really like the W126 wiper setup compared to the "normal" arrangement which dumps all the water from the passenger side in front of your face, blocking your view for a moment until the wipers reverse direction...

-J

Meh. The regular old wipers on my 123 work just fine.

A rock works just fine, but a hammer is a better solution. ^_^

I like the ones on my w126, personally. I don't like the idea of a monowiper for the very simple reason that if one piece fails, you're completely wiper-less.

With two arms and two blades, if one breaks even catastrophically, you can probably see enough (hopefully) out the other side that's still working to at least get slowed down and off the road.

Also, I've been known to have wiper blades that were at the end of their life and had to swap left side for right side to get the better vision where I needed it in order to get to the parts store for new blades. No matter how much good safety advice a person hears, for most people, wipers aren't one of those things you "remember" like oil changes. You know you need them when you can't see in the rain.

Having two just feels like extra safety to me.

One bellcrank, one motor, one transmission, ... the most common failure parts are still single and show-stoppers. The monowiper is a simpler design really, all internal without the push-pull stampings, no side-loads on the wiper bases, and it works so well. Pull it apart and lube it every 15-20 years and it will work dependably.

The reason it was discontinued? The same as many 201-124-140 innovations (like the double-pane glass in the 140): cost. The have to compete with the Lexus and other cheap knock-offs, have to thrift the engineering masterpieces.

They removed the double pane glass from the S-Class? Even my coworker's Malibu has that! The big Hyundai has it on the front windows only :rolleyes:

Having had mono wipers (w202), regular wipers (two w203's), "clap hands" wipers (w114) and w126 wipers I find them quite interesting to compare. The automatic wipers in the '06 w203 seem to keep very good pace with weather conditions. I really enjoyed the mono wiper in my 202, but I owned the car in Tucson so I rarely had to use them. The wipers on the 300SD are pretty neat and work well for the car's vintage, but sometimes the rain and wipers can't agree on a speed meaning I end up rotating the switch a lot. The two speed wipers on my w114 /8 coupe are woefully inadaquate and never fail to make me laugh like a giddy schoolgirl on a rainy day. They really have that "old car charm" to them like something you would expect out of a swinging sixties coupe.

I can't pick a favorite.