As one would expect, the wiper arms cannot be raised from their normal rest position without hitting the hood, regardless of whether the hood is open or closed. I noticed, completely by chance while cleaning the windshield, that the wiper arms disengage from the motor and can be moved up the windshield in order to be raised off the windshield for cleaning or blade replacement. The other day, I tried to show this to someone and the blades were locked to the motor and couldn't be moved like before. So I searched the manual for details on this feature and I found nothing. What I did find is - there is a service mode which moves the wipers to the top of the windshield when placing the wiper control into Mist Mode within 45-seconds of powering off the vehicle. My assessment is that after that 45-seconds has elapsed, the wiper arms disengage from the motor, and can then be moved manually. When it didn't work the other day, I think I had the vehicle running. Has anyone found a written description of this feature in the manual? It's a pretty nice feature when cleaning the windshield.

 

I noticed that today, i was expecting to lift the drivers wiper arm up a notch, winter mode as it is sometimes called, to clean the bottom of the window and as you said they just moved up, i was a bit concerned that i may have broken them, but after cleaning i put them back down and they seem to be ok. I did open the bonnet without moving the wipers and they didn't hit.

page 198 of the manual explains the wiper function.

 

I can raise the driver's side (left side in the US) arm with the hood (bonnet) open, but not the larger passenger-side wiper arm.

UK manual must be different. Our US manual describes the procedure for changing/lifting the wipers from rest position on page 174, but it only describes how the arms move to the "service position" by selecting the MIST setting within 45 seconds (as I previously noted). I cannot find any reference describing the capability for the arms to disengage from the wiper motor nor to manually move the arms, as we've discovered is possible.