HOW- TO: Complete windshield wiper mechanism lubrication + upgrade

[JC220]

I used a red fully synthetic grease IIRC. The important thing is that the grease is not too thick in consistency also considering when it is cold and the wiper still has to operate.

I suppose a white lithium grease would also work well and gleitpaste would be good yes.

It has been years since I lubricated the wiper on my 500E and it is still smooth and quiet as silk. I would think now that once cleaned & lubricated properly 4 or 5 year intervals would be fine for cleaning out the grease and re applying.

 

[RicardoD]

Which molykote?

 

[mikeym]

My head hurts every time I look at folks doing R&R on wiper mechanism. Looks way too complicated like the sunroof…
Over here in PNW, we probably use it the most and AFAIK, my car is still running the original with no proactive R&R… should I plan for it and keep rolling till the luck runs out?

 

[gerryvz]

I would use Napa Syl-Glide in this application, although Gleitpaste would also be OK. I think the Syl-Glide is a little more durable for "exposed" conditions such as this one, but you can't really go wrong with either.

When I lubed my wiper mechanism in my 2020 Engine Bay Refresh saga (post on this here), I believe I used a clear synthetic grease, which is designed specifically for "exposed" mechanisms such as windshield wiper mechanisms, window regulators, and door check strap bearings.

Cheers (finally back in the USA),
Gerry

P.S. My wiper recently got a HEAVY workout on the way home to Maryland from a recent drive up to NYC, and it has performed flawlessly since I lubricated it. Before the lubrication, it was a bit hesitant and slow, particularly when ambient temps were moderate to cold.

 

[IslandMon]

Which molykote?

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HOW- TO: Complete windshield wiper mechanism lubrication + upgrade | "HOW-TO" Tutorial Articles

This DIY will cover my rebuilding & upgrading of the wiper in my 1992 500E. The removal of the wiper itself is not included as this information is widely available – I prefer to concentrate on the wiper mechanism itself for purposes of this DIY - which involves full disassembly of the wiper...

www.500eboard.co

 

[JC220]

My head hurts every time I look at folks doing R&R on wiper mechanism. Looks way too complicated like the sunroof…
Over here in PNW, we probably use it the most and AFAIK, my car is still running the original with no proactive R&R… should I plan for it and keep rolling till the luck runs out?

It's up to you, do you DIY on your car at all?

If you do maybe a good idea would be to snag a good used one from a Junker and rebuild it at your leisure. And when done swap it into your car and know its good for years or set aside as a known good serviced spare ready to go when needed. I have about 10 spare w124 wiper assemblies sitting in my garage for a rainy day

 

[sheward]

IMO, it's not as difficult as refurbishing the sunroof. It's all pretty straight forward.

 

[mikeym]

It's up to you, do you DIY on your car at all?

If you do maybe a good idea would be to snag a good used one from a Junker and rebuild it at your leisure. And when done swap it into your car and know its good for years or set aside as a known good serviced spare ready to go when needed. I have about 10 spare w124 wiper assemblies sitting in my garage for a rainy day

I do have a full set saved from a parts car that I need to rebuild. Will get it to it one of these rainy days

 

[RicardoD]

Here are some photos from my final repair. I purchased the repair gear from Pelican Parts.

 

[gsxr]

Thanks for the pics, Ricardo! Searching for the Odometer Gears part # 221934004 also shows RME carries it as well; both are quite a bit lower price than buying direct:

Odometer Gears - Mercedes-Benz - E class (124) 92-1995 Elec.

Mercedes-Benz - E class (124) 92-1995 Elec.

www.odometergears.com

Mercedes Windshield Wiper Transmission Gear Odometer Gears Ltd MB U WIPER 22.1934.004 MBUWIPER 221934004 MB-U-WIPER 22 1934 004 MB.U.WIPER 22-1934-004 | Pelican Parts

Odometer Gears Ltd Windshield Wiper Transmission Gear $56.00. Call (310)626-8765. May Qualify For FREE SHIPPING. Parts# 22 1934 004 22-1934-004 22.1934.004 221934004 MB U WIPER MB-U-WIPER MB.U.WIPER MBUWIPER. SL600, SL500, SL320, E500, E420, E320, E300, 600SL, 500SL, 500E, 400E, 300TE, 300TD...

www.pelicanparts.com

Mercedes-Benz Windshield Wiper Transmission Gear 221934004 - ODOMETER GEARS LTD

 

[asultan]

Reviving thread for my silly mishap when I completed my R+R sometime last year. I didn't mark my mechanism upon tear down (stupid) and because of that on reassembly the wiper is clocked wrong.

Ever so slightly instead of leaving a perfect "W' shape of water after a wiper rotation my residue pattern looks more like a /\^ (clocked 10* clockwise off center).

Rationally which direction do i have to reseat/clock the teeth (only really needs a few teeth realistically cause its not THAT far off that its hitting the drip rails or top drip rail.

 

[duuder]

I got new gears recently and did place the mark but but got a little loose w/ cleaning everything and well, wiped the mark clean. Took 3, maybe 4 trys for it to look relatively even

 

[rayhennig]

We rebuilt mine in 2020 but obviously made 2 mistakes. 1 is only annoying in that the cycle ends in a twitch upwards from the rest position.

The other was catastrophic in that I had a failure while touring southern England. The blade finished its cycle then sort of slumped downwards never to work again.

We were to attend a wedding on the west coast and then spend a few days with friends in village x (not mentioned for privacy reasons; it's tiny).

We managed to get to the wedding venue during light rain but the speed on the motorway cleared the rain. At the hotel I put an SOS on the UK MB Club forum. I vaguely described our itinerary, not mentioning village x. I asked if anyone knew an MB specialist garage that might help.

I got a response from a club member saying that he, personally, can help. He said he was way out in the sticks at a place called - you've guessed it - village x. What a coincidence.

So, after the wedding weekend, on the Monday evening, we spent 3 pretty cold hours fixing the wiper. It was that nut on the back of the assembly that had come loose. We applied thread lock this time. All is working well. Should it have a lock nut on it?

But it still twitches upwards when coming to rest.

RayH
PS: The kind chap that helped me has 3 450 SEL 6.9s - not many people know that!
PPS: People in the UK grizzle about the state of their roads and some are pretty 3rd world. But the M4 and M5 are brilliant and rather classy with their little red lights down the hard shoulder and green ones on the slip roads.

 

[Draginev]

Good write up Joe, many thanks!

And it came in a convenient moment since the wiper on my '92 is slow and highly due for first aid now. Interesting news about LHD vs. RHD, good to have in mind regarding spare parts.

The MB mono wiper is pretty unique and works extremely well, so I searched around and came across some "nice-to-knows". I hope you don't mind I'm posting it in this thread. Single arm, controlled came up as a common name as well, and the wiper area is as much as 86% of the windshield.

And for curiosity - we have a share in the supercar game, guys!
Königsegg has used our mono wiper all the time back from their first production car in 2000:
http://koenigsegg.com/koenigsegg-history/

This is very very interesting. Since Koenigsegg used them for all of their cars, they placed it vertically but doesn't extend to cover much area, that's probably the way of the shape of the windshield is formed that won't work. Also improving aerodynamically and can handle high speeds. Is it possible to have it vertically positioned on a W124?

 

[JC220]

This is very very interesting. Since Koenigsegg used them for all of their cars, they placed it vertically but doesn't extend to cover much area, that's probably the way of the shape of the windshield is formed that won't work. Also improving aerodynamically and can handle high speeds. Is it possible to have it vertically positioned on a W124?

You could park the wiper vertical on a w124 yes. But it would look quite silly and besides that a w124 will need alot more aerodynamic treatment than just the windscreen wiper to give any real world improvement!

 

[mnessari]

Damn it, I wish I would’ve come across this before making a rookie mistake. The wiper motor took a dump, I replaced it, but didn’t mark the motor side bracket at park. Also did not bring the arm to 12 o’clock before removing for cleaning Now that everything is back together, if I’m looking at the windshield from outside in, it wipes from 4pm to 10pm but parks between 2-3pm. Do I just mess with the motor side of the brakes or do I have to remove arm as well and go from there

 

[mnessari]

Damn it, I wish I would’ve come across this before making a rookie mistake. The wiper motor took a dump, I replaced it, but didn’t mark the motor side bracket at park. Also did not bring the arm to 12 o’clock before removing for cleaning Now that everything is back together, if I’m looking at the windshield from outside in, it wipes from 4pm to 10pm but parks between 2-3pm. Do I just mess with the motor side of the brakes or do I have to remove arm as well and go from there

Fixed it, this helped!

 

[JC220]

My 2.5-16's wiper is stiff and in dire need of service with the car sitting for at least 15 years.

I will do a video on this soon. I forgot there is potential to upgrade the wiper too - ill check my spares stash if I have a later plastic cover type

 

[rayhennig]

There are 2x variants of the w124 Wiper which are easily identified.

Yes, we found this out recently. My '91 300CE wiper started behaving oddly. And I had a NOS later assembly in stock but never fitted due to it's being different.

However, with the help of my local Land Rover chap, we adapted the later assembly to fit and all is well 9 months later.

By the way, I hate the later one-piece seals below the windscreen. Happily, we were able to retain the original multi-piece seals. Our '94 E280T has the one-piece seals that refuse completely to seal although, as yet, there's now evidence of water ingress.

Oh, and we did screw up when fitting the motor to the mechanism. On first test, the wiper arm came to rest at about 45 degrees. Re-adjusted now but not 100% perfect as the arm twitches upwards slightly after coming to rest. Good enough, I suppose, especially as it's bloody hot outside and I can't be arsed.

And the aircon has stopped after its 2017 return to life. Bum!

Best to all.

RayH

 

[JC220]

Yes, we found this out recently. My '91 300CE wiper started behaving oddly. And I had a NOS later assembly in stock but never fitted due to it's being different.

However, with the help of my local Land Rover chap, we adapted the later assembly to fit and all is well 9 months later.

By the way, I hate the later one-piece seals below the windscreen. Happily, we were able to retain the original multi-piece seals. Our '94 E280T has the one-piece seals that refuse completely to seal although, as yet, there's now evidence of water ingress.

Oh, and we did screw up when fitting the motor to the mechanism. On first test, the wiper arm came to rest at about 45 degrees. Re-adjusted now but not 100% perfect as the arm twitches upwards slightly after coming to rest. Good enough, I suppose, especially as it's bloody hot outside and I can't be arsed.

And the aircon has stopped after its 2017 return to life. Bum!

Best to all.

RayH

Thinking about my 190 more since, the plastics and arm is all badly faded. So I'm going to have to repaint them. Since the wiper cover is a grey type colour it could be hard to match. So ill likely keep the aluminium unit, sand, etch prime and spray them satin black to look alot better and all will match then

PS your AC may just be low on gas, worth a regular top up at a garage first.

 

[gsxr]

By the way, I hate the later one-piece seals below the windscreen. Happily, we were able to retain the original multi-piece seals. Our '94 E280T has the one-piece seals that refuse completely to seal although, as yet, there's now evidence of water ingress.

Usually, the reason the 1-piece seal on late cars will not stay in place is a failed plastic channel at the base of the glass. An aftermarket replacement channel is available in USA, not sure about Europe. Replacing only the channel is risky as there's a small chance of the glass cracking when the new channel is tapped in place. With a new channel, the 1-piece rubber seal should remain in place and seal properly against the glass.

 

[rayhennig]

failed plastic channel at the base of the glass.

We thought too on those lines. I was wondering whether it's possible to replace with the old style arrangements from a parts car. Looks as if we'd need to rivet in the necessary clips. Frankly, it's not at the top of our list of priorities.

The car lives inside much of the time and, as said, we haven't yet seen any water ingress.



R

 

[JC220]

I just created a video series on this, part #1 of 2 just uploaded:

(Would this be better split into a new How - To [Video] thread?)

 

[JC220]

And Part #2 / Final part now up too

That wiper is like new again, very pleased with how it turned out. Should have another 37 years until next rebuild