Sorry, if this has been answered before; I could not find a thread by searching. Why does my 04 MC have two different shaped front wipers? The drivers wiper has an extra piece on the bottom of the frame that is not present on the passenger side. Does this mean that I can't replace the wiper frames with non oem wipers, and can only replace the blade inserts?
I have auto sensing wipers, if that makes a difference.

 

The reason why the driver's side wiper assembly has a "spoiler" is to prevent the wiper from suddenly lifting off from the glass at highway speeds which would be a very bad thing to happen during a hard rain downpur.

You can certainly replace the OEM wiper blades with anything else aftermaket you wish as long as the new blades comply with the correctblade arm assembly size.

Do a search here and in MINI2.com. There is an aftermarket company that makes wiper blades that are guaranteed to last 5 years...I forgot the name though.

 

Interesting...I have never seen it before on any of my other cars (then again, they have all been Hondas).
I WAS thinking about replacing with Silblade- and I think that's the company your are referring to?

 

Yes, Silblade, that's the one. I have read about complaints relating to the Silblades not fitting the curve of the windshield properly in the MINI, so you may want to check on that.

I owned several Hondas/Acuras before and the first Honda that came with a "spoiler" for the driver's side wiper, was a 1990 Accord sedan. The '94 &'96 Accord also had the wiper spoiler as well as my '95 Acura Integra and '97 2.5TL sedan.

 

Well I have (had) Civics (90 and 97), but I guess they are the low end of the brand , and my 03 CRV doesn't have it- possibly due to the fact that it's not a 'speed' car.
Anyway, thanks, you have answered a puzzling yet obvious issue I had.

 

I wanted to put on chrome blades on my MINI. Not alot of choices out there that fit the MINI. I purchased a pair of blades with spoilers built in and they were both 18" blades. I never had any problems with the different sizes than what came on it. I spent less than $20 for both and have no regrets.

 

Gee, I was thinking the little extra bit was a MINI snow plow for the colder climates to keep the windshield clear. I could not verify this function due to the rarity of snow in my neighborhood. (gotta go drive up to the top of the nearest 12,000 foot volcano!)