I had a truly infuriating morning with the Q45...

"Noah - Now with more boost." (antriebverliebt) 01/18/2017 at 10:04 • Filed to: None

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First I lost a washer fluid cap in the engine bay. I tried to fish it out to no avail, but did manage to get grease on my pants and scrape both of my hands. And then the Q’s biggest design flaw reared it’s ugly head on my commute.

In 1999, some truly thoughtless project manager approved the following: Wipers that look cool because they’re tucked under the hood, but cannot be folded for cleaning... WITH NO HEATING ELEMENT TO MELT SNOW.

That’s right. Every single time it snows you need to turn the car on, hit the wipers, then shut it off so they stay on the windshield. After that you need to dig out every single piece of snow in that little wiper pocket because if you don’t, the wipers will compact more and more snow into their little space until they are resting 1/3 of the way up on the windshield. Due to snow falling off the roof of my car (I was in a rush, no full snow clean this morning) I had to pull over TWICE this morning to solve this issue.

That’s totally unacceptable. There is no reason for skipping the heating element... it was a $50,000 car in 1999! The only logic i can think of is “we’ll cut this corner to beat the Germans on price. Rich people have garages anyway... they don’t clean snow off of their cars.”

UGH

CalzoneGolem > Noah - Now with more boost. 01/18/2017 at 10:10

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#firstworldproblems

Noah - Now with more boost. > CalzoneGolem 01/18/2017 at 10:12

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for sure but hey everyone’s problems are real to them... and that’s a ridiculously dumb design.

CalzoneGolem > Noah - Now with more boost. 01/18/2017 at 10:13

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No argument here.

Noah - Now with more boost. > CalzoneGolem 01/18/2017 at 10:15

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lol. r/firstworldproblems is a great subreddit btw

CalzoneGolem > Noah - Now with more boost. 01/18/2017 at 10:22

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I prefer /r/firstworldanarchists .

Noah - Now with more boost. > CalzoneGolem 01/18/2017 at 10:23

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haha YES that’s a good one too

Urambo Tauro > Noah - Now with more boost. 01/18/2017 at 10:27

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At first, I thought that a heating element was a weird thing to demand on a car, but you’ve got some good points there. One one hand, maybe the wiper pocket was a bad idea from the beginning. But this is a luxury car we’re talking about, and that’s the kind of car on which it’s acceptable to “overcomplicate” things by adding tech to make interesting designs (like hidden wipers) work in the real world.

LOREM IPSUM > Noah - Now with more boost. 01/18/2017 at 10:32

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http://www.everblades.com

I googled “aftermarket wiper heaters” and that was the first hit. There may be others, but it appears there exists a solution to your problem.

Happy motoring.

Noah - Now with more boost. > Urambo Tauro 01/18/2017 at 10:32

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And this morning at least, it’s also 100% my fault for not cleaning my roof off. But yes it’s ridiculous! And most cars with this design - which is definitely cool and helps visibility - have a little rear defroster esque heating element near the wiper blades to prevent this. But yes good point re: “impracticality because luxury” that’s probably part of it too.

Noah - Now with more boost. > LOREM IPSUM 01/18/2017 at 10:34

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whoahhhh haha I appreciate it but damn are those ugly! I will just deal.

LOREM IPSUM > Noah - Now with more boost. 01/18/2017 at 10:36

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Any interest in a LED washer fluid cap?

They probably exist too. Lol

Noah - Now with more boost. > LOREM IPSUM 01/18/2017 at 10:42

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lol it was the bottle cap from the refill jug. fortunately the actual cap is big, bright yellow, and attached to the filler neck

V12 Jake- Hittin' Switches > Noah - Now with more boost. 01/18/2017 at 10:50

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My LS400 is the same damn way. It’s really annoying.

CobraJoe > Noah - Now with more boost. 01/18/2017 at 10:54

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Wipers that look cool because they’re tucked under the hood, but cannot be folded for cleaning... WITH NO HEATING ELEMENT TO MELT SNOW.

You Yonguns... (I’m only 32 btw)

Nearly every American car between the mid 70s to around the 90s (even later for the Panther and large GM cars) had the wipers tucked under the hood, could not be folded, and never had a heating element.

 I grew up riding in 80's Fords and Mercurys, and have owned several others with the hidden wipers. I didn’t even know that wiper heating elements were a thing until I got my Legacy GT.

Noah - Now with more boost. > CobraJoe 01/18/2017 at 10:57

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Huh. I’m 24, I guess my frustration dates me a little bit haha

Noah - Now with more boost. > V12 Jake- Hittin' Switches 01/18/2017 at 10:59

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maybe that even explains my predicament, I wouldn’t be surprised if Nissan engineers did a little competitive analysis on the LS back in the day

Comes over to help work on your car and only drinks beer > CobraJoe 01/18/2017 at 11:13

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Yeah, but the aerodynamics were such shit that the turbulence would blow the snow out of the pockets when you ran the wipers.

CobraJoe > Comes over to help work on your car and only drinks beer 01/18/2017 at 11:18

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Do you have probelms with snow gathering in the wipers of newer cars? I haven’t driven my legacy in heavy snow yet, but I’ve only ever had problems with wipers freezing due to extreme cold and precipitation more than snow collecting in the wiper area.

unclevanos (Ovaltine Jenkins) > Noah - Now with more boost. 01/18/2017 at 11:45

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E38 is the same thing.

Noah - Now with more boost. > unclevanos (Ovaltine Jenkins) 01/18/2017 at 11:57

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Huh I wondered. What a weird design choice

V12 Jake- Hittin' Switches > Noah - Now with more boost. 01/18/2017 at 12:33

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“Competitive analysis”

Noah - Now with more boost. > V12 Jake- Hittin' Switches 01/18/2017 at 13:16

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no timing belts over here though :p

V12 Jake- Hittin' Switches > Noah - Now with more boost. 01/18/2017 at 15:05

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Leave

His Stigness > Noah - Now with more boost. 01/18/2017 at 18:49

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My MKVI Golf is the same with the wiper tucked in, but you can get them into “service mode” by just tapping the winner stalk, you don’t need to even put the key in.

Noah - Now with more boost. > His Stigness 01/18/2017 at 18:53

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that’s a really cool feature actually, genius

His Stigness > Noah - Now with more boost. 01/18/2017 at 18:55

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I think so. It’s a hell of a lot better than playing the “who’s faster” game trying to turn it off in the right spot.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > LOREM IPSUM 02/27/2017 at 08:41

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Glow in the dark.