I just added this water deflector in as a preventative measure today, and thought some notes of my experience might be helpful for anyone else thinking of doing this:
- 1. If you're doing it in cold weather (in the high 30s today here), be careful you don't break off the little clips that hold the washer line hose in place. The cold seemed to make the plastic extra brittle. They can snap if you put just an ounce too much pressure in the wrong place. Ask me how I know that...
- 2. I turned the little push-pull plastic screw-thingys that retain the cowl into spaghetti trying to pry them off. (It was like they are made of putty.) Only one out of three is reusable. A panel removal tool is now on my "need to have it" list.
- 3. The wiper arms were a !@#$%^&* to get off! Got the retaining nuts off easily enough, but I had to take a small crowbar to the arms to get them to come up! Be extra super careful when you're trying to doing this, however you're doing it. Once I got the cowl off, I saw how close I was prying to the edge of the windshield underneath. A half inch closer and I probably would have cracked it and added the cost of new glass to the $4 part I was installing... I must be missing something because these should NOT be that hard to get off!
- 4. Since I have a 1998 GP, I had to remove the extra part near the blower motor to get the new deflector cover to sit all the way down. It just pulled right out, so that wasn't any big deal. This step was already noted a long time ago; just adding my confirmation that it needs to come out.
- 5. Once the extra rubber and plastic flange are removed from the bottom of the cowl, everything went back together smoothly. Took a while to reset the wiper ams in the right parked position, but once that was done I could relax. Now all I have to do is get two more of those push-pull plastic screw-thingys that hold the cowl and replace the ones I.. um..."persuaded" to come out...
- 6. I'm glad I did this mod, but it was a lot more work than I originally thought. Be prepared to wrestle with it a bit to make it see things your way.
