Wipers Have Stopped Working

[ridway]

I had a problem with the front wipers last and the year before where they just ceased to work after a few strokes. It came about that the wiper spindles themselves had siezed. This became evident as they did seem to be moving slower and slower. There is a current sensor or thermal trip which stops them working if the load on the motor is too high. I had to remove the whole wiper assembly and remove the spindles from the housing, frame this was quite difficult as they where siezed in quite hard. Although they are bush type bearings I cleaned them and used some water resistant grease when reassembling and they have been fine since.

 

I dont no whether this is a common fault but it may be worth checking as well as the other causes detailed before in this thread.

 

Rich

[gregers]

it seems wiper spindles seizing is a common fault,there is a thread on here somewhere on how to take apart and re grease etc.

[Furry]

I am so glad that I became a member of this site some time ago. My wife went to Northern Ireland for a week and I had to collect her from London this morning. I went to use the front wipers and washer to clear my windscreen and like so many, it was dead. Once home, I checked the fuses and all seemed well. My first thoughts were "I wonder if anyone else has had this problem" and I came on to here. Just checked fuse 33 and yes, it has blown. Going to Halfords shortly to buy more.

 

Many thanks for the assitance.

 

Jeff.

[monty-TDi]

I am sure that this needs to be on a couple of threads, but here goes and if there is a moderator out there perhaps it could be duplicated.

 

Seizure of the arms

The wiper arm spindles pass through a cast aluminium housing with two brass (yellow metal) bushes. Due to electrolytic corrosion the aluminium between the two bushes swells and effectively locks the spindle.

The spindle is restrained in position by a circlip, and it is just a matter of removing the circlip and wiggling the spindle out once you have popped off the linkage to the motor.

 

When I say wiggling, I needed to remove the mechanism from the car and trap the short arm connected to the spindle to a large well attached vice and then pull on the whole length of the mechanism with considerable force to get it to start moving. After maybe 20 minutes the housing got warm and the spindle could eventually be worked out from the bushes. Avoid using hammers - it just takes a little time, but remember to remove the circlip first. While moving the arm backwards and forwards just try to imagine the motor torque!!

 

To reinstall, I scraped (as well as I could) between the bushes and packed with grease.

 

One quick test to see if you have seizure is to look at the mechanism with the wipers in operation (you will need to remove the plastic cover).

When everything is OK the frame does not move, but if you are near seizure the whole mechanism flexes under the strain even if the speed and stroke of the wipers appear to be unaffected. In my case the wipers went from working normally to 50% wipe, then park with no warning.

 

One method of checking this is to measure the current at the appropriate fuse. Following this and other threads I went straight for No33, but the motor is either very efficient or I was looking in the wrong place. I therefore checked No 24 and although I had only a simple clamp meter with half second refresh the peak motor current looks to be somewhere about 12A at the first speed.

 

Regarding the mystery of Fuse 33, I think that this is used to power the control mechanism, and the washer pump. No current is drawn during wiping, but circa 5A when washing. I have now concluded that all these winter problems are associated with the freezing of the water in the bottle and consequently in the washer pump, causing overload of fuse 33 and consequently apparent total failure of the front wiper.

 

In Summary

Fuse 24 - 30A Wiper Motor

Fuse 33 - 10A Washer pump motor and Wiper Control system

 

If you have frozen pipes, then the pump will run, audibly, but will not overload the fuse, however, if you attempt to run the washer pump when it is totally frozen, no sound will be heard and the fuse will eventually blow.

 

My recommendation is to ensure that you maintain the washer liquid with a decent washing solution - don't skimp like me with Fairy Liquid!!

 

Happy New Year to All

 

Monty-TDI

[Scope]

This thread was a god send... My wipers stopped working this morning whilst driving to work, and after having a look here I checked fuse 33, and it had indeed blown.

[Taliska]

If you have frozen pipes, then the pump will run, audibly, but will not overload the fuse, however, if you attempt to run the washer pump when it is totally frozen, no sound will be heard and the fuse will eventually blow.

 

Sounds a pretty good analysis as my wipers / washers didn't work after trying to squirt at -5 degrees C.

 

Taliska

[lancecoyle]

Thanks for this guy's i had this problem and almost bought a new wiper motor from frauds.

 

Replace fuse and away i went.

 

Lance

[KP 115]

Had exactly the same problem last night 1/2 way to newmarket to pick up my wife & son in the snow

wipers stopped working & reverse operation of the rear wiper, checked fuses after buying some

at local garage-none blown!

checked forum & found little daz answer, just waiting for the snow to stop to enable replacement.

 

many thanks little daz from another grateful member.

 

kp 115

[rnelson]

Fuse 33 fixed it for me, Thanks :lol:

[bigbird46]

Many thanks to you all fuse 33 on my 2002 2.3 galaxy had blown, now sorted wipers and washers ok cant thank you all enough

[gilmoura]

Many thanks to you all fuse 33 on my 2002 2.3 galaxy had blown, now sorted wipers and washers ok cant thank you all enough

I wish I had seen this earlier - I had the same problem checked fuse 30 (as per the hand book) and then spent all day in the freezing cold stripping the car to check the wiper motor and switch which were both OK. At this stage I was completely baffled.

 

After reeading this post I checked fuse 33 (the handbook says auxiliary heater, air conditioning - which were both working) and it was blown. I replaced it and the wipers worked.

 

Many thanks