When I started the drive home, it was raining nice and steady. So, I flick on the ol' wipers...and the driver side blade is making this awful 'clunk' sound with every wipe. I can see that the rubber blade has somehow slipped out of the plastic retaining groove. So, I pull off and get out to try and put it back. It seems to slide right back where it should be. So off I go again and get on the highway. I'm puzzled because I'd replaced the blades only a couple months back and they've been working fine.
About 5 minutes later, the clunk returns, but they're wiping the glass fine as I creep thru traffic. Traffic starts to pick up speed, and a semi pulls into my lane.
At this exact moment, the 'clunk' turns to 'screeeeeee'. The blade is also now only clearing about 4 inches at the bottom of the windshield. The rest of the wiper isn't even touching the glass. I try turning it off, but the rain and spray from the semi makes that a bad idea. So, hunched over to see out the clear spot, I get to the exit and pull into the Cooper Stadium lot.
When I get out and look, it appears that the outer third or so of the plastic wiper arm is gone. The metal wiper frame was wiping the glass instead. Lovely. I'm able to jam the rubber blade into the metal frame, which is conveniently 'u' shaped. It holds the wiper more or less in place, and now it's clearing about half the windshield. Progress! It works the rest of the way home.
No idea how this happened. The replacement wiper blade just fell apart, maybe the plastic part cracked somehow? One of those things. I'm lucky it's a relatively short drive home. That metal arm would have chewed up the glass pretty well if I had to travel more than a few minutes.
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