iNVAR Posted May 4, 2009 Share Posted May 4, 2009 sigh. my initial impression of the valeos is that they were great. dead quiet, no chattering from wind, excellent and crystal clear wipe, and they were thin. i drive approximately 20-25 miles per day for work, and maybe another 25 for leisure on weekends. overall, i drive less than 8000 miles per year. it's nyc, so i see all sorts of weather, and i have to commute during all sorts of weather due to the nature of my job (emergency responder of sorts) my first set lasted me about... 8 months, from about april-ish 2008 up till january 2009, which struck me as a little short for lifespan. my wipers started streaking, no matter how much i cleaned them. eventually, i realized it was because the rubber/nitrile/silicone or whatever valeos are made of had become grooved. now, let me emphasize this: i make it a point to never dry wipe and to never wipe my windshield when there is ice caked on it, because i know it will destroy the blade. i also increaes the wipe interval when my car is moving slowly in traffic due to the windshield being less wet. when i clean it, i use nothing but water and a paper towel and i rub very gently. i don't use rubbing alcohol because i feel it will dry out the blade. there is absolutely no grease on the blade, and it's definitely clean. that being said, 8 months seemed acceptable to me for a wiper replacement interval. i replaced my first set in january 2009. they started streaking again last week and cleaning it has not done anything. there are several streaks on the driver side blade, and these blades have not been through any abuse. i noticed the streaks when i wiped (sprayed first of course) some pollen and spores off my windshield (thank the tree for crapping all over my car). today, it was pouring rain out, and there was no mistaking that they were streaking again. after less than 4 months, my blades were dead again. here are some pictures of it.... they're pretty big www.crimetank.com/misc/wiper1.jpg www.crimetank.com/misc/wiper2.jpg www.crimetank.com/misc/wiper3.jpg The wiper is positioned so that it's upside down, so the top of the rubber (where the groove is) is actually the underside of the blade when it's mounted. As a result, the streaks are most pronounced when the wipers are on the downstroke (returning to resting position) which makes sense. Even so, the groove is so small that I don't believe it should result in streaks. It's unacceptable to me that a tiny groove (it's not even visible in picture 1!) should cause large streaks. There are several more grooves/nicks on the blade that are even smaller than this (I can't even take a picture of it, they won't show up!), and they're ALL causing streaks when wiping. These wipers are great when they're new and out of the box, but they really don't seem to be holding up very well on my car at all. Not durable at all. Also, they've started chattering a bit now during low speed driving, even when the windshield is thoroughly wet. I already have yet another set of Valeo's ready to put on the car, but if they only last me another 4 months, that's it... I'm done with Valeo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyT Posted May 4, 2009 Share Posted May 4, 2009 Did you buy them at Tire Rack? If so, call customer service, tell them about your woes and ask for a replacement. So far they replaced 2 sets for me. TRs customer service is very good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iNVAR Posted May 4, 2009 Share Posted May 4, 2009 Yeah, I got them from TR. What probs did you have and what did you tell them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TravisS Posted May 4, 2009 Share Posted May 4, 2009 iNVAR, that's very similar to my experience with the Valeo blades. I've gone through 2 sets, each lasted me what was IMO not nearly long enough. Well under a year before they started streaking to the point of being useless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyT Posted May 4, 2009 Share Posted May 4, 2009 Yeah, I got them from TR. What probs did you have and what did you tell them? See post #84 above. It was the clips. They know about this problem. However, if you call and tell them you're not happy with the quality they may replace them anyway. Call customer service not sales. Sales won' t do anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.