Clocks Go Back on 25 October: The Windscreen, Wiper and Washer Check to Do This Month

It's ten past seven on a damp morning, and the windscreen turns the colour of milk the moment you pull away from the kerb. You stab the demister button, flick the wipers across once, and watch two tired rubber blades drag a grey smear through exactly the strip of glass you need to see through. Nothing is broken, strictly speaking. The car passed its last MOT, there's some screenwash left in the bottle somewhere, and the blades "mostly work". That's the trouble with visibility faults: they stay hidden all summer, then turn up together in the first wet, misty, low-sun week of autumn, when you're already in traffic and can't do anything about them.

The clocks go back at 2am on Sunday 25 October 2026, three weeks from today, and that is the real deadline for this job. After that the drive home happens in the dark, every oncoming headlight lands on whatever film is sitting on your glass, and the wipers start working a lot harder. The check below takes about twenty minutes on a dry Saturday and, apart from a pair of blades and a bottle of screenwash, costs next to nothing. Do it now rather than in the first week of November, when you'll be doing it in the rain.

What an MOT Tester Is Actually Told to Look For

The official MOT inspection manual on GOV.UK, in its section on visibility, is more specific than most drivers expect. The wiper and washer defects it lists are short enough to fit in a table.

There is a catch, and it cuts against you on the road even though it helps you on paper: testers are told to reject a wiper only if it is clearly damaged or worn. A blade that smears but still sweeps can scrape through the test and still leave you half-blind in a downpour on the way home. Treat an MOT pass as the floor, not the standard. The washers get no such softening in the manual, which wants enough fluid for the wipers to clear the screen effectively and lists a washer that doesn't work as a major defect.

Washer Jets: The Under-£10 Part Behind 216,388 MOT Failures

Faulty windscreen washer jets were behind 216,388 MOT failures in 2025, according to DVSA figures reported by Carwow, which works out at around 592 cars a day. A further 29,405 failures were put down to incorrectly aimed jets. A survey by eBay, quoted in the same report, found that 13% of drivers never check their washers at all and another 21% only look when an MOT or service is already booked. The replacement part, meanwhile, typically costs between £1 and £30, and most jets come in under £10.

Start the engine, pull the stalk and watch where the spray lands. It should hit near the centre of the screen, not fall short on the bonnet or overshoot the roof. If one jet is weak or silent, push a pin, needle or straightened paperclip gently into the nozzle to clear grit, then test again. Still nothing? Disconnect the hose at the jet and blow through it with compressed air, and look at the little plastic Y or T connectors that split the feed between jets, because those crack with age. A stubborn jet can be unclipped and left in white vinegar for a few hours. Aiming is done with the same pin, nudging the nozzle until the spray lands where it should. And if you can't hear the pump whirr when you pull the stalk, there may be a fault with the pump itself.

Wiper Blades: Replace Them Now, Not When They Fail

The RAC puts the typical life of a blade at six to 12 months, depending on weather, driving habits and where the car lives overnight, and Halfords recommends changing them every 12 months. If yours are older than that, replace them this weekend. Don't wait to see how they cope. Streaking, smearing, squeaking and juddering are the usual giveaways, but the quickest test is to lift each blade off the glass and look at the rubber edge: cracked, split or peeling away from the frame means it will never make proper contact again, however clean you get it.

Fitting is a five-minute job on most cars. Lift the arm until it locks upright, press or slide the release clip, pull the old blade away and hold the bare metal arm so it can't snap back onto the glass, then push the new blade home until it clicks. Halfords lists fitting at £9 for a pair if you buy the blades there, with fitting available while you wait at its stores, so there's no good excuse for driving around on rubber that has hardened. Run the washers afterwards and watch the first sweep. If a new blade still judders, suspect uneven pressure from a bent arm, which the RAC names as one cause. One more autumn habit worth having: when the first frost comes, never yank a blade free of a frozen screen, because the RAC notes that is how the rubber tears.

Screenwash: Water Freezes at 0°C, and a Weak Mix Barely Does Better

Plain water in the reservoir is a reliable way to meet the first hard frost with a frozen washer system. Diluted summer screenwash protects only a few degrees below zero, while winter-grade fluids are typically rated somewhere between -10°C and -20°C, and the rating printed on the bottle is the only number that matters when you pick one. Manufacturers give the same advice in their own owner guidance; Volvo's UK support pages, for one, tell owners to use washer fluid with antifreeze below freezing, to stop the fluid icing up inside the pump, reservoir and hoses. A frozen system doesn't just fail to spray. Ice expands as it forms and can damage the pump and pipework, which turns a cheap top-up into a repair bill.

Buy ready-mixed winter screenwash rated to at least -10°C and put it in this month, before the first forecast frost. One thing to watch: if the bottle is still half full of last spring's diluted mix, topping it up with the strong stuff gives you the average of the two, not the label rating. Either run the old fluid down first or accept that the protection will be weaker than the new bottle promises.

Chips, Cracks and the 290mm Strip in Front of You

Any stone chip picked up over the summer is still in the glass, and the first run of cold nights is when chips start to spread. The MOT manual divides the screen into zones. Zone A is the part of the swept area that is 290mm wide and centred on the steering wheel, and damage there bigger than 10mm in diameter is a problem. Anywhere else in the swept area, the limit is 40mm. For scale, 10mm is about half the width of a 1p coin, and 40mm is wider than a £2 coin. Failure is only justified where the damage significantly affects the driver's view, and a repair finished flush with the glass and barely detectable is not counted as damage at all.

So is a chip low on the passenger side worth fussing over? The RAC says yes: even damage outside your line of sight can spread, and minor chips and scratches make dazzle from low sun and oncoming headlights worse. A chip repair typically costs between £30 and £167 depending on the car, with Checkatrade's June 2026 averages running from about £40 for a budget car to around £118 for a premium one. Replacing a cracked screen starts at roughly £188 and reaches £1,650 for premium cars. Autoglass quotes around 30 minutes for a repair. Check your policy first, as many comprehensive policies cover chip repair, though terms vary. And never throw hot water over a frozen screen, because the sudden temperature change is exactly what cracks glass.

Misting Is a Moisture Problem, Not a Heater Problem

Rule 229 of the Highway Code is blunt: you must be able to see, so clear all snow and ice from every window, and make sure the mirrors are clear and the windows are demisted thoroughly. The RAC adds that setting off with impaired vision is dangerous and illegal, and its guide to winter fines puts a vehicle judged to be in a dangerous condition at up to £2,500 and three penalty points. Misting itself is warm, damp air meeting cold glass, fed by your breath, wet coats, umbrellas and sodden footwell mats, and by any leak that lets rainwater into the cabin. Hot air clears the glass for a moment, but as it cools it drops that moisture straight back onto the screen, which is why the heater alone never quite finishes the job.

The RAC's routine is to start the heater cold and raise the temperature slowly as the air dries, with the vents aimed at the windscreen. Switch the air conditioning on as well, even in October, since it keeps the air inside the car dry. Keep recirculation off so the damp cabin air isn't fed round again, and open a window briefly if you can. Don't move off until every pane is clear. Clean glass mists less than dirty glass, so wipe the inside of the screen properly this weekend. The RAC also suggests a thin layer of shaving foam, wiped off completely, as an old ice-hockey trick, though it needs repeating. If the driver's mat is damp to the touch, find out why before November.

The Twenty-Minute Saturday Routine

1. Washers first: run them with the engine on, check where each jet lands, and listen for the pump.
2. Lift every blade and look at the rubber for cracks, splits or peeling, replace the pair if you're in any doubt, and test the rear wiper too if the car has one.
3. Winter screenwash rated to at least -10°C goes into the reservoir this month, not the night before the first frost.
4. Chips: walk the screen with your eye on the 290mm strip in front of the steering wheel, and book a repair for anything you find.
5. The inside of the glass gets a proper clean, and you press a hand into the driver's footwell mat; if it comes away damp, you've found where the misting comes from.

Put the clock change in your phone for 25 October, and the washers on your list for the Saturday before it.