My car has well-over 500k miles on it, with me putting 300k miles on it. (Could have been much more, possibly well over 300k miles, because I used a very conservative judgment of the wear pattern on the factory-installed windshield.)
Anyway, I replaced the original one a year ago this spring. Ames is my only source; even so, all vendors sell a little snake oil, boasting theirs is the best of the best. I checked at a local chain, Salvos, and the counterman said that it was available locally, but they did not sell it. When someplace that did, took it home, and lined it up. Although it didn’t take the force in one would question the mechanical soundness of a hammer fit, it did take an ever so slight tap to marry the splines, and it went on smoothly. Barely tightened the bolt and it snapped on the backside.
I looked at the internal area of the metal, and it looked similar to pot metal, so it was obvious the reason why Salvo refused to sell the part. After all, they are not big fans of leaving money on the table.
Before I took it back, I ordered and received one from Ames. Absolutely no comparison, with enough difference in durability that even the lady who is supplementing her Social Security check could see the obvious difference in the three rags on the counter, the one that came off the car, theirs, and Ames’s. When I installed it, guess what? Slipped right on!
