2016 Windshield wipers really hate pushing any snow/ice

Just had our first snow of the season and it brought back something that I had forgotten about over the summer. I've owned my 2016 since new and this has always been an annoyance, but I wanted to check and see if its just me or if anyone else deals with similar issues.

I've lived in New England my whole life and have had numerous vehicles, and I've never had a vehicle with windshield wipers that are more hesitant to push around some snow or ice from the windshield. Even when I've cleaned 95% of the snow and ice from my windshield and the cavity where the wipers attach recessed from the hood, my wipers are still hesitant to want to work. I'm guessing there is some safeguard in the motor to keep it from burning out when trying to push too much weight/resistance, but yesterday I literally had the whole windshield & surrounding area clean and clear of ice and it still didn't want to move. This has been a constant over the life of the vehicle and its super annoying to get out, clean the windshield, get back in the truck, try the wipers (no luck) and rinse/repeat 3-4 times when trying to leave the house.

Trust me, I'm all for cleaning out as much snow as possible and like I mentioned, I'm from the Northeast so I'm not new to dealing with snow and ice - I promise this isn't one of those situations where people are creating a porthole to look out of, but its almost laughable as to how sensitive this wiper motor is. Anyone else experience this issue or did I get either a lemon of a wiper motor or have a sensor that is overly sensitive? I probably won't do anything about it, but if its a known issue or I'm all on my own here, I might bring it up to Toyota next time I need to deal with them.

 

Related perhaps - I was never one for cleaning off 2-3" of snow and let the wipers do it IF it wasn't crusty or iced-up. A few miles down the road and the rest would blow off.

Fast forward to a day when I'm driving in the rain down the interstate (at 65 mph) and the passenger's side wiper linkage (under the cowl) failed. Its timing couldn't have been planned better as the passenger side wiper blade got tangled with the driver's side wiper, which ultimately resulted in 2 mangled wiper blades AND 2 bent wiper arms. Of course Toyota doesn't sell JUST the linkage components I needed to fix this - I had to buy everything from the motor up thru to the wiper blades.

Back to the original issue - did my habit of letting the wipers clear the snow - perhaps. Is it wise to clear the snow and make sure the wiper blades are not frozen to the windshield - absolutely.
Do I do it consistently? No.

Perhaps you just have a weak wiper motor. Or maybe Toyota cheapened (weakened) up the motor to save a few pennies.

 

Not much to do besides making sure the windshield is clear, wiper storage area (cowl intake) is clear and wiper blades aren't frozen down.

Snow is a bugger. Got to clear it off.

Another trick is to "Open" the wipers when snow is forecast. Open the wiper arms like when you replace the blades. This will keep them from being frozen down and make clearing the windshield and cowl area a little easier.

 

am i the only one that puts these down when i see them open?

in all my years of living in the snow belt, not once has a wiper frozen to the windshield

 

buy a brush. brush off all teh snow.

pretty easy soloution

 

Mine power through snow no problem, and we get a ton of it. Even In -30c. But I always make sure they are not frozen to the windshield before using, (or lift them off the windshield when expecting snow overnight) they have enough power that the one time I forgot to make sure they where not frozen, the rubber blade actually ripped off the wiper insert when I went to use them. Something might be wrong with your wiper assembly. Mind you I have a 2018 but it’s the same P/Ns

 

I live in Northern Canada, every day for the first month or two of snow weather, my wipers are well adhered to the windshield with ice and snow. To the point you would damage them if you tried to remove them. You must be really lucky. I always leave mine pointed up in the winter.

 

Your vehicle has never been parked outside during an Ice Storm? and you live in the snow belt......

BTW, if you see my wipers open, please do not touch. Its not your property.

 

I've not noticed that the wipers are better or worse than the ones on my previous vehicles. I also only occasionally park outside for any length of time.

 

Don't know if the cowl design is different on 2nd Gen vs 3rd Gen. But the design on the 2nd Gen is deep and it collects snow and ice. And it's well below the area where the defroster vents blow. I just make sure to clear it out thoroughly. Haven't had too many issues. As long as windshield and that area are cleared, the wipers work fine.

 

Yeah forgot to mention that In my quote...why would you touch someone else’s vehicle? That’s like rule number one of being even the slightest bit of a vehicle enthusiast...

 

I wouldn't touch anyone else's, but in my 40+ years of living in Canada I've never ever seen the point of tipping up the wipers.
Not once have I had wipers that wouldn't unstick, might need a bit of scraping while clearing off the window, but that's winter.
-It seems to be a ski hill thing that is slowly spreading to the driveway.. you would think in the 100 years of making cars they would've thought of it..

I mean, people buy deer whistles, hood deflectors, ventshades, and steering wheel covers.. diff'rent strokes I guess.

 

Wish I had thought of this, where have you been all my life?

Everyone else - thanks for the replies, sounds like my motor might be a bit of a dud, I'll bring it up with Toyota if I have to visit the dealership anytime in the future (Still under extended warranty).

Unfortunately I don't have a garage so every storm I have to clean off my vehicle. I swear though, sometimes I can't even find the ice chunk or debris that would be holding the wipers back from working, and if there's 2-3" of snow with even a little bit of moisture then forget it because they're not going to clean my windshield. Might be the single most annoying thing about the truck honestly.

 

Ya honestly, me too. I grew up in Minnesota and I have never tipped up my wipers nor had I even seen it done until the last 5 years or so. I just get out of my seat and give 'em a whack. I'm guessing its related to bicycle helmets and the avoidance of riding in the backs of pickups.

 

I might suggest that having the wipers up is stretching the springs out and actually decreasing their wiper function overall..

I see it from people who don't usually deal with snow, I mean running out and flipping the wipers if it's going to get cold or snow sounds annoying, especially where I've lived when that could be every night between Oct and May; PG, Dawson Creek, Edmonton, Fort Nelson - I've never seen it. Whistler, Kelowna, and here in Kamloops - seems like it's getting more common.

 

I'll only flip the wipers up if there's decent ice expected in the forecast, cuz it definitely does suck when they get encased in ice stuck to the windshield.

Sounds like OP's wiper motors aren't up to snuff, my taco would move a decent amount of snow without issue.

 

You put down other people's/strangers wipers? Are you a special kind of asshole or just stupid?

 

I put the wipers up when expecting snow and ice mainly because I can, previous vehicles didn’t have this option. I have ripped off a blade that was frozen to the windshield. The other issue is my wife that would come home with the wipers going and leave the switch on. Fast forward to the morning with snow piled up and the wipers try to clear it as soon as the car is started. I’ll also add that I had a Tundra for 8 years before the Tacoma and the wipers were strong. I picked up my Tacoma a few months ago in a rainstorm and one of my first thoughts was “man these wipers suck”.
haven’t really noticed it as a problem since then though.

 

2017 here. Never had any issues OP. As someone stated above, maybe just a weak motor?

Edit: I also live in New England

 

This one took me 3 days to chisel enough ice to get a door open and 8 or 9 days without electricity, the wipers were under about 8 inches of ice!