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Windshield wipers stopped in upright position

20 years ago

Is there a way to restart the wipers? We turned the wipers on, they went halfway across the car, then stopped. They won't move.

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Comments (8)

earthworm
20 years ago
We could use a lot more detail.
As a guess, the wiper motor is burned out.
Or the switch contacts are too corroded..
Or the linkage has fallen off
Or the cable is frayed.
I have seen all of this, and more.
cheerful1_gw
Original Author
20 years ago
My guess is the wiper motor burned out.
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Thanks for all the insight everyone. I've been experiencing some major problems with the washer recently, which backup your theories about the glass door scratches. Namely, when the washer gets out of balance the tub is moving so far in every direction that it seems to be hitting the exterior of the washer! Or at least that's what it sounds like. I've taken a close look when it gets crazy out of balance like this, and while I've never caught the tub hitting the glass, it looks to come pretty close. It also causes the gasket to ripple like crazy as the tub moves back and forth towards the door. Obviously something is wrong with the washer. I never noticed this behaviour during my first loads in the machine which caused the scratches, but I wasn't sticking around to pay attention to the wash cycles at that time like I am now. The balance problem / tub movement seems to be getting worse with each use of the machine! I wonder if each time it goes out of balance it is damaging the (presumably already damaged) suspension each time? I'm wondering if it was defective from day 1, or if the delivery people did something wrong. When they came on delivery day they unboxed the washer and dryer on the street, lay them down on their backs, screwed on the pedestals, then brought them in the house upright on dollies. I didn't see if they removed the shipping bolts before or after bringing the machine into the house. In any case, I went to Sears and told the salesperson what's going on. I also brought a video I took on my phone of the spin cycle going nuts and hitting all over the place. He watched the video for just a few seconds and said from the sound of it he could immediately tell something was wrong. He ordered a new unit to exchange this one, so hopefully all will be operating normal soon.
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jemdandy
20 years ago
Maybe the motor burned out OR maybe the speed control resistor burned out, or the breaker/fuse burned out.

If you have a multispeed wiper, check the speed control resistor. Its usually mounted on the air duct so that the fan can blow air over the resistor elements.
earthworm
20 years ago
I'm sure a speed control resistor is much less expensive than a wiper motor and is probably more likely to fail.
Always go the service item, then cheapest route..
cheerful1_gw
Original Author
20 years ago
The strange thing was, last night when we started the car and tried the wipers, they worked. I'm still going to remember all these suggestions since our car is older and more likely to have a problem. Thanks to all.
mxyplx
20 years ago
I drove an old KW one night near midnight the wipers did just that; 1/2 way across and they stuck. Well I did the best I could with what I had. I tied a 1/2 inch rope to the drivers side wiper arm ran it outside the mirror bracket back into the cab and held it in my left hand. Then when the arm quit I guv it a jerk with the rope and it would come all the way left--back to the right--then 1/2 way again. Several hours. There is more to truck driving than grabbing gears.

Next morning I rolled into the shop and axt em if they could improve it. They replaced the big rope with an nice lanyard and a T-handle. Regular fellows they were. :-)
bonebloodyidle
16 years ago
I am seeing this a lot in the last 10 years or so. Main culprits are Fiat and Opel. I see a lot of those going round with wipers parked in the middle of the screen. I had a '99 Opel Astra and a '06 Opel Vectra where the cam that keeps the power on to the motor until the wipers are parked went west, meaning that as soon as the intermittant wiper relay cut off the wiper motor stopped immediately, regardless of where the wipers were at the time. Both times this happened it was covered by warranty but once I saw the invoice from the dealer to the warranty provider. I'm glad I wasn't paying it.
exgm
16 years ago
GM had some wiper issues due to cracked solder connections on the controller card. It's generally easy to remove the motor and re-flow the solder joints.
Usual safety considerations: Disconnect the negative battery terminal etc etc.

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