Aero (a.k.a Polo) rear wiper Mod

Got a bit of time off work this week so though I would do a few mods to the car. This is the first one of the week, the Aero or Polo rear wiper mod. Main parts you need are the 2004 VW polo rear wiper blade, arm and cap. You can probably get them cheap off ebay or some other suppliers, as I am lazy I just paid extra and got them all off VW today, luckily it was in stock in the parts dept. Here are the tools I used (flat head screw driver, pliers, spanner) also in this picture are the new wiper blade, arm and cap



This is what the standard rear wiper looks like....



Start by removing the cap. It will come off with a bit of gentle persuasion, I used the pliers to ease it off.



Once off, use the spanner to loosen the nut underneath the cap.



The wiper arm should come off now the nut is removed, mine was a bit stuck so gently use the flat head to help loosen it and remove it.



Removed wiper arm..



Now put the new arm with attached blade on and secure it with the same nut you just removed.



The new wiper cap is bigger than the old one so needs to be trimmed down to size. See here the size difference, on the left is the original cap, on the right the new cap



if you dont trim the new cap down, it wont fit securely onto the wiper arm. See in this picture of the inside of the new cap, the two plastic teeth (demarkated by the green arrows) which will be able to grip the arm once its trimmed and therefore hold it secured to the wiper arm.



I used a Dremmel to shave off the excess plastic at the base of the new cap. Its a useful tool for mods to the car and around the house and is only about £30.



Once trimmed down, the new cap is much "shorter" and more like the old one in terms of height. This picture shows the new trimmed cap on the left and the old cap on the right. I actually trimmed it a bit more after this picture.



The new cap should fit in to position now and those 2 plastic teeth can grip the wiper arm and secure it in position.



This picture shows there is a small gap between the glass and the cap (created by shaving the excess plastic off the base of the new cap), meaning that there is no rubbing when the wiper is in operation. Turn on the rear wiper to make sure it doesnt rub.



And thats it, your done. Looks much nicer now with this on rather than the original unit. This is a very easy mod, probably cost about £25 for the parts from VW and took me 15 mins to fit.