How important is the "aero" part of a beam wiper?

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JHZR2

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My 135i needed wiper refills, on its aero style wipers. I generally love PIAA super silicone wipers/refills, and had a pair of long refills left over from other cars.

I had successfully refilled the VW's aero type wipers back in the day, and the PIAA refills fit just fine. The BMW wipers are different. These Valeo wipers have the aerodynamic fin feature as part of the squeegee, not part of the wiper itself.

To attempt to illustrate:



The main squeegee section is the same as any classic wiper, but on the OE BMW item, the squeegee has the fin on its back. I guess this is to cause downward force when wiping at speed.




The main ramification is that now the beam doesn't have the fin, only the ends.



Note how the wiper is now flat until the end section.

Ive not looked at many wipers of this type. How critical is it to have the fin/spoiler on it to force the wiper down to the glass? I'm not opposed to buying new blades in full, but I'd rather refill this way if I can...

Thanks!
 
My thought is that unless you plan on routinely going 85 mph plus it likely will be fine. I think as you stated the back fin comes more into play at rather high speed. Having said this.... In New Jersey on Interstate 95.... 85 is a cruising speed for a good number of people up that way
smile.gif
 
Test the wipers at highway speeds to see if you experience any chatter. If not, all is well.
 
Originally Posted By: The Critic
Test the wipers at highway speeds to see if you experience any chatter. If not, all is well.


+1.
 
Where the rubber meets the glass … driving in the rain yesterday I had one peel. It did not work well at all. They were Duralast and a year old … just bought a single Trico and back on the road … worked perfect
 
Checking the wiper blades is part of our yearly state inspection . Seems that I am lucky to get more than 1 cycle out of new wiper blades .

I do not know if this is relevant , but we are not in a rainy climate .
 
I just buy a new pair of OE wipers every spring. They can be found at reasonable prices.

I tried taking apart a stock wiper to maybe install a Honda refill. Looked like [censored] afterwards so gave up.
 
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I use wiper blades as a "box filler" when I'm buying other stuff from RockAuto. At $7-$9 each for Trico Neoforms (18"-26" for my fleet), it's not bad. They last about a year before the UV does enough damage to start them streaking. I didn't think "refills" were still available, particularly for the beam-style blades, and I wouldn't bother.
 
Originally Posted By: khittner
I use wiper blades as a "box filler" when I'm buying other stuff from RockAuto. At $7-$9 each for Trico Neoforms (18"-26" for my fleet), it's not bad. They last about a year before the UV does enough damage to start them streaking. I didn't think "refills" were still available, particularly for the beam-style blades, and I wouldn't bother.


Honda still uses refills for all their wipers. Wish every car company did this.

For the OP though, every aftermarket wiper I have seen for our 1ers looks like [censored] with a giant adapater to the wiper. I would just go OE.
 
Originally Posted By: mightymousetech
Originally Posted By: khittner
I use wiper blades as a "box filler" when I'm buying other stuff from RockAuto. At $7-$9 each for Trico Neoforms (18"-26" for my fleet), it's not bad. They last about a year before the UV does enough damage to start them streaking. I didn't think "refills" were still available, particularly for the beam-style blades, and I wouldn't bother.


Honda still uses refills for all their wipers. Wish every car company did this.

For the OP though, every aftermarket wiper I have seen for our 1ers looks like [censored] with a giant adapater to the wiper. I would just go OE.


Honda does, but both our Odyssey and accord have a custom shape to the non-squeegee rubber section. Can't refill Honda blades with PIAA squeegees as a result, for example.

The PIAA rubber I used to refill my BMW blades has the same profile, minus the fin, as the BMW blade.

PIAA blades just wipe so perfectly smooth I greatly prefer them.

No chatter even on dry glass.
 
Originally Posted By: mightymousetech
I just buy a new pair of OE wipers every spring. ...
I tried taking apart a stock wiper to maybe install a Honda refill. Looked like [censored] afterwards so gave up.
My OE aero Toyota blades are still OK after 4+ years. A couple of days ago I figured out how to replace the refills, which are about $10 apiece on-line for OE ones.

It doesn't seem long since we could by aftermarket refills for $2/pair at Wal-Mart or Kmart. Now they don't have them. For my Mazda I had to buy complete blades, take out the refill, install them in the original blades, and throw away the rest of the crummy aftermarket blade.
 
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Originally Posted By: CR94
Originally Posted By: mightymousetech
I just buy a new pair of OE wipers every spring. ...
I tried taking apart a stock wiper to maybe install a Honda refill. Looked like [censored] afterwards so gave up.
My OE aero Toyota blades are still OK after 4+ years. A couple of days ago I figured out how to replace the refills, which are about $10 apiece on-line for OE ones.

It doesn't seem long since we could by aftermarket refills for $2/pair at Wal-Mart or Kmart. Now they don't have them. For my Mazda I had to buy complete blades, take out the refill, install them in the original blades, and throw away the rest of the crummy aftermarket blade.

O'Reilly sells Trico refills but they are very hit or miss. They work OK on metal frame wipers but don't last a [censored] on OEM aero beam wipers, I had a set installed in a friend's Forester start to fail in the snow. He asked me for a non-OEM blade recommendation, I suggested Denso aero blades.

Nowadays I prefer Denso wipers on Japanese cars and OEM-series Bosch/Valeo on European cars. Denso's non-value blades do take OEM refills, with a small modification to the refill with a pair of dikes to cut through the
"notch" that OEM blades use to locate the metal spline. Denso OEM-replacement blades are made by NWB. I think OEM blades are good for a long time until there's slop in the frame.
 
Originally Posted By: nthach
... I think OEM blades are good for a long time until there's slop in the frame.
Could be. The OEM blades of my '81 Mazda were still good after 33 years+ and over 600K miles, albeit with several refill replacements.

*Minus maybe a couple of years with short-lived aftermarket blades.
 
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