Wiper problems
Discussion
Sorry if this has been covered before...
On occasions my wipers will stop halfway through their sweep. If I get out and give them a nudge they'll finish the sweep, but that's not much use to me in the rain on the motorway (yeah I know someone will say I shouldn't take the Chim out in those conditions, but I'm too poor to afford another car!). It seems to happen most if they're on intermittent wipe and I turn them off; not seeming to happen on constant cycle. Thanks in advance for any advice.
On occasions my wipers will stop halfway through their sweep. If I get out and give them a nudge they'll finish the sweep, but that's not much use to me in the rain on the motorway (yeah I know someone will say I shouldn't take the Chim out in those conditions, but I'm too poor to afford another car!). It seems to happen most if they're on intermittent wipe and I turn them off; not seeming to happen on constant cycle. Thanks in advance for any advice.
Almost certainly going to be the park switch on the wiper motor. It can be found on the left hand side under the windscreen edge of the bonnet (if that makes it clear?) It's one of those things that breaks from time to time. It can be cured for a while by cleaning the terminals but it's a fairly cheap thing to replace and it makes things much more pleasant! I used to regularly go nuts in mine cos the wipers stopped in the middle of the screen, drove me bonkers!
May or may not be related to your problem but my wipers will not park at all.
They basically stop where ever in their cycle when I turn off the switch.
Incidentally the intermittent wipe does not work at all..!!
Luckily I know what it is. There's a relay on the fuse board that drives the intermittent wipe. When I pulled down the carpet to check something the other day , I discovered that the plastic top cover on the said relay had come off breaking a couple of the contacts.
Might be work a look also.
Cheers.
Stu.
They basically stop where ever in their cycle when I turn off the switch.
Incidentally the intermittent wipe does not work at all..!!
Luckily I know what it is. There's a relay on the fuse board that drives the intermittent wipe. When I pulled down the carpet to check something the other day , I discovered that the plastic top cover on the said relay had come off breaking a couple of the contacts.
Might be work a look also.
Cheers.
Stu.
stu247 said:
May or may not be related to your problem but my wipers will not park at all.
They basically stop where ever in their cycle when I turn off the switch.
Incidentally the intermittent wipe does not work at all..!!
This was exactly the same as mine.
Took it to Austec to fix, now I've lost the slow speed as well.
I will be goimg to Austec soon for something else and to fix the wipers.
I have just recovered from an almost exact same problem with my 95 4.0 Chimaera.
It started with the wipers not parking, then progressed to the wipers not finishing their wipe (on intermittent) and stopping anywhere.
The only plus to this was that they sometimes stopped int the straight up.. Racing.. position, the downside was that they also stopped straight across the middle of my vision.
I immediately thought of the possibility of a bad contact, so removed the plug that connects the loom to the wiper motor, cleaned the contact and reconnected it..... hey presto, it all worked correctly..... for a while!..... And then started doing the same again.
This time I made sure that the connections were good by bending the contacts to ensure that the connections were good.... and this again fixed the problem... for a while!
This time apart from the stopping anywhere whilst on intermittent the wipers also stopped sometimes (anywhere on the screen, which was a little inconvenient as I use my car as my main transport... and it has been raining a lot recently).
After checking the normal connections (fuses relays etc) I found that I was getting a good power supply to the motor
For info:
a) There should be one pin constantly live with the ignition on
b) A permanent earth connection
c) A pin that is either intermittently live for about 1 second when on intermittent or constantly live when on normal wipe
d) A pin that comes live when on double speed (also note that the pin mentioned in c goes dead in this mode)
e) The last pin (that does has a wire going to it) does not appear to do anything on my car.
If anyone wants to know which pin is which and what colour wire is which please let me know and I will check and report back.
I then checked the feed from the back of the park switch to the motor:
Again for info (and from memory):
Red - Live (normal or intermittent wipe when the wipers are moving)
Yellow - Live (Double Speed, note that red goes dead in this mode)
Blue - Earth
I got the correct voltages on this. To get to these wires it is easiest to remove the retaining strap and carefully twist the motor up. (I did not have to worry about the retaining bolts as these are trapped in my car, so you do not have to get into the foot well to undo them - this may be different in other cars).
At this point I was perplexed and had visions or having to replace the motor etc.
As a last check I then removed the motor from the wiper gearbox, to do this undo the two (8mm from memory) bolts that can been seen on the end of the motor and very gently remove the motor housing/body, this is in two parts, the end cap and the magnet tube.
This is particularly difficult as the magnets are powerful and resist being removed. After this you should see the motor armature. This can be removed from the gearbox by unscrewing it. This was in a state covered by dust and other accumulated cr*p as were the motor bushes. I cleaned these up using some alcohol (breaks my heart using it for cleaning) and got a substantial amount of muck from it which was effectively isolating the power from the motor (armature). I then cleaned the bushes (3 in total) and reassembled it all.
Since then there has not be even the slightest non wipe and the wipers are also a little faster.
If you have the time and inclination it may be worth checking the above. If you are local to me and want a hand drop me an email (Guinness is my local currency!)
It started with the wipers not parking, then progressed to the wipers not finishing their wipe (on intermittent) and stopping anywhere.
The only plus to this was that they sometimes stopped int the straight up.. Racing.. position, the downside was that they also stopped straight across the middle of my vision.
I immediately thought of the possibility of a bad contact, so removed the plug that connects the loom to the wiper motor, cleaned the contact and reconnected it..... hey presto, it all worked correctly..... for a while!..... And then started doing the same again.
This time I made sure that the connections were good by bending the contacts to ensure that the connections were good.... and this again fixed the problem... for a while!
This time apart from the stopping anywhere whilst on intermittent the wipers also stopped sometimes (anywhere on the screen, which was a little inconvenient as I use my car as my main transport... and it has been raining a lot recently).
After checking the normal connections (fuses relays etc) I found that I was getting a good power supply to the motor
For info:
a) There should be one pin constantly live with the ignition on
b) A permanent earth connection
c) A pin that is either intermittently live for about 1 second when on intermittent or constantly live when on normal wipe
d) A pin that comes live when on double speed (also note that the pin mentioned in c goes dead in this mode)
e) The last pin (that does has a wire going to it) does not appear to do anything on my car.
If anyone wants to know which pin is which and what colour wire is which please let me know and I will check and report back.
I then checked the feed from the back of the park switch to the motor:
Again for info (and from memory):
Red - Live (normal or intermittent wipe when the wipers are moving)
Yellow - Live (Double Speed, note that red goes dead in this mode)
Blue - Earth
I got the correct voltages on this. To get to these wires it is easiest to remove the retaining strap and carefully twist the motor up. (I did not have to worry about the retaining bolts as these are trapped in my car, so you do not have to get into the foot well to undo them - this may be different in other cars).
At this point I was perplexed and had visions or having to replace the motor etc.
As a last check I then removed the motor from the wiper gearbox, to do this undo the two (8mm from memory) bolts that can been seen on the end of the motor and very gently remove the motor housing/body, this is in two parts, the end cap and the magnet tube.
This is particularly difficult as the magnets are powerful and resist being removed. After this you should see the motor armature. This can be removed from the gearbox by unscrewing it. This was in a state covered by dust and other accumulated cr*p as were the motor bushes. I cleaned these up using some alcohol (breaks my heart using it for cleaning) and got a substantial amount of muck from it which was effectively isolating the power from the motor (armature). I then cleaned the bushes (3 in total) and reassembled it all.
Since then there has not be even the slightest non wipe and the wipers are also a little faster.
If you have the time and inclination it may be worth checking the above. If you are local to me and want a hand drop me an email (Guinness is my local currency!)
excellant stuff. use it on the back screen, side windows and wing mirrors too and works a treat
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