arU4ic

In the US you can purchase these at general auto parts stores. They are roughly the same blades that are on the OEM wipers, but the way they connect to the wiper arms are via a "universal" mount, which means they suck.

Today when I was washing my Q, I had the wiper arms up so I could wash under them on the windshield. Perfectly normal right?

What I did, and have done a hundred times before, was flip the wipers down when I was done. Granted they spring down pretty hard, but the rubber on the wiper blade is of-course enough to protect the windshield... UNLESS the wiper blade falls off the arm on its way back down, allowing the bare metal to hit the windshield. (Ouch.)

Which is what happened today. The wiper magically jumped off the wiper arm and the bare arm hit the windshield and CRACK. To the credit of the glass maker for Audi it only made a very small chip... but of course it started a crack that is already 4 inches long.

SUCK!!!!!!!!

You might consider this move stupid... but I didn't know it was stupid until I did it. What REALLY was stupid was not buying blades from the dealership... I only saved like 10 bucks. Now I have a $500 deductable payment. SUCK!!!!!

Just beware brothas and sistas.

kristatos

That's pretty crazy that a crack developed that quick. Thanks for the heads-up on those blade refills. I will definitely go to the dealer for them. My wife got a pretty good rock chip on her A4 windscreen the other day and USAA had someone out in the parking lot at her office within a couple hours to seal the chip and prevent a crack from forming.

arU4ic

Yeah, it hit the windshield pretty hard, I'm surprised the damage wasn't a lot worse. But I guess there are no small cracks in a windshield.

KBLOVE

I had the same thing happen to me this spring but with original wipers blades. I was at a gas station cleaning the wipers when the passenger wiper came off in my hand and the arm crashed down onto the windshield. At first it was a chip but by the time I got to work the chip became a one foot crack. I had to replace the windshield with less than 5,000 miles on the Q. I called Safelite Auto Glass and they came out the next day and replaced the windshield in the parking lot and the cost was under $500.

I now am very careful when I touch and lift the wipers for any reason. Also, to wash under the wipers I now turn on the wiper service function. Go to the “CAR” button then scroll down to “Wiper Service” this moves the wipers to the middle of the windshield for ease cleaning.

98a6quattro

Safelite is horrible.

StFrancis

sorry about the cracked windshield. Audi OEM glass is not cheap. IIRC they use Pilkington Glass.

GRNMACHINE

WoW good to hear the info but sorry to hear about the crack! Also wasnt aware of the windshield service function. Thanks for sharing.

arU4ic

Care to share?

98a6quattro

Well I guess it depends on the tech you get but I had bad experiences 2 out of 3 times with my VW. The last time being the worse, the tech dropped the windshield on my fender, leaving a small dent. The windshield does not fit flush with the roofline. There was also damage near the roofline from them cutting out the old windshield. On top of it all they left the car dirty and urethane on the paint in a few spots.
The problem with Safelite is that the techs get a certain amount of jobs per day. Once done, the day is over so I noticed they tend to rush the job. I'm an appraiser for an insurance company and most body shops use small independent glass guys.

KBLOVE

I agree each place & tech is different. At first I was not sure if I wanted to go with safelite but after reading good internet reviews and two people at my work stating that they used them with no problems I felt OK. Also, my tech was professional and clean.