Bob Petruska

How good or bad are these is you had your car last winter????


I'm looking for owners that live in areas like I do in N.E. PA that has freezing rain and sleet. I'm worried about the windshield wipers on the '02 A4 freezing up with the the new design where half the blade goes into the wiper arm channel. Looks like slush and wet snow will pack in there, freeze, and make the blades useless. I had the freezing issue with my '97 A4 and needed to stop 5 times on the way home to remove the frozen snow/sleet and loosen up the blades so they could wipe unitl I bought winter wiper blades (thin rubber membrane over the entire blade) which will never freeze up and wipe like it was July in the worse sleet storms. Winter blades are not available and will never be available for the new A4 because of the nonconventional wiper attachment and the half blade sticking in the arm leaves no room for the rubber membrane. I just bought a extra blade and plastic clip to keep as a spare in case there is a wiper problem as you can only buy a blade from the dealer as nobody else will ever stock the non conventional blade. I have also heard that this blade attaching clip breaks very easily if one tries to pul a frozen blade from the windshield....is this true?

I'm also a little disappointed that the windshield washer nozzles are hidden. It will be almost impossible to remove wet snow that frozen in that location during the night, it will take days to thaw and I need to use the washers with all the slush, salt and antiskid that constantly is thrown on your windshield.

One last thing is why didn't Audi design in another switch to activate the headlight washers seperately from the windshield washers with lights on. Ever see those washers try to bust up through frozen snow an inch thick on the front bumper and then try to retract with ice wedged in the hole...nice design Audi! PLus I don't need my resevoir drained from the headlight washers when I need it all for the windshield washers. I spliced in a toggle switch to control the '97 A4 headlight washers, I guess the '02 will need one also.

Ralphie

... and I can't remember a time last winter where I experienced any of the problems you mention.

However, I do park underground overnight.

During the day, though my car was outdoors for up to 16 hours straight... Snow, sleet, and freezing rain were never a problem for me.

PlacitasNM (aka Ken)

But I agree with you on the headlight washer nozzles. I'd like to have a separate switch that controls that function. For most driving, use of headlight washers does nothing more than result in the necessity to change the fluid more often.

Bob Petruska

Much milder weather in Philly. I'm about 150 miles north of Philly in the mountains.

Bob Petruska

block that is going to develop between the nozzles and the windshield in that low area that will cover the nozzles. We have a lot of ice on our cars all winter, not too many "sun" days to thaw anything out. Once the ice gets in that well area among the wipers and frozen in that strip of plstic vents in the well it will be almost impossible to use the nozzles for days until the thaw. The engine heat doesn't get too the area easily because of the double firewall.

PlacitasNM (aka Ken)

Wow! Not much joy in that.