Ever noticed that in the rain, if you have a left hand drive xjs that your wipers aren't really wiping ALL of the windshield in front of you. THEN... you look at the OTHER side of the windshield AND.... the whole area on THAT side is wiped rather nicely! YES! This car was never designed to be a left hand drive car. If you have a right side drive model you can see just fine. When they switched the steering wheel and dash around for us yanks you think they might have ALSO switched the wipers around? NO! What's with that? What'd they say " If those buggers want to change the way we designed it, they'll just have to deal with it. This is as far as we're willing to go! Change our design will they?" Don't get it. Seems they somehow just completely missed this one. ANNNDD.. did Ford correct it? They work good enough harumph! Costs too much too fix, wheeze! I guess that's why the xk8 came about, Time to redesign and improve. Bud:ico n_rain:

 

It is however reasonably easy to swap this over as the wiper motor can be modes to park the blades at the other end of their Stoke and the arms modified and remounted to have the correct angle and do as you say. Has been done at home, do the thoughtful guys left it up to us to customize... :-)

 

Bud,

I'm not sure what model year your car is but on mine, a 94MY, the wipers park (correctly?) on the driver's side. Curious?

Cheers,

Allan

 

You got me curious so I went online at Ebay looking at some of the XJS's for sale and it seems there is no rhyme nor reason for which way the wipers are parked!! Even within the same MY, facelift or pre, some cars have wipers parked to the left and some to the right. All the cars were LHD US spec cars.

Very odd indeed but perhaps one of those quirks that make Jags so lovable

 

A lot of these cars, even the later ones like mine, have been stripped and repainted. I know that when it was time to put the wipers back we just looked at the manual on mine and figured out from the drawings of the car where they should rest.

 

FWIW on my USA LHD 1988 XJS the wipers parked in front of the driver

Cheers
DD

 

Mark,

That maybe true for some but I just checked with a friend who has a 1989 coupe that is completely original and the wipers park on the passenger side

Cheers,

Allan

 

On the pre-facelift cars there was a change from Lucas to Electrolux wiper motors circa 1989. I wonder if that has something to do with it?

Cheers
DD

 

Possibly, but just looking at the random nature of wipers on so many pre and post facelift cars, I reckon the most likely scenario is a production line snafu. Not totally unheard of at Jaguar

Cheers,

Allan

 

Having a full pot of coffee, fresh pack of smokes, and some spare time I though I might try to investigate this curioisty. So, off I went into the parts catalogs.

It didn't take long for me to give up

Pre-1989-ish it seems to simply be a case of "LHD" vs "RHD".

After that it starts getting complicated with several different motor part numbers, wiper arm styles, etc. All this *in addition to* the obvious "LHD vs RHD" choices.

So, we not only have the possibility of incorrect assembly by owners and repairs shops (or, as mentioned, even on the factory assembly line) but several intentional permutations as evidenced by the parts catalogs....which appear chaotic at a glance but probably were based on *some sort* of rhyme and reason.

I say that with a bit of my tongue in my cheek because understanding Jaguar "rhyme and reason" isn't always easy.



Cheers
DD

 

I reversed my wipers so that they park on the passengers side (right hand side) of the windshield. Unfortunately the wipers for my 1996 model are angled so they park much higher on the windshield than they are supposed to. (The wipers have a 10 and 4 degree bends in them)

If anyone from across the pond would like to switch windshield wiper arms, I'd love to have the ones that are made to park on the right hand side.

I did also go through eBay before and also noted that some cars have the wiper arms parked on the passengers side, but most seemto have them on the drivers side. Still odd that they seem to be installed at random.

 

My 1996 wipers park on the left in front of the driver. They parked too high and were obstructing the drivers view to a certain extent. My little 5' wife was especially bothered by this. I lowered them by bending the arms down some, and getting a 2" or so shorter drivers wiper blade. Works very well.
Cheers, RagJag

 

LOGIC WOULD SAY THAT THEY SHOULD PARK ON THE PASSENGER SIDE. My cars all do.

 

They all do. Just depends on what side the passenger sits on.

My car and your cars apparently rest on the same side, the left side. Unfortunately for me, that's not the passenger's side, as it is on your side of the pond.

If you happen to come across a facelift owner who happens to have his wipers on the (UK) driver's side, and would like to exchange it for ones that rest on the (UK) passenger's side, keep me in mind!

 

Malc,

That's interesting. Every XJS book I have shows all RHD UK cars as having the wipers park on the driver's side, for facelift cars or pre. All very strange? Here's a pic.

 

Sorry Allen, my XJS '87 uk RHD wipers parked on the passenger side. In my opinion, that is also the correct side to park.

 

It is all very strange Jim, looking through 4 different books I have, they all show countless pictures of UK cars with wipers always parked on the driver's side, including the first car shown at Earl's Court. Conversely all US spec cars are shown with wipers parked on the opposite side (still the driver's side of course). Seems that irrespective of markets, cars were produced with either handing?

I don't argue which side is best.

Cheers,

Allan

 

I agree Allen, very strange indeed. Seems there is little logic to it.

 

My 86 US spec parks on the passeger side...shorter blades and on the stainless when not in use (which is never, don't drive it in the rain)

 

It's amazing how random this is. I wonder if this is just a Jag syndrome...
My '94 wipers park to the left, USA driver's side, and so have my other Jags, including the single wiper on my XJR.

But, no difference, as this kitty never sees rain at all.