Unsticking frozen wiper blades

"Lol" gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Probably because it's fairly self-evident, seeing as how you'll have to de-ice the screen.

Nah, it'd just stall.

I've yet to have to use a scraper or de-icer at all this winter...

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Lol" saying something like:

I always give them a good squirt of methanol to loosen their death grip on the screen.

Mine got stuck a bit the other day, but the motor had enough torque to free them. Made a nice loud noise, which was great, scared the dog into the back seat so I didn't have to put up with her usual setting off the seat belt warning and switching the hazards on etc ;-).

Good advice. I started off without freeing them a few days ago. It didn't burn out the motor. Instead, it stripped the splines on one of the wiper-arm shafts, so one of the wiper arms started working, and the other was still frozen to the screen.

Worse is that on many cars they are committed to doing several wipes once started. No going back!

If the wipers are frozen to the screen then the screen will be too frosty to drive without clearing first. Anyone who is too lazy to clear their screen before putting the wipers on deserves the resultant repair bill.

A good old manual scrape with a plastic blade is the only way.

It's not so much laziness. If you turn the engine on to warm the car up, and forget the wipers were on the night before...

there is: turn the ignition off, release the blades, re-start

Having a Ford Focus with Quick Clear front screen is the only civilised way

- but the wipers try to move instantly, the screen warms up in minutes.

In message , Ret. writes

Same here, but after having dinner at a friend's house, and parking in the open for about 4 hours it was -5°C when I got in the car, and I was glad of the HRW and HFS on the Mondeo, plus the air blaster. The wiper blades were free already, but the screen wash jets must have been iced up. The rear screen took slightly longer to clear...

True. My car will be parked up outside my daughter's house for most of the day tomorrow - and into late evening. I have no doubt that I will need to get out my de-icer for the first time this winter when we set off for home!

Snap! We were at my daughter's today, and the same thing happened, they had bought a Wii Games console, so we left later than planned. ;-)

I took the precaution of pouring some neat screen wash in the container before I set off, then when we arrived I laid an old fleece jacket over the washer nozzles before the engine cooled. It worked , and I was able to use the washers to clear the salt particles which gradually built up on the windscreen as we drove home.

Yes. We left our daughters at around 8.30 pm. I had to scrape off the windscreen and rear screen, and although it was clear to begin with - more external frost started to form as we drove along. Because it was -8deg outside it took quite a while for the engine to warm up and begin defrosting the screen. I had to pull over at one point because my visibility had reduced.

I'm getting truly sick of this weather!