Wipers, airborn off windshield!

Doesn't sound normal to me. It never happen with my 04 nor with my 09. I suggest you have the dealer check for a weak spring. You don't have Rain-X or any other coating on the windshield do you?

 

I've never had that happen, and strong winds are routine where we live.

Tom

 

It would take an incredible amount of wind to lift the blade up off the glass, with the blade surface area so small. I would guess you don't have any springs!

 

That's why ... winter blades. They are not very effective at high speeds. I've had problems with them on other cars.

 

Your other vehicles probably did not have windshields with as much surface area as the Prius.

 

Hi Swi66,

I have Bosch ICON blades on my car. No levers to clog up with ice. They are not winter blades, and also have a lower profile for better resistance to aero-chatter. You might try those. There are other brands of blades that use a metal beam spring rather than the levers like the ICONs. I did have problems with the gaps in the stock blades becoming loaded with icey deposits to the point where the levers could no longer press the blade to the windshield throughout the stroke.

The Prius having a smoother junction between the windshield and hood has a thinner boundary layer, and high speed air is closer to the body of the car. On other cars with the more vertical windshield, the air makes a high pressure, low flow zone near the base of the windshield. The turbulence in this area tends to scour the gaps between the levers in the standard blades. Thus the lower profile, beam spring wipers are better for the Prius.

 

I think your car was just waving to another that caught its fancy. Tell it to be more discrete next time...