Refitting Rear Windscreen Wiper Blade

It is trendy for Elgrand E52 drivers in Japan to remove their rear windscreen wiper, similar to drivers here who de-badge their cars.  Not something I noticed when I bought my Elgrand but after a few months of driving I am ready to restore the rear wiper back into position.  The big issue for UK drivers is that the weather here causes the screen to get very dirty and coupled with the very dark tint it becomes almost impossible to see out of.  As you can see in the picture my one had a round metal blanking cover which has seen better days as its not even very black in colour now.


Unfortunately for me the actual rear wiper unit with the motor was removed from the car so it took a few months for me to get the parts together.  I secured a second hand wiper unit, brand new Nissan bolts and windscreen 'bung', and then a replacement wiper blade from Aliexpress.


Steps to fit are as follows:

1. Remove the two pop out rivets from either side of the lock, and using plastic tools gently lever out the handle and electric boot switch (if applicable).



2. Using the same plastic tools, you can now lever off the boot cover panel from the inside.  It is held in place by catches that should pop out as you prise it apart.  Be gentle with it and try and remove it all around equally.  It should now come off in one piece as shown below.


3. This is how mine looked, you can see that the blanking cover is actually bolted through, and also the three bolts below that where the wiper motor should of been fitted. (Turns out I didn't need the bolts as they were already fitted to the car!)


4. I simply removed the bolted in place cover from the windscreen, and took out the bolts for the wiper motor to be fitted. You bolt the motor in place, ensuring that the wiper shaft is through the hole in the rear screen. (NOTE: If you have bought the wrong motor part then the shaft won't line up with the hole in the screen.)  The motor plug is a simple push connection, and bolt the unit in place.

5. The rubber bung part is pushed through from the outside for a weather proof seal between the windscreen and wiper shaft.  Mine seem to be off center so I assume that is just how they are, you might find the same.



6. The rear wiper arm actually has now 'splined' hole to fit to the shaft, which apparently is normal.  You will need to ensure it is fitted in the right place and as you tighten the nut, the splines on the shaft bite into the plastic on the arm to ensure a good secure fit.

7.  Now a simple test of the arm and fit the plastic cover! 

8. Fit the panel back in place with the plastic popper fittings.  It is worth checking that they are all in the right places before attempting this as they can move a small amount.  Then refit the boot switch and handle hole, and then finally the two plastic pop rivets.

Last thing to add, if you buy the arm from Aliexpress like I did you will get a wiper blade with it.  Mine came with a bad quality 300mm wiper blade, so I purchased the Bosch 350mm (H354) blade which makes a big difference as it covers more of the screen.


  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

E52 vs E51 Part 1: Is size important?

Image
This is the first of a few posts that I will try and highlight the differences between the E51 and E52 Elgrand models.  As an owner of an E52 and a keen participant in the Elgrand facebook groups and forums, I have come across alot of posts that make comments about the E52 being 'just an estate car' or 'a Vauxhall Zafira on steroids' or that its 'lost the spirit of what an Elgrand is'.  Its very hard to find much information about the E52 so its also very difficult to show if these comments are accurate or not. I have managed to get my hands on information from Japan that highlights some of the differences.  For this post I will focus on the changes to the size of the Elgrand. Introduced in 2010, the E52 Elgrand made a significant departure from the previous model, opting for a front wheel drive setup instead of the E51's rear wheel drive.  This was a very clever change from Nissan as it allowed them to change the dimensions of the car for better performance...
Read more

Elgrand E52 MPG - How bad is it really

One of the first questions asked by any prospective Elgrand owner is what fuel economy is like, and there is quite a lot of discussion about the E51's economy, but very little about the E52.  I have kept a log of my fuel and mileage which might be helpful to you as an idea of what you are likely to get.  Be warned though, it might not be pleasant reading! In the last 6 months I have covered nearly 5000 KMs (my car is still recording in KMs) and the records I have are as follows: Litres KMs KM/L MPG 64 325 5.08 14.34 28 289 10.32 29.16 29 171 5.90 16.66 60 517 8.62 24.34 56 435 7.77 21.94 81 703 8.68 24.52 33 309 9.36 26.45 61 498 8.16 ...
Read more

English Stereo Replacement (Xanavi system)

Image
 As a new owner of the E52 one of the very first upgrades that is required is to update the audio system.  As a Japanese only car the Elgrand has no settings to change the language so you are stuck with the Japanese speech and text, so unless you know the language it is a priority to resolve!  There are range of options to choose from but they all have compromises, all range in price and all have a varied level of difficulty.  I will cover some of the options you could go for in a future post, but for now this update is about the one I selected. There is a company in Lithuania who offer replacement car audio boxes for us Elgrand drivers which is a real Nissan solution, it is easy to fit and you wouldn't know that it wasn't fitted at the factory.  It is a bit more expensive than some of the other options but I felt it was worth the extra money. In the E52, the car audio system is split into sections, so there is no easy single or double DIN solution.  The sc...
Read more