P85D wiper blades

Yeah, they're Bosch from the factory now (yay!). Sorry, been meaning to post about this - I took pictures and everything - but have been too busy posting pretty pictures of the new car.

No way to know for sure which Bosch, but there's a good chance they're Icons. Tesla listens!

Pic of the wipers that came on my new P85D:



Pic of the aftermarket Bosch Icons I put on my old P85:

So far, with all of the bad weather we have had since we picked up our D, we have given the wipers a good workout...very pleased with them indeed!

Jaff said:

So far, with all of the bad weather we have had since we picked up our D, we have given the wipers a good workout...very pleased with them indeed!

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To be honest, I haven't had any issue with the wipers on my car over the last 2 years. I believe Tesla has replaced them at least once at a service visit. I have always put "winter blades" on my other cars but haven't seen the need with the Model S.

My P85D wipers just are not cutting it. I drove with my family on a long road trip yesterday through very messy (salty wet slush) roads and my wipers leave a constant smudge that obscures the driver and passenger windshield views on the upper left (drivers side), middle (towards the passenger) and right side.

When I got home, I compared the Tesla wiper arms to my Wife's Lexus RX and could immediately see the problem. On the Lexus the Wiper Arm is metal and is as long as the wiper blade on both sides. This causes a constant downwards force on the total length of the wipers. The Tesla on the other hand only has a small metal portion on the Wiper Arms with a large portion on the left and right of the Wiper that is just a long portion of wiper blade with no support. This totally correlates with the portion of the Windshield that has the constant smudge.

I had my wiper angles adjusted on the last service visit, but did not really look at them until yesterday to notice that obviously the wiper blade portions that are not covered by the wiper arm will never clear the window properly.

Is there a fix for this?

Bosch Icon blades.

Here are the right parts (driver and passenger sides):
Bosch 28OE ICON Wiper Blade - 28"
Bosch 18OE ICON Wiper Blade - 18"

It's great that Tesla changed the factory blades to Bosch ones, but after driving in the rain many times now it's clear they aren't Icons. Lots of chattering and stuttering. I switched to Icons and they are _much_ better.

EarlyAdopter said:

Bosch Icon blades.

Here are the right parts (driver and passenger sides):
Bosch 28OE ICON Wiper Blade - 28"
Bosch 18OE ICON Wiper Blade - 18"

It's great that Tesla changed the factory blades to Bosch ones, but after driving in the rain many times now it's clear they aren't Icons. Lots of chattering and stuttering. I switched to Icons and they are _much_ better.

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I'm assuming these will work for all model S versions, right? Aka no different between sigs, S60, S85,P85,p85D, etc right? I desperately need new wiper blades and I'm not about to pay tesla $600 for a service visit to replace wiper blades and key fob batteries.

yobigd20 said:

I'm assuming these will work for all model S versions, right? Aka no different between sigs, S60, S85,P85,p85D, etc right? I desperately need new wiper blades and I'm not about to pay tesla $600 for a service visit to replace wiper blades and key fob batteries.

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Yep. Same blades worked on my two year old P85 and brand new P85D.

My S85 I got in September 2014 had horrible wiper blades. I complained and they worked on them when the vehicle was in for another reason. They said they cleaned the windshield, adjusted the arms and put on new blades. It was a while before it rained but it was still doing the same thing. By that point I was well in process of trading the vehicle so I just didn't bother with it further. Other people posting around the same time who had service done or had new vehicles had similar complaints. Eventually someone posted that service had given up and was just putting Bosch blades on for them. As I noted in my 85D first impressions post, my new car came with Bosch blades. So if you have a car that doesn't have Bosch blades and you're not happy with how they're working, I'd complain to service before spending money on the blades. I suspect they've stopped using the batch that was bad and will probably just give you Bosch blades.

I wish we had some rain so I could change the blades out to Bosch!!

breser said:

My S85 I got in September 2014 had horrible wiper blades. I complained and they worked on them when the vehicle was in for another reason. They said they cleaned the windshield, adjusted the arms and put on new blades. It was a while before it rained but it was still doing the same thing. By that point I was well in process of trading the vehicle so I just didn't bother with it further. Other people posting around the same time who had service done or had new vehicles had similar complaints. Eventually someone posted that service had given up and was just putting Bosch blades on for them. As I noted in my 85D first impressions post, my new car came with Bosch blades. So if you have a car that doesn't have Bosch blades and you're not happy with how they're working, I'd complain to service before spending money on the blades. I suspect they've stopped using the batch that was bad and will probably just give you Bosch blades.

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And if your car came with Bosch blades and you're still having problems, switch to Bosch ICONs and your problems will be gone.

EarlyAdopter said:

Bosch Icon blades.

Here are the right parts (driver and passenger sides):
Bosch 28OE ICON Wiper Blade - 28"
Bosch 18OE ICON Wiper Blade - 18"

It's great that Tesla changed the factory blades to Bosch ones, but after driving in the rain many times now it's clear they aren't Icons. Lots of chattering and stuttering. I switched to Icons and they are _much_ better.

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EarlyAdopter said:

And if your car came with Bosch blades and you're still having problems, switch to Bosch ICONs and your problems will be gone.

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Really glad to read this.

I had read of the wiper problems before I had my P85D, and had planned on getting the Bosch Icons. Then I read that we had the Bosch blades, and confirmed it for myself. My wife and I have not been at all happy with the way the wipers have been working. So I'm quite pleased to hear that the Bosch blades we have are not the Icons, and that there is a solution to this problem. Five minutes from now I'll have the Icons ordered!

I just placed my order on Amazon. I should have them by Wednesday. Thanks! Oh and despite their configurator saying that they don't fit for the Model S , there are user reviews that say they fit perfectly. I'll post back on Wednesday!

yobigd20 said:

I just placed my order on Amazon. I should have them by Wednesday. Thanks! Oh and despite their configurator saying that they don't fit for the Model S , there are user reviews that say they fit perfectly. I'll post back on Wednesday!

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This is Pathetic that after paying $150k for this car that we are forced to go out and pay for wipers that should be supplied by Tesla. Really??

I found that the blades changed by the SC's need to break in. A couple of days use seems to do it, then they work fine!

GetAmped said:

This is Pathetic that after paying $150k for this car that we are forced to go out and pay for wipers that should be supplied by Tesla. Really??

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I've always been really, really fussy about my wiper blades over the years. I typically will use winter blades from around late November to April but have found that the Tesla-supplied blades are not really that bad. And I drive in some pretty horrid conditions going from the west GTA to the Waterloo Region every day.

One thing I might caution about the ICONs is to remove them before you take the car in to Tesla for Service, or tell them not to touch them. They have replaced my blades during "Annual Inspections", but I think they have replaced them on other service visits as well as a courtesy. If they are that much better than the stock blades, it would be a shame to lose them.

GetAmped said:

This is Pathetic that after paying $150k for this car that we are forced to go out and pay for wipers that should be supplied by Tesla. Really??

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I agree 100% that we shouldn't have to do this. But for less than $50, I'm not going to try to get Tesla to pay for the wiper blades, even though I think they should. If these Icon blades really solve the problem I'll consider it $46 well-spent.

GetAmped said:

This is Pathetic that after paying $150k for this car that we are forced to go out and pay for wipers that should be supplied by Tesla. Really??

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Well, they did switch to Bosch blades, so that's an improvement. But Bosch has a whole line of different blades that range in quality and properties. Many (most?) might find the blades that Tesla went with fine, particularly after a break-in period like Lloyd suggests.

Also, your experience may vary based on conditions and other factors. For instance, I applied Aquapel on my windshield. It could very be that the chattering and stuttering I experienced with the stock blades are due to that coating I applied, and the only reason I need to move up to the ICONs is my own doing.

I'd be interested to hear, for people unhappy with the stock Bosch blades - did you apply any glass coatings like Aquapel or RainX?

EarlyAdopter said:

I'd be interested to hear, for people unhappy with the stock Bosch blades - did you apply any glass coatings like Aquapel or RainX?

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I have not, and even as cold as it is here today (currently -6 F) the stock blades do not "chatter" at all. One thing I have noticed, however, is that if I have a car wash, the wipers tend to streak and smear a lot until they eventually scrape off whatever wax or coating the car wash left on the glass.

For what it's worth, I purchased ICONs back in June of 2014 from Amazon and they are terrible now. I wouldn't claim they are so much better others. Maybe it's just me. Do you have to do anything special to wipers for maintenance?