Can I park the wipers in up position?

[bodosom]

... the passenger wiper would not lift more than an inch or so off the windshield. Today, I took a closer look at the wiper arms. As the pivot point looked to be the same on both, I held down the base of the passenger wiper while carefully pulling the arm away from the windscreen and lo, the arm resisted but did raise to the upright position. And thereafter it pivoted freely. Tight rivet in the pivot point, I guess. At any rate, I'm relieved.

Perhaps it's a model year constraint or your arms are broken. My wipers lift as documented -- just a bit so you can replace them.

From the replacing wiper blades section (~page 176):

CAUTION: Wiper blades do not lock into a lifted position. Do not lift a wiper arm beyond its intended position

 

[Midnightsun]

There is a reason they do not lift and lock when they are a tucked in design on the passenger side. Problem is the next time you inadvertently turn on the wipers in a lifted position due to whatever. Maybe in auto mode when preheating, don't know what will set them off but if they do you will curse and swear after you see the damage that has been done to your hood. Not a good idea.

 

[Cheffromage]

There is a reason they do not lift and lock when they are a tucked in design on the passenger side. Problem is the next time you inadvertently turn on the wipers in a lifted position due to whatever. Maybe in auto mode when preheating, don't know what will set them off but if they do you will curse and swear after you see the damage that has been done to your hood. Not a good idea.

 

[Cheffromage]

If I read every warning in the owners manual I'd still be reading. Hey, they sit just fine in the lifted position now that I convinced the passenger wiper to come up. And since returning them to operational status requires the confirming step of turning service position off, it would be hard to forget to lower them. You folks in the sunbelt can keep them safely beneath the cowling. I'll have mine pointing to the sky from November to March (at least while parked.)

 

[Sunvalleylaw]

Interested in this. I live and work in the Sun Valley, Idaho area, and when I am working up on the hill (one of my jobs), it is nice on snow days to leave those wipers up. But, if that does not work, guessing I will just get into the habit of finding some sort of slick cover I can put between the wiper blades and the windshield, so the blades are not frozen down there at least, and guessing it won’t be hard to pull a cover out of slick material off the blades If it freezes on.

But I, like @Cheffromage , like to really clean off the windshield properly, and that is a lot easier to do with the blades up. Oh well, just one more thing to get used to. And if there is a heat feature on the windshield I can turn on from the app before I get there, that will help and solve a lot of things.

 

[Sunvalleylaw]

No matter what may be said for preheating or covering the windshield, for snow and ice my preference is to park the wipers off the windshield. I then find it much easier to clean the car properly (yes, I'm a tad fastidious about such things.) I like to preheat while I'm doing that; any car should do a decent job of thawing windscreen and rear window in that time.

Okay -- update on the issue of raising the wipers off the windshield while in the service position: as I have said, the driver's wiper raised up easily enough, but the passenger wiper would not lift more than an inch or so off the windshield. Today, I took a closer look at the wiper arms. As the pivot point looked to be the same on both, I held down the base of the passenger wiper while carefully pulling the arm away from the windscreen and lo, the arm resisted but did raise to the upright position. And thereafter it pivoted freely. Tight rivet in the pivot point, I guess. At any rate, I'm relieved.

Thanks all for the contributions and suggestions. You helped me work through the problem.

Awesome. Good catch. Problem solved.

 

[tmec]

Okay -- update on the issue of raising the wipers off the windshield while in the service position: as I have said, the driver's wiper raised up easily enough, but the passenger wiper would not lift more than an inch or so off the windshield. Today, I took a closer look at the wiper arms. As the pivot point looked to be the same on both, I held down the base of the passenger wiper while carefully pulling the arm away from the windscreen and lo, the arm resisted but did raise to the upright position. And thereafter it pivoted freely. Tight rivet in the pivot point, I guess. At any rate, I'm relieved.

There is a little metal tab on the arm that prevents the wiper from raising and locking in the raised position. My experience was that if you pull the arm hard enough, the tab completely breaks off. After that the arm will raise freely and lock in the raised position. I accidentally discovered this when replacing wiper blades...

I think possibly this isn't a problem with current software—now it seems that the wipers won't leave service mode unless you explicitly command them to? In the past apparently the service mode would exit on its own as soon as you opened/closed the doors, and leaving service mode will cause damage if the arms are raised. In that case there would really be no safe amount of time you could leave the arms locked in the raised position, so the mechanical restriction made sense (although it was extremely weakly implemented). Now maybe this is no longer a big issue.

 

[Cheffromage]

There is a little metal tab on the arm that prevents the wiper from raising and locking in the raised position. My experience was that if you pull the arm hard enough, the tab completely breaks off. After that the arm will raise freely and lock in the raised position. I accidentally discovered this when replacing wiper blades...

I think possibly this isn't a problem with current software—now it seems that the wipers won't leave service mode unless you explicitly command them to? In the past apparently the service mode would exit on its own as soon as you opened/closed the doors, and leaving service mode will cause damage if the arms are raised. In that case there would really be no safe amount of time you could leave the arms locked in the raised position, so the mechanical restriction made sense (although it was extremely weakly implemented). Now maybe this is no longer a big issue.

Ahh! That would seem to explain the whole issue. Thanks!