How to fit wiper blades

Author Name – Jack Underwood

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Is your visibility impaired while driving, especially in rainy conditions? If this is the case, then your wiper blades may be ready for a change. The rubber used for wiper blades will degrade over time, meaning that you may get smears on your windscreen when using them. It is extremely important to note that if you are noticing your windscreen wipers are smearing, and this causing you difficulties, that you should look to purchase a new pair of wiper blades at the soonest opportunity possible. For safety reasons, if your wiper blades are no longer fit for purpose, this could result in an MOT failure.

how to fit wiper blades

At National, we offer a wider blade replacement service. Using our website, you can search for the perfect Valeo wiper blades that fit your car. You can then get these fitted at your local National Tyres and Autocare branch. To book in an appointment for our wiper blade replacement service, then please click on the related article below.

Related: Wiper blades online

We would always advise that if you are looking to get your wiper blades changed, then you book in for an appointment with National. However, if you have already purchased a replacement pair of wiper blades and you are looking to fit them yourself, then this blog article will give you a nice and easy step by step guide on how to fit wiper blades.

How to change your wiper blades

It is always advisable to fit wiper blades in pairs (even if you are only experiencing issues within one). The reason behind this is as wiper blades work in pairs, if you notice one wiper blade‘s quality has reduced, then it won’t be long until the other one will reduce too.

Clean your windscreen

Before fitting your new wiper blades, it is important to make sure that the windscreen is clean. Clean the windscreen and also your car’s back window if you are also looking to change the back window wiper.

Protect the windscreen

When you are replacing the wiper blade, the wiper arm can fall quickly back into place. As the rubber blade will have been removed, this can damage the windscreen and also the wiper arm’s spring (which could be costly to fix). To prevent this from happening, make sure that you place a towel under the wiper blade and against the glass. This will protect the glass if the blade does catapult back while you are fitting the new blades.

Lift the current wiper blades

You are now prepared to remove the wiper blades which are currently on the vehicle. Lift up each wiper blade up off the windscreen. You will now be able to see the fastening mechanism to remove the wiper blades. If you are having an issue lifting the blades, this could be due to your particular vehicle make or model. Please reference your vehicle handbook to see if the wiper blades need to be in a particular position before you are able to lift them.

Unclip the wiper blades currently on the car

Now the wiper blades have been lifted, they can now be removed. There are two different ways that you can remove the blade and this is dependent on the type of wiper blade. Find the clip that is holding the blade in place, unclip and proceed to remove it. Alternatively, you may have to slide the blade down the arm and proceed to unhook it. It is vitally important that you take care while doing this process, as the arm may fall back down onto the windscreen. This is the reason for the towel.

Clip the new wiper blades into place

Now it is time to attach the new wiper blade. This can be done using the exact same process as was undertaken previously to remove the old blades. Depending on the vehicle, the two wiper blades may be different lengths so it is important to check that you are connecting the wiper blade to the correct side (the passenger side or the driver side).

Put the new wiper blades back onto the windscreen

Firstly, you will need to remove the towel from the windscreen or back window (depending on which wiper blade you are changing). Now you can move the blades slowly back onto the windscreen. Once they have been moved back onto the windscreen, it is important to note that if there are any gaps, then this would mean that they have been fitted incorrectly.

If the wiper blades look to have been fitted correctly, you can now get into your car and test your new wiper blades. If the wiper blades are still smearing, then they may have been fitted incorrectly and would need altering.

Wiper blade replacement at National

It is important to check your wiper blades on a regular basis to ensure that are functioning properly and the rubber hasn’t degraded. Fitting or replacing wiper blades can be quite a fiddly job so we would also recommend getting your wiper blades fitted at your local National branch. We offer free fitting on all wiper blades when they are purchased either online by clicking on the link below, or bought directly in branch.

Related: Order new wiper blades

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