Jack Williams

New Year Car Maintenance: Replace Your Wiper Blades

As the new year gets underway, it's time to go through a checklist of easy auto maintenance tasks that you can do in your driveway. One of the easiest and least expensive things you can do to make your vehicle safer (and easier to drive!) is to replace your windshield wiper blades.

Wiper blades do eventually wear out. Rubbing back and forth across your windshield thousands of times eventually scrapes away a millimeter of rubber, and that's enough to make a big difference in your wet weather visibility. If you've noticed that your wiper blades leave streaks or blurry patches during heavy downpours, it's probably time for you to replace them.

Good news: replacing them will cost you less than a really good takeout lunch, and the benefits will last you a lot longer.

Visit your local auto parts store. Once you tell the staff your make, model, and model year of vehicle you own, virtually any store should be able to tell you which wiper blades you need. If they're not currently in stock, order them. Some wiper blades come with attachments for multiple vehicles. You'll have to compare what's in the package to what's on your vehicle to determine which one is correct.

Replacement will take you just a few minutes. Depending on your make and model of vehicle, you might not need any tools to remove your old blades and attach your new ones. At most, you may need a flat-head screwdriver or a pair of needle-nosed pliers.

[Photo credit: Basheer Tome via Flickr, used under CC-by-2.0 license]