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MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG MGA - wiper blades

Can anyone recommend a supplier of good quality wiper blades?

The ones I have fitted at the moment are very stiff and they do not really like to conform to the windscreens shape.

The drivers side blade only wipes the screen properly in one direction but the passenger side blade hardly wipes the screen at all.

Some may say that the way I drive, it maybe a good thing that my wife cant see where we are going, but I would really like to have a set of wiper blades that actually remove the water from the screen.

Any suggestions?

Colyn
Colyn Firth

Col, years ago there was an accessory that you clipped to the arm...it had 3 or 4 "aerofoil" fins that pressed the blades to the screen at speed....well suited to your style of MGA driving (hehe)
Gary Lock

Colyn, the wiper arms should be adjusted so that the blades naturally sit at 90 degrees to the screen. When the blade moves in one direction it flips to trail at an angle to the screen. When it reverses direction, it should flip to trail at the same angle the other way. To achieve this, you need to take a pair of pliers to the arms and give them a tweak. Of course, if the rubber has gone hard, they will need to be replaced, but the new blades should be checked when they are fitted, that they sweep correctly, and the arms adjusted accordingly.
Lindsay Sampford

Thanks Lindsay, strangely enough, I actually did adjust the wiper arms in exactly that manner yesterday but I haven't yet checked to see if the blades flip correctly each time the arms change direction.

Both blades are brand new but they seem so stiff that they don't want to conform to the screens profile.

Gary, seems as if you are trying to make me drive faster still😁.
I remember those wiper blade aerofoils, most of my cars in the 70s had them.

I have also found that Rainex on the screen is great for high speed driving in the rain, it makes the wipers almost redundant, but you still need decent wipers at low speeds.

Colyn
Colyn Firth

Colyn, if you fit aerofoils to your wiper blades, you might want to uprate your front suspension to cope with the extra down-force.
Lindsay Sampford

Colyn
I have replaced the Rainbow blades with new rubbers and using the original arms. I wonder whether there is too much pressure from your arms making it harder for the blades to rotate?
Brian
Brian Paddon

You could be right Brian,
I have fitted MG Midget wiper arms since I fitted the 2-speed wiper motor as the original push-on arms just kept on falling off!

The Midget arms have the advantage of having a screw clamp which grips onto the splined spindle and so they stay put.
Also, they have a coil spring to apply pressure onto the screen and maybe this extra tension may be preventing the blade from "flipping" on each stroke.

I have just sent for some new "Rainbow" blades from B & G and so we will have to see how they perform.

Colyn
Colyn Firth

I have revived this thread after experimenting with wiper blades again today.

I have not managed to find any fully functioning wiper blades since I began this thread 3 years ago and I am using some very old blades that work fine apart from the fact that they are beginning to tear at the ends.

I have had an MG3 for about 4 years, it is a lot of fun to drive and I really like it.

I had sent for a replacement left side wiper blade for the MG3 as the original one was beginning to split and it was a pretty simple job to change it for the new one.

I was sitting in the sunshine today, making the best of the warm weather and the social isolation and took a closer look at the split blade.
It struck me that the rubber blades profile was actually quite similar to that of my MGAs rubber blade and were actually quite soft and flexible.

So I dug into my "pile" of brand new (but useless) repro wiper arms and blades to see if the the un-torn part of the MG3 would fit.

All the new ones are made of very rigid type of rubber that skips over the screen rather than actually wiping it.

Well it turned out that the MG3 blades have a really similar profile to the MGAs and they fit the blade holder perfectly.
They also flex perfectly on the screen when the wiper arm changes direction, which is a big improvement on the repro blades.

I did a rudimentary test using a borrowed instrument spring balance and the MG3 rubber blade only needed 25 grams of pressure to make it flex, but the repro MGA blades need almost 200 grams of pressure before it began to flex.

The main visual difference between the two types of blade is that the MG3s blade is approx 1/16th of an inch less deep than the repro MGA blade. But this doesn't seem to be a problem and it seems to wipe the water away really well. Well as good as I could check it out in my garage anyway.

I now just need to find a source of MG3 rubber blades and to fast forward a few months when we are hopefully all back on the road again.

I have attached two pictures, the first picture shows the MG3 blade profile on the left.

The second picture shows that the slightly thicker repro Tex MGA rubber blade on the top, and the MG3 rubber blade at the bottom.

(The MG3 blade is a little shorter in length because thats all I had left of the MG3 blade to work with).

Cheers
Colyn










Colyn Firth

Colyn
Have read the thread with great interest. Must have missed it first time round.
I say with great interest, despite, and nothing personal Colyn, it is probably one of the dreariest subjects on the site 😊
Especially as I am a fair weather driver so only use my wipers when I go for an MOT!
But locked away at home, anything car related is interesting these days!

So keep it coming, please!

Incidentally I do often use RainX before setting out on longer trips and it seems to work ok on the rare occasion that the weather forecast lets me down.

Graham
Graham V

Lol - I have been going down to Halfords and just buying their wiper refills for years - the profile is exactly the same as the MG3 one and the rubber is soft and doesn't squeak on the screen.
Chris at Octarine Services

Graphite rubber refills are the go
Tridon and Bosch do them, and probably others
William Revit

Thanks Chris, I will have a look at the Halfords blades.
Are they just a generic blade intended to fit any car, or are they for the MG3?

Colyn
Colyn Firth

Graham

I agree that the subject of wiper blades is not the most exciting one when it comes to the MGA, but we do go on long European tours with the car and so having decent wipers does rank much higher to us than it probably does on your car.

I used to use Rainex all the time in the days when I had wayward, self-detaching wiper arms that would eject at random, usually when you needed them the most.

We once drove down the A1 at high speed in torrential rain with no wipers and the Rainex gave us surprisingly good visibility, that is, until we slowed down to less than 20 mph. Then we could see almost nothing and it was a bit scary.

So I will contact the BBS administrator for you Graham to ask if he would add an adjustable "Dreariness" level option which will block any posts the reach a certain level of dreary for you :^)

If he does this, then I had better say goodbye to you now Graham as you may never get to see any of my future posts. :^)

If my experimental wiper blades do actually work, I will probably have to resurrect this thread again in a few months time, when we hopefully will be able to drive our cars again.

Cheers
Colyn
Colyn Firth

Colyn, they are generic and sold by their length.

Take a bit of your old blade with you to compare the mounting width.
Chris at Octarine Services

Colyn

You misunderstood me. I did say anything car related is interesting these days. And that you should keep the posts coming.

But I am sure you did realise it was all said tongue in cheek, although if it came across differently, I apologise.

Graham
Graham V

Don't worry Graham, pretty much all of my reply was tongue in cheek too, ( with emphasis on the cheek😁)
The smiley faces I put behind each comment kind of got lost in the thread somehow.
I only begin to worry when people start to take me seriously😁.
Colyn
Colyn Firth

Colyn
Just keep posting. Other than the headlines, I cant face reading the news anymore, and there’s no sport going on. So I need my daily fix from this site!

But what you won’t know is the other main car forum I visit is MGRV8 one. Not the one on this site, as it is rarely used; it’s on the MG Car Club site. And guess what the current posting and discussion is all about - wiper blade refills!

Graham V

Oh no!!
Dave O'Neill 2

I rarely dare use wipers on my plastic sports screen for fear of scratching. I just make do with Rainex and the wiper as a final resort.

Steve
Steve Gyles

With your cut down Sports screen Steve, you could just put some of your old RAF Type 8 flying goggles on and raise your head to look over it!

(I would even bet that you have a Type B flying helmet stored in your loft somewhere) :^)

Colyn
Colyn Firth

Colyn,
if you have a look in the M&S Archives you'll see I've covered wiper blades and their rubber elements with Tex and others and include them in my list of piss-poor rubber parts.

I never found the Halfords refills any good on my car but got some NOS Unipart blade refills (elements with metal spine) which fitted into the existing Tex metal blade frame by widening the if prongs on the Tex.

Rain-X doesn't really work on the Midget screen but I put it on all the glass including headlights as it makes cleaning insects off easier.

The modern made Tex spoon blades are hopeless - could you not swap the arms and blades and go to a set of even-on-modern-made bayonet arms and blades which are secure as I know you're not fussed on originality.

He didn't have the ones I wanted but my mate got what he wanted from Gregorys Autoparts (sometimes at shows at t'web). - http://www.gregorysautoparts.co.uk/

And let me take you on to the poorer modern made wiper arms (Tex even sent me a "prototype" to try, I ended up buying adjustable arms from Gregorys and they've been fine, better than Tex (note these are all for my Midget) but the people at Tex were always pleasant to deal with. . . .

I've included some genuine patina for my attempt at originality. :)





Nigel Atkins

With regard to Rain-X, I never had much luck with it when racing. I still have the bottle that I bought about 30 years ago, so I've recently made use of it.

I recently installed some CCTV cameras and I was having trouble with rain collecting on the lenses, blurring the image. Having applied Rain-X, problem solved.

Also, I find I am constantly cleaning the door mirrors on my daily driver, as they get wet when driving, but dry dirty. Rain-X has worked well on them, too. No more cleaning.

Apologies for thread drift!
Dave O'Neill 2

Well I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, because my new car is an MG.

Why?

Well I resurrected this thread because I was replacing my MG3s wiper blade because it was beginning to tear.

I fitted the remaining good part of the MG3 blade onto the MGA blade because its rubber was much softer than the repro MGA blade and it worked much better.

Anyway, I had to go to the shops in the MG3 today and it began to rain, when I switched on the wipers I noticed that the new blade wasn't wiping the screen properly.
When I looked at it carefully, it was obvious that the new MG3 blade was far too stiff to work correctly!!

Some things just never seem to change do they!

Colyn
Colyn Firth

Dave,
I find Rain-X (or equivalent) works well on modern cars because of the different rake of the windscreen to the more shallow classics.

The thing with Rain-X is if you apply it and then use your wipers a lot your rubbing it off, a bit like 8-tracks and cassettes wearing themselves out by their use.

You could also use Rain-X rejuvintor in your washer bottle but the rejuvenator is so diluted now it's too costly to use (I still have some in original? dilution for year (decades?) ago).

I use it on the Midget windscreen and other glass just to make cleaning easier, especially good in summer when you go through a storm of black flies and want to get them off before they bake on.

I've still got some of the glaco that was recommended I can't say I found it any better or longer lasting than Rain-X or Halfords equivalent.
Nigel Atkins

Colyn,
I've tried a few different types of aftermarket modern wiper blades on my wife's modern cars over the years. The flexiblade types seem to usually be better but the best from a rally supplier was just a case of puting (silicone?, can't recall) on the screen so was a combination of blade/element and windscreen treatment. Unfortunately soon after fitting the car unexpectedly had to go so I could tell if they were long term effective.
Nigel Atkins

I have some Lucas wiper blades. Is the Mga similarto the Mgb wiper>
Colyn Firth

Colyn,
you really took your time thinking about that one. 😁

MGA appears to be same as earlier Spridgets, 8" horrible (well modern made ones at least) rattlely and loose spoon type fitting. - http://www.leacyclassics.com/gwb215.html

Bs are 10" (well Roadsters).

I meant to put before with the MG3 blade, you did remove the stiff protective plastic cover . . .

I'll get me coat.

😁
Nigel Atkins

I don't know where that post came from Nigel, I certainly didn't send it recently.

Maybe I had better change my BBS password etc.

And yes, I did remove the plastic cover, AND that black rubbery blade thing that was beneath it :)

Even 18 months later than that thread, I am still struggling to find blades that really wipe the screen.

It's as if the surface of the screen is greasy and the water will not wipe away smoothly, I have tried various de-greasing sprays etc but nothing so far has improved this.
The passenger side does seem to wipe ok, even when I swap the blades over, so I assume it must be an issue with the screen on my side.

I am going to try some new surface cleaner on the screen to see if this helps.
Progress will naturally be slow on this subject because we tend to avoid taking the car out in the rain.
But I will keep you updated.

Cheers
Colyn


Colyn Firth

Colyn,
your post might just have been some site testing or realignment(?) that's been missed from removal, computer programs are very strange things, good job we don't wholly rely them for anything really crucial, oh, no, wait, we do, oh dear. 😄

If you can still get it, have you tried some intensive glass cleaner (cutter) paste/cream instead of the spray (don't use the spray directing on interior glass in case it drips on interior panels and dash).

I got some new, very old, stock Trico (rubber) blade (elements) and they were better than the usual classic car offerings, but as I don't have a garage they soon age with being outside and use.

By coincidence I saw quite recently that silicon blade are available, in USA at least, and they are said to last much longer than standard rubber(?) blades so presumably wipe well.

I assume you clean the blade elements when clean the screen, I sometimes use liquid/cream glass polish. When you see the amount of muck that comes off it makes sense that the element isn't fully in contact with the screen or able to wipe the muck off fully.

I tried using waterless wash 'n' wax on the rear wiper of my neighbour's van, I actually found there was an element under all the muck but I've forgot to ask if he's used it since.

Nigel Atkins

On my MGAs screen, I have always used the HG Glass Cleaner that we use for cleaning our windows and oven/microwave doors at home.
It is incredible at cleaning greasy oven doors, it gives an almost instant shine with very little polishing.
But maybe that is the problem, the ingredient that gives the quick shine probably has something in it that will not wet properly and stops the wiper blade from sliding smoothly over the windscreen glass.

So I have done something drastic and used brake cleaner (applied to a cloth, well away from the paintwork) to see how this cleans the screen.

I was amazed at just how much dirt came off the glass, even though I had just used glass cleaner on it.

I also wiped the wiper blades with it and an amazing amount of dirt (rubber?) came of onto the cloth.

So I now just need to drive it through some rain to see if it has made any difference to the visibility.

If all goes quiet from me, then I either haven't been able to find a rain shower to drive through to test things, or maybe I have tested the wipers and things were so bad that I have driven off Beachy Head by mistake! :^)

Cheers
Colyn

(At least Graham V could then take me off his "dreary" list :^)
Colyn Firth

Colyn
You have never been on my dreary list. But why not just fill your windscreen washer bottle with brake fluid, and job done!

Graham V

Sorry Colyn. I misread your post. Blast!
Now I need to flush the brake fluid out of my washer bottle and replace it with brake cleaner.
Graham V

Well Graham,
I think we should add a "DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME" or a "DON'T EVER DO THIS" warning about the dangers od getting Dot 4 brake fluid onto your paintwork, just for legal reasons. :^)

I don't know if using brake fluid in the washer bottle would clean the screen, but it certainly would clean the paintwork! In fact it would clean it off completely back to the metal!!

A friend of mine lived next door to a neighbour-from-hell and one morning he found a bottle of brake fluid upturned on the roof of his 1 year old car!
It had stripped off the paint where ever it ran and this included parts of the roof, both doors, bonnet and much of the engine compartment too!

His insurance company wrote the car off because there was just too much labour cost involved in stripping the car down, stripping the paint, repainting and then rebuilding it.

I would imagine that brake cleaner may not be so good with paintwork either, which is why I was so careful in where it was applied.

I will let you know how the wipers work after I cleaned the screen glass with brake cleaning spray.

Cheers
Colyn
Colyn Firth

Colyn
I feel for your friend. That's a horrible thing to happen to someone.
Referring back to brake fluid/brake cleaner in the washer bottle, I always find it strange that there is no bright shiny warning sign on the brake master cylinder of modern cars. The brake master cylinder is often very close to the washer fluid bottle, which is the one fluid bottle that almost every car owner, no matter how little they know about cars, will happily fill.
There must have been occasions when someone has inadvertently added water to their brake fluid.
Graham V

Don't all modern cars have black brake reservoir caps with yellow warning writing on them then. The Driver's Handbooks are usually 50% full of warnings about everything.
Nigel Atkins

Nigel - Very few people read the handbook these days, but yes, I think you are probably right about the yellow warning on the cap.
But if you google something like "washer fluid in brake reservoir" you will find very many examples of people who made that very mistake.
It just seems to me, that it is such an easy mistake to make for someone not familiar with matters under the bonnet.
Graham V

Graham,
washer fluid in in the brake reservoir is something I'd never heard of before or thought about just goes to show how by not having the experience how something like that could be missed, or not even thought about. I didn't realise this was a common mistake, the few modern cars I've had dealings with have the washer bottle neck elsewhere.

On a mate's K11 Micra I borrowed I couldn't find the washer bottle (filler neck) so I asked a neighbour that has dealings with lots of different cars and he said where I'd looked, so he looked but neither of us could see it. Later I found it under a what I thought was a black blanking grommet that was use as the blue (and symbol marked) cap was previously lost. I bought a NOS cap and gave it to my mate - and he lost it before he could fit it.

I know people now go to Google and YouTube rather than read a book but of course they can pick wrong info, or info not appropriate to their car, and just copy it.

I often don't find the appropriate model for the particular info I want.

I know someone who had to look at Google whilst at a petrol station as he didn't know how to open the fuel filler on a car he recently got and a mate, who should know better because I tell him to read the Driver's Handbook, that dropped the roof on a car and then scrambled to find and read the Driver's Handbook in the rain as he couldn't get the roof back up and didn't know why (or really, how to).
Nigel Atkins

This thread was discussed between 29/03/2017 and 21/09/2021

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