Tom Mieczkowski

Anyone experience this?

Driving today in a hard rain I stopped at a light and the wipers died in mid-stroke. Not bad mechnical sounds, etc. Just cold stopped like the power was cut off. Spontaneously restarted after about 90 seconds. Later, after the rain the wipers were shut down, but several times, while in the "off" position on the switch, they spontaneously cycled! They would make one pass and then shut down. Double checked, no switch on, etc. Just moving on their own!

Is this a premonition of wiper failure, etc? Any comments or histories appreciated!

:confused:

Evil-Twin

this is a problem with the cowl drains... it fills with water and shorts out the electrics of the wiper motor...

Tom Mieczkowski

Thanks for the heads up on that, Is there anything that can be done about it? Any way to "supplement" the cowl drainage? :confused:

cmeflyby

I'm glad you posted this. I had a similar thing happen with mine the last two times I took the car to get washed. The first time they wouldn't turn off at all, I had to pull over and pull the fuse. This last time, they just cycled on twice and then shut off. Then a couple minutes later, they started to come on but just went to the stand-by position for a few seconds and then back to the stowed position.
I took my car to the dealer the first time it happened but I had no idea what could have caused it and by the time they checked it (at least a week had passed since the wash), the problem was gone.
After it happened this weekend, I put 2 plus 2 together and came to the same conclusion that there had to be water leaking somewhere in the wiper control module and something was shorting out.
At least now I have some ammo to use at the dealership :mad

jojog

The drains have a rubber end that is sort of a clamshell design. I snipped one of the flaps off just to keep them fully open. You need to do the same thing to your A/C drain - it is a smaller version and when it plugs up - you get BIG problems - it leaks on the computer causing many $$$ damage. Do it now! :thumbs:

Tom Mieczkowski

Can you describe where these cowl drains are? I've poked around and all I can see are the end drains on the drivers side. :confused:

Do you have to remove the cowl to get to the drains?


[Modified by Tom Mieczkowski, 7:54 AM 3/17/2004]

jojog

It has been a while but as I recall you can get to the passenger side without removing (loosening) the plastic fender liner. Easy enough even if you have to. To get to the a/c drain you are best able to get to it from underneath. BTW - an easy way to locate the cowl drains is to pour a little water in around the wipers. Hope this helps! :thumbs: