You don’t like it when your toilet paper leaves streaks behind, so why should you be okay with your windshield wipers doing the same? After all, a streaky windshield could be potentially hazardous—all a streaky butt will do is dirty your underwear.
Luckily, a streaky windshield can be fixed almost as easily as a dirty butt. All you have to do is change your windshield wipers. The process of changing windshield wipers is different depending on the type of vehicle you have—and the type of wipers you purchase—but it is still a simple part of your car’s routine maintenance you can do yourself.
Here, let me show you how:
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Begin the process by checking out your owner’s manual to figure out what type of wipers you need. If you’re feeling extra lazy, don’t worry—if you walk into an auto body store, they can typically tell you the exact windshields you need for your model year and type. Once you purchase your windshield wipers, it’s time to get down and dirty.
Start the process off right by placing a blanket or towel on your windshield. This will prevent the wiper arm from snapping back and cracking your windshield, costing you way more money than you need to spend on this process.
Once this is done, lift of the wiper arm and remove the old wiper. Removing the old wiper can be done in a number of ways, but there is typically a tiny lever you can press that will allow you to slide the wiper off.
Slide the old wiper off and open your package of new wipers. Read the instructions on how to put the wipers on, which should be contained either in the package or on the back of the package. Remember, not every wiper is created equally, so the process might be different depending on the wiper you bought.
Typically, the package will instruct you to hook the arm to the middle of the wiper, snapping the cover shut to keep the wiper attached. Once this is done, you can throw away your old wiper…
…and move on to replacing the second one!
There you have it—that’s how you change your windshield wipers! If you’re feeling like doing even more hands-on DIY car maintenance, then make sure you check out The News Wheel’s YouTube page for more how-to videos.
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A born-and-raised Jersey girl, Caitlin Moran has somehow found herself settled in Edinburgh, Scotland. When she’s not spending her days trying to remember which side of the road to drive on, Caitlin enjoys getting down and nerdy with English. She continues to combine her love of writing with her love of cars for The News Wheel, while also learning more about the European car market—including the fact that the Seat brand is pronounced “se-at” not “seat” as you might think. See more articles by Caitlin.