Windshield Wiper Fix

[Kyrios]

Very helpful on this fix, thanks all!

 

[Adnillien]

It seems that there is a service campaign for wiper related issues including setting the torque of the wiper blades. I had my car in for the tow hook recall and found this service item in my paper work.

Corrections: PDC-22-10 Wiper Harness - Verified vehicle needed PDC-22-10 per main harness to wiper
clearance. Performed PDC fallowing procedures. Removed frunk apron covers and tub
hardware. Verified little to no clearance. Repositioned the Fir Tree Cable Strap. Measured the
distance between the wire harness and the wiper arm linkage. Verified that distance was
PDC-TSC-Stories greater than 15mm. Reassembled vehicle back. Torqued wiper blades to 27NM. Verified proper operation of wiper blades. Vehicle is working as designed.

 

[Negan1000]

So many modes can be created to make our Air a better vehicle.

Car Wash mode (wipers and door handles off)
Valet mode (Glove Compartment protect & geofencing)
Camping mode (extinguish int/ext lightings)
Screen Cleaning mode (black out)
Snow mode (reduce regen, ABS friction brake and lessen acceleration)
Sentry mode (motion sensor videotaping)
Sloth mode (hypermilling)
Service mode (SOS)
Pet mode (don’t bake them)
Turtle mode (Ooopsy…)
Launch mode (opposite of Turtle mode)
Prosperous mode (crypto wallet storage like Togg Automotive)
Mining mode (use CPU downtime to mine Bitcoin)
Hot Air mode (insanely sprint)
Lucid Dream mode (play lolliby and mesmerizing ambient light to go to sleep)
…
…

Screen cleaning mode exists. Settings>Display

 

[Tex_Lucid]

So I had my first brush with Customer Care today, as I noticed my passenger windshield wiper wasn't operating. The driver's wiper activated fine, but the passenger-side one would just remain down.

Luckily, I tend to use the washer function just about every day, so I noticed this quickly. They were behaving fine yesterday. (More on that later in the post.) Also fortunate that today was nice and sunny, so I didn't really need my wipers.

I texted customer care, but I'll talk about that experience on another thread, since this is a how-to for anyone who wants or needs a quick fix. We can debate the merits of DIY vs. waiting for a technician elsewhere. Personally, I'd rather have operating wipers in a few minutes than wait who knows how long for someone to come out and do it.

Shout out to Frank (the San Diego mobile tech) who was gracious enough to send a quick tip via my colleague and fellow mod @Bobby. It was really beyond the call of duty for Bobby to ask, let alone for Frank to then respond.

The trick is to tighten a nut on the windshield wiper arm. I imagine this would work the same on either wiper, but it was the passenger side that was loose for me, so that's what I'll show here.

Tools needed for this task:

• Flathead screwdriver (Thin head preferred)
• 15mm standard wrench or socket wrench.
• Five minutes of your time

Start by opening the frunk and taking off the upper plastic cover that protects some important bits under the bonnet. It's connected via clips, so you have to pop them off to remove.


View attachment 9293

Once you have the plastic cover removed, you should see at the connected end of each windshield wiper arm, there's a round plastic cap. Pry that off with a flathead screwdriver.

View attachment 9294

The plastic of the cap is a bit soft, so pry carefully. A thinner, smaller screwdriver would be best.

Once you have the cap off, you'll see the nut beneath. Using the wrench, tighten the nut.

View attachment 9295

Be sure when you are tightening that the wiper is fully down and at rest along the plastic edge at the bottom of the windshield. If the wiper is turned up when you tighten it, the wiper will not go all the way back down, and it may bang into the other wiper while deploying. Tighten with the wiper in its resting position, in other words. Like so:

View attachment 9296

Once you have the nut nice and tight, replace the round cap, replace the plastic cover, and you should be good to go. Close the frunk and try out the wipers. They should function normally again.

Honestly, the hardest part of this was getting the plastic top cover back on. It can be a bugger to get all the clips aligned properly.

As to how or why this happened, I have a theory. I was washing the car yesterday, as it was full of Colorado winter grime. While I was drying the windshield, the wipers activated on me. (They probably detected the moisture on the windshield, and auto-wiper mode took over.) It was quite jarring, of course, and I didn't get my hand out of the way fast enough to avoid the wiper hitting my microfiber towel, which got stuck for a second underneath the blade. My guess is that little incident loosened the wiper just enough to start the process of getting looser on every subsequent wipe, until it was too loose and failed to engage the next day.

So bonus tip: Until Lucid creates some sort of "Car Wash" mode, turn your wiper mode to fully off before washing the car. Alternatively, open the driver's door while drying. The wipers won't activate when the door is open.

Thanks for sharing this detailed step by step how to.

 

[gavram]

Thanks for the detailed steps. I had the loose passenger wiper issue yesterday for the first time & was able to tighten it.

Has anyone had any issues with it coming loose again after tightening?

 

[JimPA]

I just needed to tighten my driver’s side wiper. Got a wet snow and I lazily didn’t clear it off the windshield with my brush but used the wipers instead. When they came back down, a good amount of packed snow prevented the driver’s wiper from returning to its normal position and I’m pretty sure that’s what loosened the nut.

Big thank you for this step by step!

 

[Ryancdossey1]

I just fixed this issue on mine. I was able to do it by only popping off one side of the cover. Interestingly the vehicle was fresh out of service for a litany of other things and came back with this one.

 

[mraschko]

So appreciative of this forum!

I had the wiper issue pop up on Thursday and just performed the fix. Man, getting that cover back on is a b****. The plastic that has the clips kept bending away and the tab would go to the inside instead of into the clip. I hope I never have to do that again!

Interesting that this only seems to happen to the passenger side wiper arm. Since I had it pulled apart, I checked the driver's side wiper arm nut and it was definitely tight.

 

[DeeDee]

Google led us to this post - thank you!!! You’re my hero.

 

[Pwmac]

I just received an email about Campaign SR-23-03-0 - NHTSA Recall Number 23V521 – Wiper Arm Torque and how I need to make an appointment to get my nuts torqued.

 

[hydbob]

I just received an email about Campaign SR-23-03-0 - NHTSA Recall Number 23V521 – Wiper Arm Torque and how I need to make an appointment to get my nuts torqued.View attachment 15165

I know a gal...

 

[davidkoger]

Just had to do this on my Lucid Air Pure. A trick I found to help with the plastic cover going back on, you can reach under the hood via the wheel well and have full access to the clip.