I have a beef about my otherwise wonderful Honda Fit. The wiping pattern of the wipers is such that there is always a residual trickle of windshield fluid right above the driver. How?

Picture the swath of area that is wiped by the driver side wiper, which roughly forms a semicircle. Let's call that the driver side semi-circle.

Now picture the passenger side wiper at the end of its upswing, which puts it almost right above the driver's head. Insidiously, the tip pokes *above* the semicircle that is wiped by the driver side wiper.

When the passenger side wiper swings down, it leaves wiper fluid bunched up above the driver side semicircle, and above the driver's head. In other words, the wiper fluid is not wiped away by the driver side wiper. It then starts to trickle down the drivers field of view. Pretty freaking annoying.

So what can you do? Swoosh the wiper again, which clears away the trickle momentarily, but adds to the remaining fluid above the driver's head. The residual fluid then starts trickling down again.

You can keep swooshing the wiper to your hearts content, but there will always be more fluid bunched up above the driver's head than there is spread out over the wiping area. Eventually, the there is so little fluid on the windshield that anymore swooshing leads to smearing, but there is still plenty of trickle-able fluid above the driver's head.

So you spray a bit more fluid and start the cycle all over again. In other words, to avoid that trickle, you keep spraying and swooshing, even though there may be no slush being sprayed on your windshield. You soon empty out your windshield fluid reservoir.

If you try to maintain a respectable speed in an attempt to dry off the fluid before it can trickle down much, it's an invitation for an accident. And it almost never works in city driving situations -- too many slowdowns and stops. Plus, you're always keeping an eye on the bunched up fluid rather than on the road.

You can blast the windshield with hot air hoping to dry off the fluid before it trickles much, but I need to play with that a bit more (in conjuction with maintaining a constant respectable speed as much as possible) to get it to work. Haven't yet, so far.

This sounds like a trivial problem, but it's fundamentally flawed design. I hope that I am not the only person running into this. Not that I want others to be annoyed, but I figure that if it's an endemic problem, perhaps there is a readily available modification. Like a differently angled wiper arm for the passenger side.

 

First ensure your inserts, blades, and arms are up to snuff and not bent, etc.

 

I'll bring it into the dealer to ask about whether passenger slide wiper, at the end of it's upswing, to poke above the semi-circle that is wiped on the driver side. They're the original blades, and nothing has happened to the wipers. Unless somebody vandalized them without my knowing, but that would be odd because they seem to work fine otherwise.

Does anyone else's Fit have the same wiping pattern? Why isn't anyone else seeing the same persistent trickle? Unless the laws of the physical world changes, such a wiping pattern guarantees the persistent trickle. I'd be glad to hear others corroborating, and even better yet, sharing the tricks to avoiding the permanent distraction. Otherwise, it'll be with me for the next 10 to 15 years.

 

I *do* see that on my Fit, but it only runs for a few minutes, then it stops. When it *is* bothersome (and it usually isn't, because it dribbles down a couple of inches, but never into my line of sight), I leave my wipers on interval for a couple of minutes. I've never had to continually spray the windshield (unless I'm driving on wet streets in traffic!)

 

Maybe I'm just intolerant. Do they bother salting and sanding the streets in Regina? That really makes fluid tracks very noticeable on windshield.

 

Yes, they do sand and salt our streets, and my car is absolutely filthy because of it. When it dries, it does leave a noticeable track, but as I say, it usually (because when it's bothersome I leave my wipers on interval for a few minutes) only comes down a couple of inches, and never into my line of sight.

Maybe I don't notice it so much because I'm short (I'm 5'6").

 

No, that can't be it. That's my height too. We're just a pair of short Canucks. Except I'm less tolerant.

Thanks for your perspective.

 

I paid attention, when I was out with the car last night. Since roads here were rather wet, I had a few occasions to use my windshield wipers, and spray my windshield.

Yes, I do get the streak. How far it comes down seems to depend on how much fluid I spray on the windshield. For the most part last night, it only came down half an inch to an inch. The other thing is that if I just left it, after a couple of minutes it dried up. I don't know if heating the windshield makes a difference, but I always have my air on floor/defrost in the winter, unless I need full heat on the windshield (didn't last night), or need heat blowing directly on me because I'm cold.

 

When i clean my windshield, I often leave my wiper on "intermittent". If there's a trickle, it gets wiped every 5 seconds or so. After a while it dries up from driving so I don't worry about it.

 

In that case, it might be because I drive in busy traffic alot, so I spend much of my time stopped or crawling. Lots of lights and stop signs. Not much wind to speak of, much of the time.

 

I also live in the city so not much wind. Try the intermittent trick. I agree that the Fit windshield isn't perfect. My biggest gripe actually is the column of dirt that accumulates besides the driver's window. I find the wiper has a tendency to touch it asnd smear the dirt.

The Fit windshield is so big and satisfying for me that I don't worry about it

 

I tried the intermittent when I first noticed the problem...the windshield itself dries and gets smeary while the pool of water still collects and dribbles down. I came down to my car in the morning and saw the tracks of a meandering trail right down the center of the driver field of view.

So far, my best "solution" is to spray just a tiny bit, then wipe once. Not ideal by any means because it still smears on the corners, especially lower right (passenger side) but there simply isn't any good solution.