OEM Windshield Wipers

[Bonburner]

left: https://parts.toyota.com/p/62979220/SU00304213.html
Parts # SU00304213

Right: https://parts.toyota.com/p/62987999/SU00304214.html
Parts # SU00304214

[Leonardo]

I replaced the OEM wipers with TRICO FORCE wipers after 5 years. They were easy to install, work Amazing, and were under $40.

[Overdrive]

Did a replacement of the OEM inserts with part numbers provided by @Bonburner above (thanks, bud!). My local dealer had to order them since they're not exactly selling FR-Ses and 86es left and right, but they showed up the next day. Cost me a little less than $7 each, and contents were the blade insert and new metal braces so you don't have to have to reuse the old ones (good idea to hang onto those for spares just in case, though). 5 minute job at the worst, and you get to keep the original hardware that attaches to the arm. Back to a nice and smooth, quiet wipe. As long as they keep making the part I'll be doing this when I need replacements.

[Overdrive]

And to resurrect this old thread, looking for some input from anyone else who may have heard a similar thing. It seems Toyota has stopped making these inserts somewhere within the last year. I bought some last summer and was looking to replace again, albeit at a different dealer than my normal one. When I went to this other dealer they told me these part numbers were no good anymore and that apparently some of these inserts were failing and causing damage to people's windshields, so Toyota stopped making and supplying the parts. I don't know how much truth there is to that, but I'll have to see if Subaru is still carrying the parts or if my usual dealer has anything different to say. If true, it's quite a bummer. I'm not going to pay 10 times the price of the insert to get a whole new wiper assembly to replace when the one that's there is perfectly fine and just needs a new rubber insert.

[Westen86]

I also use the factory inserts on my 2013. Its less than $10 per side. Ive had the car 4 years and just now put on a second pair. This set will go another 2-3 years.

[Overdrive]

I haven't found them to last that long for me, and I don't like to wait until they're chattering all the time and I can't see out clearly enough. I may have to stretch this set out for a while if I can't find a source for replacements.

[minbean]

Originally Posted by tobin

I really like the OEM BRZ wiper blades, as they do a nice job of cleaning the glass and also last quite a long time. Recently I noticed that the part number for '13 replacement blades had been discontinued. I contacted subarupartforyou.com, who confirmed that they have been superseded with new part numbers (and yes, SPFY sells them for much less than the dealer). This is for the entire blade with the metal housing, not just the rubber insert.

86542CA060 and 86542CA010

have been superseded with

SOA591U420 and SOA591U422

New OEM blades are much less quality and in different design than the old ones. I recommend Denso blades which were the old OEM blades.

[Overdrive]

I never did follow up on this thread after I brought up that issue I ran into getting replacement inserts at a dealer away from home. In short, the guy at that dealer was full of sugar, honey, ice and tea (it was in the south after all, where sweet tea is often a staple...maybe he was delirious from insulin shock). I inquired at my usual dealer when I got back home, they looked up the same part numbers Bonburner listed above that I'd been using for years, and ordered me a few sets of them, same as they always have. I did it as recently as this past summer, so the parts are still being made and supplied, no need to believe any shady parts department managers trying to sell unnecessary parts and claiming that the factory wipers are damaging people's windshields.

[Decep]

I dont understand how the OEM inserts last years and years and yet i've had a few aftermarket arm/blades on different cars that last literally weeks. The quality gap in wiper blades is insane lol

[Overdrive]

I can't say mine last years, but I put mine to use pretty frequently, so between that and just daily exposure to the elements I usually get a year out of them, sometimes a little more, though I pretty much have just made it an inexpensive proactive piece of maintenance to change them once a year whether it's needed or not. I try not to wait until the strip starts to break down and separate, but sometimes I get caught by that.

Aftermarkets don't make money off of you if they give you a replacement that lasts for multiple years instead of maybe a year. That's $20-30 per blade that they've convinced someone to spend annually instead of maybe every 3-5 years. Kind of like Sylvania's Silverstar headlight bulbs. Expensive, bright white light that looks great, with an abysmal lifespan of maybe a year compared to their not super bright, but still road legal Long Life version of the same bulb that costs barely half as much and will last you several years.

[Luns]

Originally Posted by Overdrive

I never did follow up on this thread after I brought up that issue I ran into getting replacement inserts at a dealer away from home. In short, the guy at that dealer was full of sugar, honey, ice and tea (it was in the south after all, where sweet tea is often a staple...maybe he was delirious from insulin shock). I inquired at my usual dealer when I got back home, they looked up the same part numbers Bonburner listed above that I'd been using for years, and ordered me a few sets of them, same as they always have. I did it as recently as this past summer, so the parts are still being made and supplied, no need to believe any shady parts department managers trying to sell unnecessary parts and claiming that the factory wipers are damaging people's windshields.

I think Toyota of America is actively trying to discourage insert replacements, but they still trickle through the normal parts distribution channels and are somewhat available.

When I still had my Corolla, I eventually gave up on buying inserts from Toyota. At least until 2009 or so, Toyota would publish a PDF detailing what inserts to use for what cars, and had a selection of about 5 or so different profiles in various lengths. I don't remember whether they offered inserts for the Denso Designer blades which were relatively new at the time, but some of the other inserts they sold were generic cut-to-fit extrusions rather than OEM rubber.

In the last edition of that PDF that I saw, they did away with all the inserts, and were only listing their Toyota sightline blades. I concluded that these are basically aftermarket blades that are sourced and distributed by Toyota of America, with a Toyota logo on them, so they can sell them as 'genuine Toyota', but they're not what came on any cars from the Factory, and do not accept any of the available inserts from what I could tell.

For a little while, was able to order inserts by the original part number, and would receive the real deal (fully molded, not cut extrusions) but the last straw for me was a time I ordered the original part number, and they substituted the wrong insert which I couldn't even use.

It ended up that I would go to Honda to get all my inserts, whether for my Corolla, Hondas, or Nissans that still had their original wipers. Every Honda dealer I've inquired at has had good inventory of the inserts I've been looking for, and never generic substitutes like what Toyota would push.

It would take a little sleuthing to identify the appropriate inserts for the non-Honda applications, but the older cars with traditional blades had inserts that are interchangeable with the NWB wipers used by Honda. Honda typically uses Mitsuba wipers now, but they did use some Denso after transitioning from traditional NWB blades (models around '07-'10). I think I've had some luck finding inserts for Denso Designer blades in the past, but there were gaps in the coverage and that need went away for me for a while, so I hadn't kept up.

For the driver's side, my next visit to Honda, I plan to check out:

76632-SHJ-A11

The 500mm blade we need was one of the gaps I'd encountered before, and I'm not having any luck finding anything from Honda now either. I'd previously needed that for a blade from an '07 Camry, and the current Toyota part number for that application is:

85214-0E140

This appears to be available for now, but it does seem the corresponding driver's side part number is not. These are rubber only. The rubber+spine part numbers that @Bonburner shared appear to still be good, and are listed at the same price.