I had a windshield replaced due to a crack and now the wipers make a terrible, ear-splitting screech noise. First I replaced the wipers with new ones, but it still makes the exact same noise. Dry wipers on dry windshield does not make much noise, if any. The more rain, the louder the squeak. The sound is very short and and happens about mid-stroke of the wipers, only on the up-stroke, not the down-stroke. What the berkeley is going on and how do I fix this? The screech is so loud and driving me crazy. Should I try Rain-x? Glass polishing? Ask the windshield company for answers?
You may be able to tweak the angle of the wipers on the glass to get rid of the noise (should be around 90° to the glass, just try twisting the wiper arm), if you go too far it could come back in the other direction. It wouldn't surprise me if Rain-X or something similar would help too.
iansane
SuperDork
3/24/25 10:00 a.m.
That^.
I replaced the wipers recently in my s4 with fancy audi ones and immediately got a squeaking shutter. I happened to glance at the wipers down the length of the arm and the blade was perpendicular to the glass surface. A little tweaking and they were back to a good angle and they shut up.
I would go over it with Rain-X. Even if you start with what appears to be a clean windshield, that stuff will clean off invisible dirt and make you windshield nice and schmooove.
I hadn't considered the wiper angle. I can try that on the drive home today. It's very possible this issue existed before the windshield replacement too, since I don't recall driving it in the rain before the replacement. Recent fleet acquisition.
First I tried tweaking the wiper arms, no luck. Then I folded up each arm separately to isolate the noise, but it still happened without any wiper contact on the windshield. So I pulled up the cowl to see what's hitting.
...And it was totally self-inflicted by a bolt and rivnut I added to mount the ECU for my engine swap. Haha. It was scraping metal on metal against the wiper linkage at a specific part of its travel. A short stack of a washers put some clearance between the tip of the bolt and the wiper linkage.
That must be a satisfying fix!
I know they can seem dumb but often the small fixes like this make me the happiest.
In reply to WonkoTheSane :
dang, Pogo?!?! you're showing your age with that! and i know, because i know Pogo!
For the FMW ECU and 2GR
