Slow Wipers

[ak96ss]

While chasing down other issues, I decided to address my slow wipers. I suspected a problem with the relay or the connector at the wiper motor, as my symptoms are:

• If I tap the wiper switch down, the wipers will lazily make their way to the vertical position, then stay there.
• If I put the wipers on at slow speed, they will lazily make their way to the vertical position, then stay there.
• If I put the wipers on at high speed, they will move with a bit more alacrity, and will actually swipe up and down, but at what I would think was the slow speed.
• If I hold the wiper switch down, the wipers will sweep back and forth as they are supposed to, but relatively slowly.
• In any position, if I don't wait for the wipers to get to the bottom of the windshield before I turn them off, they will generally stay wherever they were when I turned them off.

From these symptoms, it appears as if the wiper motor is not getting full voltage or the relay is faulty. However, I ran through the procedures in the Bentley, and everything seems to test fine - I get battery voltage at the harness connector at the wiper motor, and all positions of the wiper control relay do what they are supposed to do.

If I leave the fuse box cover off, and hit the intermittent wipe, the wipers move up to the vertical position, then I can hear the relay clicking away like mad for a few seconds before the clicking and wiper arms stop.

I bought a new control relay, just in case, and get the exact same symptoms.

So, my best guess is that the wiper motor is dying. Anyone care to comment before I shell out the bucks for a new one?

[thereisnoyun]

...

... motor is fried. or if the spline has wear it would function funny as well. my spline on the arm was dull and the passenger side wont go down all the way.