My friend Hiroo is visiting from japan. He has done some consulting with Nissan and has a new Fairlady Z back home. He also has a few exotic cars like a Ferarri 330GTC, a Lotus, a Mercedes E55 and a Toyota 2000GT among others.. He was very surprised when he saw I had a 350Z. he gave it a good once over as it's a bit different than the model sold in japan. He looked at the back hatch and said.. Are you aware Nissan made a mistake with the rear wiper?? I said yes, it should lift off the glass like the front wipers do. He said No.. The wiper is on the wrong side for left hand drive cars.. It is correct for Right hand drive cars.. I always thought that might be true in the back of my mind as it really dosn't clear well for a Left side driver.. He said they were aware of the mistake but kept there mouths shut as almost no one complained.. really funny..

Anyone else ever suspect a mistake??

Steve (k2we) Dobbs Ferry, NY 7256 miles since Sept 17th....

 

Was does it matter what side the wiper is on? Does this have some impact on visability for LHD cars? I don't see a problem...

All of the JDM Z31's had the wiper pivot from the left- so was this incorect as well? see pic: http://saboten.sakura.ne.jp/~ranfa/Z...Z31club-96.htm


-Ethan

 

This is an interesting perspective. I find that it clears out the area I look through. Harmless.

Did he say anything about the front tire problems the US models experience or whether the Japanese cars have the same problems? That's an area I'd be interested in hearing about from within Nissan. Can you ask him?

 

There is a difference.. If the wiper were on the left side, it would clear the entire left side of the window from top to bottom and not leave a large area with moisture.. My friend said they realized it but deceided not to do anything unless there were major complaints.. Guess most people don't even realize it..

Steve (k2we) Dobbs Ferry, NY

 

interesting- I never thought of that- probably because I've only driven my Z in the rain 3 or 4 times since I got it in September.

 

No. Who cares? I'd rather be able to lift the wiper up off the glass when washing it.

 

I don't think this is wrong. To me it makes sense. When you look out the back your view is mainly to the right side anyway which is the side that should be cleared the most. Bikers will ride on the right side of the lane because that's your main viewing area.

I too wish it would pivot all the way up like the Z32.

 

I just wish they had left the whole thing off anyways.


It rains all the time here and I've never bothered to use it much.

 

This is one area i hate about this car, its not the wiper or which side its on its the fact that i cant see anything but the first twenty feet behind me in the rear view mirror. Any other car i have owned you have a clear vision path behind you, now i have to use the side mirrors to see whats behind me, so to me the wiper is useless anyway, my two cents worth for the day. I guess i need to be alot shorter to see out.

 

yeah... kinda agreed on that one as well...

 

what he said.

 

what she said.

 

what they said.

 

I havent understood this complaint, it wont lift off all the way, but it lifts enough to get a rag under there to clean it just fine.

as for rear view mirror, someone said it will rotate up and down to set the verticle angle out of it. not sure how it works, I tried messing with it once, and couldnt figure it out, you might have better luck.

 

I hadn't noticed and I've used mine a couple of times. It cleared the window enough for me to back out of a tight area, so no harm.

 

Rain?

Whats rain?

 

cool, so it is JDM!!

I should add that in my sig "JDM Rear winshield wiper"

 

here in socal, as you know, it is that thing that ONLY happens after you wash your car.

 

yeah so stop washing your car so that we in Ohio wont get your dang rain 3 days later!

thought y'all in Cali were allowed to wash your cars anyway? LOL jk

 

I didn't notice this at first, but the mirror is on a stalk that has two pivot points, one at the glass and one behind the mirror. Which means you can pivot the bar attaching the mirror to the windshield.

If you push the bar far enough downwards (45 degree angle in my case), you'll be able to see farther back without having to "bow down".

Just be careful you don't push excessively hard on the mirror or you'll detach the mirror from the windshield!!

Note that I have a Performance model, which has the Homelink/auto dim mirror, not sure if this is also a feature of the regular rear view mirror