This is in regard to our 2005 Toyota Camry, which we had purchased new. Our Camry has around 100K miles on it. On 2/20/08, my wife reported that the drivers side windshield wiper stopped working, while she was driving to work in rainy conditions. Later that morning, I looked at the car, and verified that the drivers side wiper moved independently of the other. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that the wiper arm alignment was off, and that the wiper arm had a witness mark from hitting against the hood of the car. I then discovered that the retaining nut (which holds the wiper arm to the splined shaft) was only finger tight. (I had never disassembled this in the past). Upon disassembly I observed an obvious collection of metal shavings around the base of the splined shaft, and on the shaft itself. I noted that the cast aluminum wiper arm had loosened up (due to the loose retaining nut), started to back itself up off the splined shaft, and ended up being reamed and stripped out, such that the wiper could no longer be driven by the splined shaft. From my observation, the root cause of this problem is that the retaining nut had not been tightened at (factory) assembly. This system failure caused a safety hazard inasmuch as the wiper became inoperative while on the road, during rainy conditions. The wiper arm assembly was replaced. I still have the failed part. I wanted to report this, in case there were any other 2005 Camry owners who may have experienced the same thing.

- Winchester, CA, USA