[ferocity02]

I got some Goodyear Hybrid wiper blades from Costco and cannot seem to get them to fit. If I completely remove the inner adapter thing from the blade then I can get them on, but then the cover doesn't go on. And the cover holds the blades on, so that won't fly.

Am I doing something wrong here, or do these wiper blades not work on our cars?

I never knew wiper blades could be so difficult.

[Efthreeoh]

The cover doesn't actually hold the blade on. Once the blade is in contact with the windshield it locks into the wiper arm and can't come off. If the wiper arm is off the glass in the service position, then yes, without the cover the blade can come off. The issue is the cover is designed to fit the OE wiper blade. Usually to use a different blade you need to modify the cover.

[Three_thirty_I]

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

The cover doesn't actually hold the blade on. Once the blade is in contact with the windshield it locks into the wiper arm and can't come off. If the wiper arm is off the glass in the service position, then yes, without the cover the blade can come off. The issue is the cover is designed to fit the OE wiper blade. Usually to use a different blade you need to modify the cover.

Had to shave some of the plastic off the one of the covers when I fitted the Bosch Aerotwin wiper blades. Oh, and these wiper blades were fitted to replace the OE blades that were fitted less than a year earlier, never been subjected to standing in the blazing sun, and only had a moderate amount of wet weather action, and yet they were shuddering badly and more annoyingly, the driver's side wiper was bowing too much and as such missing an entire part of the screen where it was bowing. Hopeless, and of course being a wear item, BMW would not honour their 2 year warranty and replace them for a new set. And these were fitted under motorplan to replace the older, yet otherwise fine, wiper blades. Annoying. But I am very happy with these Bosch replacements albeit, they look quite different, so it a bit of getting used to (they are noticeably thicker and this can be seen from inside the car).

Curious to see what the Goodyear wipers look like compared to the OE wipers.

[ferocity02]

I think most aftermarket wipers will be taller since they need to make them universal, there is a lot of extra structure to make that happen.

I'll probably end up getting a set of OEM wipers or at least ones that don't require modifying the covers and that don't sit higher than OEM.

[jon_335]

I recently had a set of Trico beam style blades on my car (got them during a big sale at Rock Auto). I had to trim the plastic piece so that it would cover the mounting bracket. Those blades didn't last very long and have since been replaced with Valeo beam style blades. From reading other threads here, they may be actual OEM blades, not just OEM fit.

I believe our cars came from the factory with beam style blades. The hybrids are a cross between the beam style and the older frame style. I prefer the beam style because they have complete flex, which allows for complete and even contact to the windshield. Whereas the frame styles may not have complete and even contact on curvy windshields. Just my $.02

[kisho]

I normally lean towards rain-x or bosch. Never have a problem with fitment on those.

[Three_thirty_I]

One thing I am just remembering - the cover that needed to be trimmed has some sort of issue to begin with, it's always been slightly deformed, like it has been exposed to heat and shrunk a bit (been meaning to replace it), so it was tighter around the blade purely from this issue. The cover on the other side which is fine did not need any trimming. When I say the blade is taller or thicker, what I mean is that the aerodynamic bit is taller than the original blade.

Also remember, the only reason why I fitted these blades were because the OE blades that were fitted before were either defective or just hopeless, and I honestly did not see the point in paying almost double the money to just replace them with new ones that might do the same thing. At that stage I had already fitted the generic Bosch Aerotwin blades to our E46 and another vehicle that had the older style metal frame type of wiper and was prone to shuddering - was very impressed with these Aerotwin wipers on both vehicles, so did not hesitate to get the E90 type Aerotwin blades as replacement.

[GoRomeo]

I have the goodyear ones now and yeah they are a bit taller for my taste and comparing to OEM. It took me some time to place the plastic cap right. Everytime i looked at them from the inside I knew they were not right till after few days. But hey i only paid 12 shipped for both so cant complaint. They work good.

[scootle]

I just swapped my OEM wiper blades for the first time (no more factory service) with the Goodyear Hybrid blades from Costco and after a bit of fiddling, figured out that they use the "Type B Adapter" included in the package. You have to fiddle around a little more to swap out the J-hook adapters installed by default, but once you pull them out, installing the 2-part Type-B adapter is a no brainer.

What is a little misleading is that the OEM setup seems to use a 19" passenger side blade, but Goodyear specs a 17". When I tried to install a 19" Goodyear, it had a bit of interference issue with the side molding of the window and I wasn't getting good contact with the windshield across the entire wiper stroke. I'm going to try and exchange for a 17" blade to see if that fixes the problem. Otherwise, it might be some kind of tension problem on the arm itself which I will need to adjust. The former OEM blades function just fine.

As mentioned, the adapters for universal fit sit a lot taller off the windshield than the OEM connector, so if you care about that, you may want to consider a non-universal wiper option. Just can't beat the prices at Costco in general, period.