Wipers Failing

[Gil Chesterton]

Hello,

Over the past several weeks my wipers have been slowly failing. First it was the intermitent that failed and then on the slow position. Now only the fast speed works. I will make an attempt to fix this issue but wanted to see if anybody else has had this problem.

It could be in the motor but I doubt this as it does work on the fast setting. It could be the linkages seizing up. I'll check this.

It could be in the combination switch which I will check for grounds, continuity etc. This is a pain in the ass to replace so I don't want to go after this until I'm sure the rest of the issues are addressed.

Any comments or ideas?

Thanks,

Gil

[timebuilder]

Go here:

http://tril.shineautoproject.com/camry/90/index.html

Click "Body Electrical"

Scroll to pdf page 26, and take it from there. The motor test is on page 28.

[Eye8Pussies]

does your fastest speed still work fast? or does it seem slower than before?

I could so there being a sticky linkage that will only work when the motor is at its fullest speeds- though probably not likely.

if you want to go after electrical gremlins last, then check your linkages by removing the plastic cover and taking a look around first.

[Gil Chesterton]

Hello,

Thanks for the responses. Sorry for not responding earlier but I was out of the office for a spell. Great link by the way.

After posting the initial question I went out to have a look at the basics (binding linkages, motor connections etc). The wipers did operate properly on high (ie. full speed). Here is what happened but I do not recommend this as a solution!!

I removed the motor, cleaned it up, inspected the connections and inspected the linkages. Everything seemed in order. I put it back together and did a check (I did not re-instal the wipers at this point). No change so I figured I would have to dig deeper but would have to wait for another day so I re-installed the wipers. I had forgot that I had not established if the motor was in the "down" position when I re-installed. When I re-installed and tested again the motor tried to drive the wipers down into the firewall!! LOL It made an awful sound. The motor was not happy with this stunt. Anyway I removed the wipers, used tape to identify the down position and re-installed. Everything worked perfectly! Intemitent, low and high. Go figure. No clue why but it's functional.

Strangest fix I've ever seen.

Gil

[marc780]

Maybe some of your co-workers are into elaborate practical jokes? That or they just wore a little bit by bit.

[timebuilder]

The wiper motor will go to the park position just as well without the wipers installed as it will with them on the car. You just have to let it do what it wants by turning off the wipers at their switch before you cut off power using the key. Once the motor is parked, install the wipers.

[Gil Chesterton]

Under normal circumstances this would be true but since the motor was not functioning properly the only way to make the wipers stop at the down position was to run it on high and then quickly turn them off when they reached the down position. They were not re-setting to the down position automatically.

When I removed the wipers I forgot to manually shut them off at the down position before re-installing but in the end it led to my fix!

[timebuilder]

What I was trying to say was that, after you reinstalled the motor and it was working properly, stopping the motor with the wiper switch and letting it park would have been the normal procedure.

[Gil Chesterton]

I see what your saying but what happened was that when I re-installed the motor and tested it (without the wipers) it was still not functioning properly. It only ran on high and would not self park either (there was ON-HIGH and OFF). I should have known to use some tape to mark the low position before re-instaling the wipers but I was a little miffed that they were still failing that I just jammed the wipers back on and figured I'd get back to it later (electronics etc). It turned out to be a fortunate occurance as whatever happened to the motor when the wipers were re-installed incorrectly managed to jar loose whatever was happening in the motor!!

It saved me a ton of time trying to trouble-shoot other areas that are likely not an issue.

Let's hope whatever it is that happened continues to hold!

[timebuilder]

What you have experienced is an intermittent faliure. While it is possible that you will not see the failure again, it's unlikely.

Note: when testing a wiper motor while not installed, it is imperative to supply a good ground to the motor housing. I use a heavy duty (20 amp) jumper.

When the motor fails again (they do not "heal") make sure you allow the motor to park before connecting the wipers, and you'll have a better time with it. If you had a bad connection to the motor, you may have solved the problem just by disconnecting and reconnecting the wiring, but that too is unlikely.