How to Change Wiper Blades: A Simple Step by Step Guide

Wiper blades are the cheapest safety part on a car and the one owners put up with for longest after it has stopped working properly. A smeared windscreen at dusk on a wet motorway is genuinely dangerous, and the fix takes about as long as filling the washer bottle.

How do you change wiper blades?

Lift the wiper arm away from the glass until it locks upright, find the release tab or button where the blade meets the arm, press it and slide the blade off, then push the new blade on until it clicks home. Lower the arm carefully back onto the screen. Most modern cars need no tools at all.

The full sequence:

• Park the wipers in their normal rest position and switch the ignition off. Some cars need a service position selected before the arms will lift clear of the bonnet, so check the handbook if the arms will not move far enough.
• Lay a folded towel on the windscreen. If a wiper arm springs back onto bare glass, the bare metal end can crack the windscreen. This is the single most expensive mistake people make doing this job.
• Lift the arm until it stands away from the screen and holds itself upright.
• Turn the blade so it sits at right angles to the arm. This exposes the connector.
• Find the release. On a push button fitting there is a tab on top of the connector. On a hook fitting there is a small plastic clip inside the hook. Look before you pull.
• Slide the old blade off, usually downwards along the arm, while holding the release in.
• Note the orientation of the old blade before it goes in the bin, or take a photo.
• Fit the new blade by aligning it with the connector and pushing until it clicks. Give it a gentle tug afterwards to confirm it is locked.
• Lower the arm slowly onto the glass. Never let it snap back.
• Repeat for the other blade, and for the rear wiper if the car has one.

Which wiper blades fit your car?

Match three things: the length of each blade, the connector type on the arm and, on some cars, the specific shape needed to clear the screen. The driver's side and passenger side blades are usually different lengths, so check both rather than buying a pair of the same size.

The connector types you are most likely to meet:

The reliable way to buy is to look up your registration number on a parts site, which returns the correct lengths and fitting for your exact car, then compare the connector on the new blade against the old one before you remove anything. Most quality blades come with adaptors for several fittings in the box.

Conventional, flat and hybrid wiper blades compared

All three clear water. The differences are in how evenly they press on the screen, how they cope with snow and how long they last.

If the car came with flat blades, fit flat blades. The arm tension and the curvature of the screen are matched to that design, and dropping down to a cheap conventional blade usually produces a worse wipe than the one you were trying to improve on.

When should you change your wiper blades?

Change them as soon as they stop clearing the screen cleanly, which for most drivers is somewhere between six and twelve months. Blades wear from sunlight, frost, grit and ozone as much as from use, so a car that covers few miles still needs new blades roughly once a year.

The signs to look for:

• Streaking. Lines of water left behind after each pass mean the rubber edge has worn round or has a nick in it.
• Smearing. A hazy film across the screen, worst when facing into low sun or oncoming headlights.
• Skipping or chattering. The blade juddering across the glass instead of gliding, often because the rubber has taken a set or the arm tension has weakened.
• Squealing on a wet screen.
• Visible damage. Split, hardened or perished rubber, a torn wiping edge, or a bent frame.
• Missed sections. Areas of the screen left untouched, which usually means a bent arm rather than a bad blade.

Check the blades whenever you clean the car. Run a fingertip along the rubber edge; it should feel sharp and flexible, not rounded, hard or ragged.

How do you test new wiper blades?

Wet the screen with the washers first, then run the wipers through every speed setting. Testing on dry glass drags the new rubber across grit and can damage a brand new blade in one pass.

What you are checking for:

• The blades sweep the full arc without hitting the trim or each other.
• Full contact across the whole length of the blade, with no lifting at the tips.
• No skipping, bouncing or chatter at any speed.
• A clean sheet of water pushed off rather than lines left behind.
• The intermittent and automatic settings behave normally.
• The blades park correctly in their rest position.

If a brand new blade chatters, the arm is often the problem. Arms lose spring tension over time and can be twisted slightly out of alignment, so the blade meets the glass at the wrong angle. That is a garage job rather than a driveway one.

Do worn wiper blades fail the MOT?

Yes. Wipers and washers are both tested items in the UK MOT. A wiper blade that is missing, badly deteriorated or does not clear enough of the screen to give the driver an adequate view is recorded as a defect, and washers that do not work or a reservoir that is empty will also be marked down.

It is one of the easiest and cheapest failures to avoid. Before an MOT, fit fresh blades if there is any doubt, top up the screenwash and check the jets are aimed at the upper half of the screen and not spraying over the roof.

How do you make wiper blades last longer?

Keep the glass clean and keep the blades off frozen glass. Most premature blade failure comes from dragging soft rubber across grit, ice or dried on traffic film.

• Clean the windscreen properly, not just where the wipers reach. A dedicated glass cleaner removes the greasy traffic film that ordinary shampoo leaves behind.
• Wipe the blade edges with a damp cloth every few weeks. You will be surprised how much grit comes off.
• Lift the arms away from the screen overnight in a hard frost, or lay a screen cover over the glass.
• Never use the wipers to clear ice or snow. Scrape or de-ice first. Running a frozen blade tears the rubber and can burn out the wiper motor or strip the linkage.
• Keep the washer bottle full and use proper screenwash at the right dilution, so the blades never run dry.
• Park in shade where you can. Ultraviolet light hardens the rubber over a season.
• Replace them before winter rather than during it.

Wipers, screenwash and the paint around your screen

Worn blades affect more than visibility. Once the rubber wears through to the metal spine, that spine scratches the windscreen in permanent arcs that no polishing will remove, and the only fix is a new screen. Grit trapped in an old blade does the same job more slowly.

Screenwash matters for the bodywork too. Household detergents in the washer bottle strip wax and sealant off the bonnet and scuttle every time you use the jets, leaving the paint bare and dull. If your bonnet has lost its gloss under the washer spray pattern, our machine polishing service will restore the finish and put protection back on.

Frost damage, scraper scratches around the screen surround and stone chips picked up at motorway speeds all sit in the same area of the car. Our vehicle body repairs team at Radcliffe covers that work, and we also operate mobile across Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Cheshire, Merseyside and West Yorkshire.