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So I called the dealer about what size wiper blade to replace on the elise, he said 23" and only a lotus brand wiper blade will work. So I called BS on that, and went and bought a rainx wiper blade, same size as the stock one at 26". Although he was wrong about the size he was right about the fitment. It won't lock in, and when I pulled off the stock wiper, the little release tabs snapped off upon removal. Well the wiper sits and is secure but its not locked in, tested at normal speed and it didn't slide off nor fly off.
Question, what would you recommend I do to secure it?
I just put on a 24" RainX Latitude which is the style as the Bosch Icon. All you have to do is change the clip that's on the blade to the bigger clip supplied with the blade. The RainX worked will at the Auto-X in Marina, Ca this last weekend. Quack Bye:wave:
I simply bought a standard Trico refill blade (part number 45260) for $3.05. It works just fine. You simply remove the rubber blade from the assembly, and insert the new rubber refill.
its worthwhile making sure its secure, both times i've needed to use it, its flown off, once at aspen, once on the freeway heading out of CA, that wasn't much fun, bald a048's,s and torrential rain with no wiper, luckily the roads are all straight here.
My blade almost fell completely off the other day. It was raining lightly and I was only going about 15 MPH. The U shaped area of the wiper arm slipped out of the housing and the blade was still attached but it looked like it was bent up sideways against the windshield. I turned off the wiper, took the blade assembly off, and but it back on and made sure it was securly in place, and it worked fine. Luckily there were no scratches on the windshield from the metal part of the arm.
I hardly ever drive in the rain, so maybe the wiper was stuck to the glass and the arm got loose when I turned on the wiper.
Car is over 4 years old so i guess I'll replace the wiper tommorrow.
Anco 24", p/n: 31-24. Switched from the stock 26" curved to the Anco 24. Bought at Walmart (under $5). Comes with wider clip -- perfect fit to Elise wiper arm. Swapout took 90 seconds. Operation of new wiper assembly is flawless--no chatter or rattle --clears slightly less glass than the 26, but does not lift off the surface during the sweep. For $5, I'll change it every year.
Hopefully it's ok to tag along this thread with something I discovered.
I recently swapped my wipe blade and did a bit of a research myself.
The local auto shop didn't carry Trico refills or any Bosch wipers. So I tried RainX RX 30226 and Trico 15-260. True enough the fitting wasn't perfect. Both are 26" and are the older design (steel bar hanger type). Before convincing myself to go with the newer 1-piece Bosch Ikon or RainX Lattitude, I examined the Lotus OEM wiper and Trico 15-260. The difference obviously is the curvature of the OEM wiper steel hanger (pointed by red arrows, not the two medium ones and four little ones hanging below).
So what I did was to bend the steel hanger to mimic the curvature of the OEM wiper.
And indeed, it fits much better. Hopefully this will help someone else down the road.
I have bought wrong length wiper blades in the past...it's a pretty easy fix. Take wrong wiper blade plus receipt to store and swap for right size. Most auto shops are pretty cool about it.
got the Bosch Icon 26". Sure enough, the last few inches hangs off the because of the curvature... I'm gonna return it and get refill inserts. for 30 bucks, definitely not worth it hanging off the edge like that...
I used the Michelin Radius 26" and it seems to be clipping in fine with no adapter. FYI, at first it didnt look like it would work, as the hook on the Lotus is larger than most, but somehow, it seems to work. Feels good, but I have not yet run it in the rain. Then end does lift a little bit at rest, but there is a substantial precurve in the blade.
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