GM has released a fix for Chevy Equinox EV wipers that don’t wipe the windshield completely. In addition to an inconvenience, this can also be a safety hazard on a snowy or dirty windshield, like in the photo below.
The wiper setup for the Chevy Equinox EV is a little unusual. The two overlapping front windshield wipers wipe in opposite directions rather than in tandem. The driver-side wiper is 30 inches long, and the passenger-side wiper is 22 inches.
The issue in question arises when the wiper arms are not aligned correctly with the wiper motor pivot shaft. When this problem arises, it can result in the wiper blades contacting each other or poor wiper coverage.
The wipers only work as designed when they maintain the right clearance between each other. If there’s a gap between the wiper blades when not in use, they’re likely aligned correctly. If they’re touching each other, then they require this fix.
Dealers are instructed to place the Chevy Equinox EV in Service mode and turn off the wiper system. With the wipers in the Park position, they’ll check to see if the wiper arm is aligned with the wiper alignment marks in the windshield shown in Fig. 8 below. If it’s not, GM recommends removing the wiper arm using the J-39822 Wiper Arm Puller tool, cleaning the wiper pivot shaft splines, and realigning the wiper arm using the aforementioned alignment marks.
Another way to check if the wiper alignment is correct is to measure the distance between the edge of the driver-side A-pillar and the wiper blade when it’s at its reversal point. That distance should be between 1.6 and 2.0 inches. Since this can be hard to measure with perfect accuracy, using the wiper alignment marks in the windshield is recommended.
Incidentally, the mechanically similar Cadillac Optiq, which shares the BEV3 platform and GM Ramos Arizpe production site with the Chevy Equinox EV, has the same windshield wiper setup. That makes the Caddy susceptible to the same problem, but it can be diagnosed and remedied with the same procedure outlined above.
Comment
Hey! I thought that my wipers did not sweep all of the way to the windshield pillar like they were supposed to. Plus the windshield pillar is particularly wide to begin with and when it is raining hard or snowing there is a large area of vision blockage going on. Especially taking a left turn. I presumed that this was the way that it was designed. Oh well, overall I really like this car a lot.