How to stop wiper blade
skipping, chattering and smearing.
Chattering, skipping and smearing wiper
blades are annoying and can be a safety hazard. This condition can be caused by
aged and/or dried-out wiper blades or by films on the glass. Inspect your wiper
blades. If they are hard, brittle or cracked, replace them.
If your wiper blades appear soft
and pliable yet still skip and chatter we recommend trying a wiper lubricant
like
303 Wiper Treatment. This is an excellent penetrating
lubricant that coats the natural rubber used in wiper blades and makes them
glide like new. If you live in a southern climate, I recommend applying 303
Wiper Treatment once a month to retard wiper blade aging.
If your wiper blades appear to be pliable and you've tried
303 Wiper Treatment yet the blades still chatter and skip, the only
remaining cause can be a film or contamination on the glass. I've had this
happen to me. I replaced the wiper blades on my car, treated them with 303
Wiper Treatment yet they continued to skip and chatter during every
rainfall. I called my
local dealer and the service department told me to clay the glass using any
paintwork clay bar and clay lubricant. I clay my car's paint once a year but
I have never clayed the windshield. I tried it and it worked like a charm.
The chattering, skipping and smearing stopped and my wiper blades began
functioning normally
How to test for contamination on
the glass:
Wash, rinse and dry the windshield
to remove any loose sand and dirt. Place your hand inside a plastic sandwich
bag and lightly run your fingertips over the glass. It should be completely
smooth. If your windshield has a rough, gritty or pebble-like texture, it
indicates the presence of some form of contamination. Glass cleaners and
consumer glass polishes can not remove this contamination but it can be
remove with a clay bar such as
BLACKFIRE PolyClay II and a
clay lubricant.
Here's the procedure:
Work on one half of the windshield at
a time. Form your clay bar into a patty and mist it once with clay
lubricant. Mist lubricant on one half of the windshield.
Glide the clay bar across the lubricated area until the surface is smooth
and bar slides freely. When the bar glides freely, wipe the surface with a
clean
Microfiber cloth. If residues resist easy buffing, mist the cleaned
area with clay lubricant and wipe dry.
Pull, stretch and refold the bar to create a fresh, clean patty. Mist the
bar again with lubricant and mist the second half of the windscreen. Repeat
the above procedure on the second half of the windscreen. When you're
finished, mist the bar again with lubricant and store in a plastic bag.
NOTE: Clay bars will
remove contamination on the glass but will not remove pits and
scratches in the glass.
