Windshield wipers are a critical safety feature of your vehicle. Keeping up windshield wiper care is an essential part of your regular maintenance. During rain, snow, and other bad weather, your windshield wipers are the only thing keeping the road visible. Poorly maintained wiper blades can’t keep up, leaving streaks that obscure your vision. Follow these simple tips to keep your drive safe.
1. Keep Them Clean
Dirt and debris on your wiper blades significantly reduce their effectiveness. The built-up dirt can hold your blades off the surface of the windshield, preventing even pressure and causing streaks. Merely wiping the edges down from time to time can have a powerful effect. It can also prevent car windshield replacement and truck windshield replacement, as dirt on your wipers could significantly scratch your windshield.
2. Maintain the Rubber Edge
The rubber of your windshield wipers needs to stay soft to transfer pressure evenly. As the rubber ages, it hardens and cracks. To extend the life of your wiper blades, you can periodically apply petroleum jelly to the rubber. The waxes and oils in petroleum jelly infuse into the rubber to provide both moisturization and lubrication.
3. Ensure Wiper Arms are Tight
Loose wiper arms reduce the power of each stroke of your wiper blades, letting them simply flail about. During bad weather, this can be an urgent problem, as the blades won’t handle the increased demand. Tightening the wiper arms is a straightforward type of windshield wiper care. Underneath a plastic cap at each arm’s base is a nut. Simply tighten that nut with a wrench to tighten the wiper arm.
4. Replace as Needed
It’s important to remember that replacing your wiper blades is an intended part of their design. Many of the parts that make up your vehicle are designed this way, like brakes. The wipers wear down, lose their ability to apply pressure evenly, and need to be replaced, usually every six months. Putting this off can lead to windshield damage, and a commercial windshield replacement or RV windshield replacement is going to cost you more than a new pair of wiper blades.
5. Windshield Wiper Care – Smooth Out the Edges
The edges of your wiper blades eventually develop cracks and pits. Running fine-grit sandpaper along the wiper blade’s edge can smooth these pits out, increasing performance and giving a more uniform pressure. There are also specialized tools available for this that fit the edge of wiper blades perfectly. A smooth edge is critical to keeping water off your windshield during heavy rain.
