How to Replace Rear Wiper Blade: 4th Gen Toyota 4Runner

When you make purchases through links on this site, The Track Ahead may earn an affiliate commission. Also, these posts are based off my own experiences. I am not responsible for any action you take as a result of reading this. Learn More

The 4th generation Toyota 4runner has a rear wiper blade that is easily replaceable. It sits on a support at the bottom of the rear hatch window when not in use, but uses a spring to press the arm against the window when it operates. If you have problems with the rear wiper arm not making full contact on the rear window, replacing the wiper blade will not do help. You may need to make a modification to the rear wiper arm itself in this case.

The front windshield wiper blades usually get the attention so they are typically replaced on a regular basis. But, if you use the rear wiper at all, you’ll realize after some time that it will need to be replaced eventually too.

OEM Wiper Blade Replacement

There are aftermarket wiper arms out there, but the genuine OEM wiper arm is not that expensive (around $20) to warrant looking for an aftermarket option. The Toyota OEM part # is: 85242-35021.

OEM Toyota 85242-35021 Wiper Blade: Amazon / Ebay

How to Replace Rear Wiper Blade

Replacing the rear wiper arm takes 5 minutes to do as it is very easy to swap out the arm.

First, remove the plastic cap around the base of the arm. You can use your fingers to pry both sides of the cap sideways and away from the center, and then pull the whole cap out towards you. It gets a bit hard to remove, but my experience is that the cap is pretty flexible, so you can tug it a bit and it will come out eventually. The two photos below shows the cap and how it looks underneath so you can understand how it pries off of the base of the arm.

After removing the cap, the wiper arm can now freely bend backwards away from the car.

With the arm pulled back, you can rotate the wiper blade until it is perpendicular to the wiper arm.

The wiper blade can then be pulled off of the wiper arm. It pulls out of the hook of the wiper arm.

Take the new wiper blade and simply re-attach it in the same position. Pop the wiper blade into the hook of the wiper arm.

The wiper blade can then be folded back and then the whole arm and blade can be placed back onto the support.

And that is all for the replacement of the rear wiper arm. There’s not much to it and there’s no need to fumble around with blade inserts at all. A simple replacement of the entire rear wiper arm is all it takes.