The Don’t List for Windshield Wipers & Motors

Don’t leave your wipers on when you turn off your car.

Turning your wipers off when you’ve parked the car is the safest thing to do.  If your wipers turn on when your windshield is frozen you can damage your wiper system.

Don’t hose off an icy windshield with your garden hose… or with a hot cup of water from the house. 

We don’t recommend it as the windshield could crack.

On choosing correct wiper blades… probably not generic

Life expectancy of a windshield wiper blade is about three to six months around here; we all know it rains in Seattle. 

We understand you’d like to save money on blades, since you’ll be buying them every few months. 

But allow us to warn you… not every wiper blade is built for every car. 

You may be tempted to grab a set of generic wiper blades from a big box store. We get the temptation. But these sale-blades don’t always fit the car you’re driving… this is especially true for Hondas and many other vehicles, which have a specific shape of windshield.

A word about RainX, or other watershield treatment products

So people use Rain X on their windshields because it’s supposed to help bead the water off for some nice clear visibility. 

A word to the wise: once you begin using a product like this, you’re committed to keep using it. Once the product  starts to wear off, the visibility gets very bad and possibly unsafe. Blurry, smeary, just bad. So once you begin, you must be aware that you have to reapply, reapply, reapply.

So it’s not a one and done with those products. It’s a get started… and keep going… indefinitely.

Ready for more posts about car maintenance? 

30k, 60k, 90k, 120k, 150k Inspections

Check your wiper blades at least every 30K Miles!

Timing Belts & Chains are critical to your cars performance

Schedule your next service with Tom’s Automotive Service today.