Today in Northern California we experienced heavy rains (finally) and the windshield wipers were working fine. Then 20 minutes into it one of the blades started to squeak. It happens soon as the wiper reaches full wipe to the left then to the right.

One of the rubber blades already going bad? Only had this car for two months now and this is finally real raining day.

 

Mine chattered in light rain at first, but I haven't noticed them doing it lately (light to moderate rain), so maybe they needed to break in a bit. Given it was 14° F last night, I don't think I'll have opportunity to test them in the rain for a few months now.

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I was noticing this EXACT issue on mine as well. (Also in norcal).

Seems to happen at the very top left (drivers side). I almost thought the blade was worn or hitting something...

 

Same here, top of the cycle on the drivers side. I just plan on putting better blades on...

 

Least now I know it's not just my car doing it. Yeah something on the left side of the windshield so I will take a closer look at it tonight when I get home. Far as I can tell looks like the small blade is doing it.

If I put it on full speed it's not too bad. Just weird first 20 mins it was fine.

 

No issue with the wipers on the front here. But I did notice that the rear wiper was going about unevenly or so. Nothing urgent, so will wait until another time to check why.

 

I had the same problem this morning on my way to work (SoCal). Just at the top of the stroke when the wipers are closest to the driver's upper corner. My car is brand new, so I know the blades aren't bad.

Might just get some high-quality blades and hope for the best, but I'll let them break in a bit first.

 

I've had my Fit since July and the first rain I drove in a few months back I experienced squeaky blades but they have been running smooth all day today. I think they just need to break in a bit.

 

Same here, I hope it goes away after breaking in a bit.

 

Well being old and old school I know how to fix this. I worked in a garage in the 70-80's and back when blades weren't as high tech and this was a common problem. Mine squeaked too,or did ,but I fixed it. The blades spend most of their life at the bottom of windshield on the down stroke. The blade rubber conforms/stretches and usually holds last position it rests in. Elements, the cold ,and sun harden the rubber and make it less flexible. The rubber blade is to flip back and forth when in operation. When it squeaks it is not flipping back to wipe,but being pushed along,edge first. You can see this if you follow the blade when working on a WET windshield. It probably won't do it on a dry windshield because of rubber friction on the glass. To adjust this, the flat section of wiper arm needs to be twisted slightly to re angle the blade. I use a adjustable wrench with electrical tape on wrench blades,as not to mar the paint/coating on the blade arm. Adjust the wrench down to thickness of flat section and twist the blade arm slightly the way the rubber won't flip over. May take a few tries to get where blade will flip flop back and forth when wiping. As the rubber reconforms again you may have to do it again somewhere down the road. When you put a new blade on you may have to undo the twist until that blade does the same later on. New blade will most likely not flip the same way as old blade. If your dealer slaps a new blade on in complaint, he just got you because that is a wear part and not covered under warranty. Simple age old fix,now you know. It works on any vehicle wiper arm and blade.

 

Yeah, if it keeps making that noise after awhile I will just replace the blades. It's a cheap fix. Dealer might even do it for free to keep me happy but not going to fuss over $12 part.

 

That wiper blade angle sounds very plausible, especially since here in SoCal my wiper blades likely sit at the bottom of my windshield for ages! I might try turning off the car when the blades are at full stroke and leaving it like that overnight when I store the car. Not sure if that's possible now that I don't have a physical key (the car might be smarter than me!), but it's worth a try.

 

It will probably go away after the edge of the blade gets a bit rounded from wear. If it doesn't, try buffing a little Rain-X into the glass. It will make things slide a bit smoother.

 

Mine went away

 

PaFitter this is a great post! It solves a very common problem, and the only cost is a little time!

 

Mine are squeaking too…

 

Rain-X your windshields people. Not only does it mean that you won't need to use your wipers on the freeway, but it very much smooths out any squeaks or hops.

 

Flip over the offending blade. Solved the issue on my 09

 

I had the problem you describe, but I had put rainex on windshield right after I got car and about 2 weeks before this problem started. I thought I could fix this by cleaning wiper blades with alcohol and applying fresh rainex. The squeek stopped, for a day, then started the next time I used wipers. I then used a glass polish compound to remove the rainex and cleaned blades again.. It has been 6 weeks so far with no problems. I thought the rainex was the problem but after reading posts here it may not have been. I do have rainex on my other windows and no problems. Thanks for this topic. Bill#22335