Here's a 5-minute mod that will allow your rear wiper full articulation so that it can be easily moved out of the way to clean the rear hatch glass:

The full "How-To" can be found HERE (http://www.socalhhr.citymax.com/hhrrearwiper.html).

Hope it helps! :thumb:

SoCal,

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v167/wildeone81/Random%20Hosted%20Stuff/thanksfortheinfo.jpg
-wC

Good idea!

The tab looks like it was intentionally designed there by GM. They must have had some reason for not wanting the rear wiper to lift out all the way. (Not that I don't believe some things are improperly designed or engineered.)

How does this affect the wiping motion of the blade? Does it still stay up against the glass when in use?

You're gonna have issues with the arm not contacting the glass and not returning to the proper home position down the road.

You're gonna have issues with the arm not contacting the glass and not returning to the proper home position down the road.

No problems so far. IF that is the case, a new plastic part is only about $2 anyway. The hold-down spring semms very stout, I doubt this will arise.

In California, I rarely ever use the rear wiper - too much sunshine! :cool:

BUMP!

This is an oldy but a goody!

A very easy mod that I did right away. Makes it much easier to clean the entire rear window!

I haven't had any of the issues mentioned. At least not yet. And as Mike said, the part is cheap to replace if problems do crop up.

That was the first thing I did to my HHR when I got it home. Even before Mr. Bumpstops got his hands on my HHR!

Same here...one of the first things I did. No problems either...but like the others...no biggie...replacement part cheap. My boyfriend who details my car loves it.

Mine just snapped off, didn't need a knife.

It is nice being able to get a squeegee under it!

It is nice being able to get a squeegee under it!

Man, - ain't that the truth! :thumb:

Every time I clean the rear window I appreciate this mod...

Was my first mod to.
Makes getting the snow and ice off the rear window easy.

Yea that seems like a good mod - I just have to wonder WHY they intentionally moulded that piece on there. Some designer in a little room somewhere said to himself " Self, I need to design in a plastic piece to this cover that will prevent owners from pulling the blade back for easy cleaning... OK, that looks good, time to go home!"

:roll:

Yeah, it's not like the tab helps keep the wiper on the window - you can still lift it off about a 1/2" - (just not far enough to clean the window!) :lol:

What I like best about this mod isn't so much that the wiper can be raised, it's more that it actually stay's in the raised position until your ready to put it back down. I haven't had any ill effects from this mod either, although the wiper sucks in general with it's limited sweep.

That rear wiper system is just dead weight..
I took out the motor, wiper blade assembly...
thats my take on it...

I agree with Henry. All the wiper will do is put nice arc'd scratches into your rear glass eventually. When I get around to custom paint - that thing is going....along with the rear washer...and the front antenna. Time for a shave.

So Henry, - did you install a body plug where the wiper hole was?

False
T- Handle

used the existing water proofing gromment.

At least you have a "wind-up key" now...that should make it faster. :D

Can not belive how lazy I am. At first I hated the wiper blade the way it was. Could not move itThen I got to the point where I was the hell with it I will just work around it. Finally got mad today took the cover off, ran inside check this post and fixed the problem. This should be the second thing anyone does once they get home, after checking the fuse boxs. Heck if anyone is getting a new HHR I would say do it at the dealer and maybe they would tell chevy about it.

one of the first mods I did; bumped

**Talk about bringing one back from the dead**
Previous post was 07-02-2006.....

Wow,this was old! You know, I've never done it. Never seemed to be much of a problem for me. I just lift it up, and wipe it dry. I don't know, just me though.

Still relevant since someone just asked about it. I've never done it on either of my HHRs. Hasn't been a problem for me.

I did not find it to be a problem, just made cleaning the back window a little more time consuming and took away from the clean looks of the back of the HHR. I removed mine, figuring that since the rear window is pretty vertical so it won't get too dirty. I rarely used my back wiper anyhow and it is small enough to clean in a few seconds when it does. Why put up with an ugly wiper that is hardly ever used? As another bonus, I removed the dashboard switch and put 2 other switches in that location.

You guys do know that the cover is designed to come off. That is how you replace the wiper blade. I had to look up how to do it when I replaced it not that long about from factory. It lasted 5 and something years. If your that concerned about making the rear window perfect, then just take it off, clean, and put it back on. I think it looks ugly with out it.

My HHR is a 2007, and weathering of the plastic with time probably made this modification even easier to do than on a new HHR. The cover came off in my fingers when I gently pulled it to each side. The restricting tab snapped off cleanly and with minimal effort after I took a big bite on it and bent with needle nose pliers. The rear wiper blade not only pulls away cleanly now, but also has a stable stop position away from the glass. It almost seems like it was designed to work that way, then someone decided to add that tab later as a safety measure.

This reminds me of my old 1976 (I am showing my age) VW Rabbit. Every Rabbit was sold with complete, inactive electronics for intermittent wiper operation. It had the same switch as the VW Scirocco on which the intermittent wiper was standard. VW added a tab to the lower-market-position Rabbit to prevent the use of the intermittent wiper. Once you got access and broke off the tab, the switch acquired an additional position for the fixed-interval intermittent wiper, which functioned as if it had been there all along.