Fixing crappy windshield wipers?

[white86tercel]

The front windshield wipers on my Tercel are increadiably noisy and they don't clean my windshield very well. At first, I thought the blades were the problem, so I drilled out the rusty srews that held them in place and installed a new set. This made it a little easier to see but the noise got worse. My dad recently purchased some very quiet rainX wiper blade so I decided they might help. Same result, the visual quality improved even more but the noise got worse. I'm now at the point were I trigger my wipers by hand instead of turning the wipers on. I just can't stand the noise the wipers make.

-The wipers tend to be quieter when the windshield is thoroughly covered with water: ie. I just turned the wipers on, its rainning very hard, or I'm spraying the car with a hose as part of a test procedure
-The noise also tends to be less pronounced when the wipers are on high speed than it is when they are on low speed.
-At highway speeds, a cushion of air gets between the wipers and the windshield. Its almost like the crosswinds are blowing the wipers off the windshield.
-If I push the wiper blades against the windshield they are nearly silent -- Unfortunatly, I can only do this while the vehicle is stopped.
-I would describe the wipers as moving from a resting position up and to the left, the back to the resting position. The wipers are very streeky/they skip a lot on their way up but they pickup a lot of water on their way back down.
-The wiper arms are a little rusty, the springs connected to the arms are very rusty, and the windshield has numerous small scratches in it.

What can I do to make my wipers quieter. They are driving me insane!

Thanks in advance
Chris

[GTSSportCoupe]

If I were you I'd go to the local wrecker and find some non-rusty wiper arms. They are really easy to replace. Just push the wiper down to the windshield to take the tension off the nut, and use a 10 or 12mm wrench on the nut. Pull the arm off the shaft while wiggling it back and forth, and trying to keep the spring tension off it.

Weak wiper arms (springs) would cause the problems you are talking about.

[takza]

I'd invest in new wiper arms...need to be careful of the nut that torques the arm down...they are a special design and they can strip.

Then maybe some Rainex on the windshield will fill in some of those scratches.

A scratched windshield will wear wiper blades fairly fast. I just replace them every 6 months or so.

[Typrus]

I personally would think the spring the culprit.
Look into getting some Walmart Tripledge wipers. My folks have had those on their Excursion and F-250 for about a year now and they still work great.
Get a new windshield if its pitted and scratched. Its about $150+labor if I remember the quote right.