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I have a 2005 Ford Focus station wagon. The back windshield wiper slowly had started to cover less and less of the back windshield (up until yesterday it was only wiping the bottom 30% or so, the top 70% was completely missed because the blade was not connecting to the window).

I replaced the blade yesterday as my front both needed replacement about a year ago and I just knew we were going to have freezing rain while driving to work today. In this process, I more or less, well bent the back wiper assembly until it was working correctly - this included using a twist-tie to correctly apply pressure to get things to work.

While this might have "worked" I don't necessarily know if this is the correct way to fix this problem. Is there a more recommended strategy than this?

Here is a rough approximation of where the wiper blade was not hitting (everywhere above the red line):

enter image description here

Here's the blade itself. You can see the twist-tie. The arrow points to where I bent it out slightly to apply more pressure.

enter image description here

Note: the spring is completely clean (no dirt/ice/etc).

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  • Could you add a picture? It would be more clear about what's currently bent, zip-tied, etc.
    – Bob Cross ♦
    Mar 14, 2013 at 13:35
  • @BobCross I will get a picture during my lunch break.
    – enderland
    Mar 14, 2013 at 13:41
  • See Rory's answer below: a picture of the spring part of the arm will make it clear if that's the issue.
    – Bob Cross ♦
    Mar 14, 2013 at 14:46
  • @BobCross I edited the question. There is no dirt in the spring, however.
    – enderland
    Mar 14, 2013 at 18:04

3 Answers 3

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The thing which typically causes this is the tension spring (which pulls the wiper towards the glass) becoming clogged with dirt. A good spray with a jet washer followed by application of a light lubricant should do the job.

With the wiper pulled away from the glass you should be able to see the tension spring - if not, you may need to disassemble the wiper unit (I'm not sure on that model)

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  • This was the problem, thanks! Some lubricant did the job.
    – enderland
    Oct 11, 2014 at 21:03
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Just replace your mangled rear wiper arm assembly and get a high quality wiper blade that doesn't have springs but rather uses the wiper blade's natural curvature itself as a spring. I have found these types of blades hug to the curvature of glass much better than the crappy $5 multispring wiper blades dated back to 60s

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Add an add-on wiper arm spring to the arm to increase the pressure on the blade.

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  • Wouldn't it be MUCH simpler to replace the existing spring with a new one, either OEM or something stronger?
    – kmarsh
    Feb 17, 2016 at 21:36

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