How To Check And Clean Your Windscreen Wipers For Best Performance & Long Life

Posted by User Contributed

July 22, 2008

Windscreen Wiper Blades are a vital safety component of your vehicle. You really must check their condition and performance regularly. It doesn’t matter whether you have traditional style Windscreen Wiper Blades or the new Flat Blade Wipers, with a few exceptions, the problems and their cures are the same.

The good news is that many of the checks are as easy as simply looking at and listening to your Windscreen Wiper Blades as they work.

Many Windscreen Wiper Blades, including the most famous and expensive makes, are made with a rubber blade. The rubber begins to break down as soon as you instal it, because it’s degraded by normally occurring hazards such as Ozone, Ultra-Violet Light and environmental pollution. On top of that, lots of the products used by drivers every day also attack the rubber. These include powerful household soaps and detergents, petrol, diesel and even the industrial alcohols which are used to stop the screenwash freezing in sub zero temperatures. All these things cause rubber to age, and the aging usually manifests itself in hardening of the rubber, which in turn leads to cracks and the following problems which you ought to periodically check for. The good news is that most of these problems can be at least reduced or delayed, and often completely avoided by fitting Silicone Windscreen Wipers. Regular cleaning of rubber Windscreen Wiper Blades removes many of the contaminants which attack and harden the rubber. So, even rubber Windscreen Wiper Blades can have a greatly enhanced life. Just avoid using powerful detergents or solvents when cleaning rubber Windscreen Wiper Blades. If you’re fortunate enough to have Silicone Windscreen Wipers you can use just about anything that won’t harm your paintwork.

Lines of water, normally in an arc following the sweep of the Windscreen Wiper Blades. This is caused by fine cracks in the surface of the rubber blades. These cracks leave a fine bead of water on the windscreen.
Solve this problem by replacing your Windscreen Wiper Blades
Avoid this problem in future by fitting Silicone Windscreen Wipers.

Veiling – Caused by defects in the wiper arm, or on rubber Windscreen Wiper Blades, prolonged intervals parked in strong sunlight can lead to a deformed wiperblade tip. This wipes the windscreen very erratically leaving a veil effect caused by uncleared water and dirt across the swept area of the windscreen. The glaring effect of the veil is at its worst in night-time driving, as light from street lights and oncoming vehicles strikes the veil and causes a blinding glare.
The only cure for this problem is to replace your Windscreen Wiper Blades. Fitting Silicone Windscreen Wipers will at the absolute minimum significantly reduce the risk of this hazard occurring, and will, in all probability eradicate it completely.

Chattering - Rubber Windscreen Wiper Blades may become deformed as the rubber ages, so allowing the Windscreen Wiper Blades to chatter or judder across the windscreen, leaving radial streaks in their path.
As usual, once the Windscreen Wiper Blades have deteriorated this far, the only option is to replace them. Fitting Silicone Windscreen Wiper Blades will completely eradicate this problem.

Squeaking - This normally occurs in drizzle or on the final couple of wipes after using the screenwashers. On rubber Windscreen Wiper Blades it’s a sign that they’ve become brittle, and have possibly stressed the Windscreen Wiper Blades frame or the connector which holds the wiperblade to the wiper arm. Squeaking sometimes also occurs on new Silicone Windscreen Wipers until they’ve been run enough to polish the windscreen.

So, for the smoothest operation over the longest possible life, fit Silicone Windscreen Wipers. However, if you’ve already fitted rubber Wiper Blades, you can make them last longer and run quieter, simply by frequently wiping them gently with a soft cloth dampened with a little diluted screenwash liquid. If you have Flat Wiper Blades, be sure to wipe the whole blade, even though most of it never touches the windscreen.

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