Windshield wipers are an important and sometimes overlooked safety feature of a car. We needed to swap out the windshield wipers on a 2011 Nissan Versa and document it for anyone who might feel intimidated by it.
We used Rain-X brand blades. Sizes were 26 and 14. If you have a different car, go to www.rainx.com for specific the sizes. (On older cars, we sometimes upsized blades so that the wipers covered more of the windshield.)
The Nissan Versa uses "J-Hook" style arms to hold their wiper blades onto the arms.
If you have not changed wipers before, you might have assumed that the blades come off by pulling them straight out. In a hook style arm, you would push the blade back towards the arm so that you can clear the hook.
Most (if not all) wiper blades have a button or latch that holds the blade in place. If you look at the picture below, the focused area shows the button for these blades. Press that button and push the blade towards the wiper arm.
Installation is the opposite of the removal. A good idea with any type of project like this is to do one part at a time so if you get stuck, you can use the other (unfinished) part as reference. So if you do the passenger side wiper and you forgot how to replace it, go to the driver's side and use that as a reference.
Done...
It should be noted that there are two sizes of blades for this car. Another good tip is to measure the new part with the old part to make sure the sizes are correct.
