Windshield Wipers - Hood Interferes With Lifting

Just went to wash my front windshield. As always, I lift up the windshield wipers to get them out of the way to making washing the windshield easier. To my surprise, the hood interferes with lifting the wipers - I could only lift them up a couple of inches.

This seems odd, every car I've owned over the last 30 years or so have been designed so that the windshield wipers can be lifted up all the way.

I can imagine that this will also make it challenging to replace the wiper blades when then time comes.

From the owner's manual:

In the service position, the wiper arms can be lifted away from the windshield. The wipers are moved to the service position as follows:

• The hood must be closed.
  Switch the ignition off, turn it on briefly, and then off again.
  Press the windshield wiper lever down briefly when the ignition is off.
  Wipers move into service position.

Carefully fold the wiper arms back onto the windshield before driving! Switch the ignition on and press the windshield wiper lever down briefly. The wiper arms move back to their original position.

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Frank3 said:

This seems odd, every car I've owned over the last 30 years or so have been designed so that the windshield wipers can be lifted up all the way.

Click to expand...

It was like this in my 2010 GTI too. It improves aerodynamics by having the park position of the wipers below the trailing edge of the hood.
It's a simple procedure to get them to park in the upright position for washing, wiper changes or lifting off the glass in ice or snow conditions (though the heated windshield makes that last one unnecessary on the e-Golf)

A bit odd, but is sure seems like it works. Thanks guys!