Rocket Science? Changing wiper blades

[jonesy]

Ok, this CAN'T be rocket science. I spent 30 minutes swearing up and down the driveway trying to replace my wiper blades on my 04 4Runner. Seems a co-worker who has the same year had the same problems.

I tried pushing the tab down on the arm but nothing moves from there.

Anyone have any tips on how to actually remove the old blades?

 

[Nuke]

LOL! Yeah, it can be a bit daunting the first few times...

When you push the tab down you have to "pop" the blade down with some force most of the time (along the plane of the arm towards the arm's pivot point at the cowl). It's a bit difficult since pushing the tab with one hand doesn't give you good leverage with the other but once you get the hang of it, you can do both blades in under 2 minutes.

I'll be waiting for the next thread titled " How do I get the new blade oriented correctly?" I've actually had to scratch my head a few times when I went to put the new blade on. Chalk it up to confusion due to old age. But that'll "pop" into place easily, too, when you figure out how that goes on.

 

[Kentucky]

Haha, I said more than my fair share of words and thought I was going to break the wiper arm before they finally gave.

 

[jonesy]

great. thanks for the advice. I was to the point it was ready to snap. (Hope my 2 year old didn't hear me :biggrin2

I'll give it a go and let you know what happens.

 

[Nuke]

I just changed mine for the umpteenth time and was about to get the ballpeen hammer for a little persuasion... Sometimes they just like to be like our spouse's... difficult.

 

[4runr30]

I just changed mine for the umpteenth time and was about to get the ballpeen hammer for a little persuasion.

Haha I too have thought about using excessive force to remove those stupid wipers. :bash: