[Audi A3/S3] How do you remove the wiper arms on an A3

[Guest slittley]

Just 8 weeks after getting my brand new A3 sportback, the windscreen was hit by a large stone causing the screen to crack directly in front of the driver's position. I had the screen replaced on Friday by a mobile fitter. To do this, the fitter had to remove the windscreen wiper arms and then refit them after replacing the glass.

After the fitter had left, I noticed that one of the wiper arms was not perfectly adjusted (the blade was sitting higher above the bottom of the screen than previously) so I thought no problem, I'll take the arm off myself and put it back in the right position, it should be an easy thing to do. So I took off the plastic bolt cover at the base of the maladjusted arm and then removed the bolt, expecting the arm to easily pull off. Not so! No amount of pulling did any good and the arm held fast. I have read elsewhere that you need to use quite a lot of force to remove the wiper arms on Audis but I didn't want to pull too hard for fear of damaging something. Does anyone have any experience of this?

Incidentally, I was shocked to hear the cost of the replacement screen, over £700! I'm glad that all I had to pay was the £50 insurance excess.

Regards,

Steve

[dalepearson]

The arm will not pull directly off, the only way I can describe how you do it is to wobble it off.

By this I mean a kind of rocking technique like a see-saw at the base.

Be careful not to over tighten the bolt when you put them back.

[Paul]

if its like my S3 they are bolted on with a nut (covered with a cap), and a spline on the wiper shaft cuts its way into the wiper arm, creating a matching socket for the spline.

Ive just changed mine for the newer Bosch Aero twins.

for the drivers side i used a puller (2 legged version is best)

for the passenger, i didnt have the room. I loosened the nut, and used a pair of pump pliars to apply pressure to the under side of the nut, against the end of the shaft to pop it.

in both cases, leave the nut on a few threads to stop it flying off, untill its popped.

[Drillslinger]

Pop the cap off with a small screwdriver or such to reveal this:

Remove the 13mm nut and work the arm off of the spline...

I didn't have a puller, so I used a pipe wrench (It was a PITA )

Forgot to add this <font color="red">WARNING!!!</font> DO NOT overtighten the nut when putting the arm back on (or tightening the new arm) otherwise you might shear the spline off like I did

On the 8L at least, the whole wiper arm assembly needs to be replaced to fix the spline

HTH

[Guest slittley]

Thanks chaps for the information, especially to Drillslinger supplying the pictures.

All the best,

Steve