Wipers (again)

[mbames]

My wipers have been ok for a while - till last night.

Last night they were very slow to move up the screen and juddered on the way back down. Then on the 3rd wipe, they decided to stop about 3/4 of the way up the screen. A few seconds latter there was a little "jiggle" from then and then nothing more.

A waited a minute or two and then gave the wiper switch a quick flick on. The wipers moved up the screen to the top, came down, and then returned to their 3/4 way up the screen resting place. I tried a few more times and each time was the same. The travel speed of the wipers was very very slow.

When I got home, I lifted the blades from the screen and after two wipe iterations they then returned to the normal resting place. This morning they worked, but very slowly (getting a bit better towards the end of the trip to work)

Any ideas? I am wondering if maybe the control unit / relays is knackered / poor contacts reducing the current flow. But I have no idea where the relays are for the wiper. I will have another go at getting the scuttle pannel off this weekend.

Cheers,
Matt

[mbames]

Ok.. having done a bit of reading on here the collective suggest the linkage may be a bit seized....

[humsk]

Matt,

I had the same problem with my old car last year - it's the spindles seizing in the tubes. The O-ring seals perish and let in water which causes rust and they finally seize. It takes a couple of hours to strip down, free them, re-grease and re-fit.

Let me know if you're going to do the job yourself - I took a few piccies when I did mine. You need a vice and a few tools to do the job. I needed to use a small puller to get one wiper arm off the spindle.

[mbames]

Andrew,

If you could post some pictures it would be very much appreciated. At the moment I'm stuggling with the removal of the scuttle panel.

Cheers,
Matt

[sparky2]

The plastic scutle panel is in 2 halves and you just lift the edges up that are next to the windscreen to reveal the wiper motor underneath on the drivers side, unplug the motor and then pull off the plastic caps over the wiper arms to reveal a nut, after removing the nuts you need to waggle the arm off the splined wiper shaft, note which wiper is on which side. You will see a screw next to each wiper shaft remove both screws,I think there was one screw holding the motor in place at the bottom, the wiper motor and linkage should now be loose to pull out, if you prise off the small ball joint next to the motor the linkage should be free to move around by hand, if its tight you will have to grease the main shafts, I think there is a circlip holding the shaft in place.and reassemble ! If its not the shafts that are tight ( like mine), take out the large black relay bottom right above the pedals and clean both relay contacts inside with some 'electolube contact cleaning strips' and you might find it now works ! if it doesn't it could be the motor not parking on its contact.

[humsk]

Matt,

It's basically as sparky2 says to get the motor assembly out - once the scuttle panels are removed, there are three screws that hold it in place. I had to hold the pivot tubes in a vice (do not crush them - they're made of alloy), soak them with WD40 and gently hammer the shafts in and out to free them after removing the circlip and washers. Put the nut back on so you don't damage the screw threads.

After cleaning the crap and rust off, apply pently of grease and reassembly. Remember the motor connector.

[mbames]

Ok... time for an update!

I never managed to get the scuttle pannel off (only saw your post after wards! - but thanks anyway). Are the three square holes along the top what the scuttle pannel clips into?

As I was unable to move the pannel, I had to resort to much more painful tactics. Initially plus-gas and wd40. Then a hammer. Then a hammer and chissel on the bottom of the assembly. This saw a slight movement, then next came my fathers SDS hammer drill

Not as had as you might think, I had it in hammer only mode, and with a proper chuck and in that an old valve from some random car, I then used that via a lump of aluminium to hammer down the spindle. I did that a bit at a time, pulling it bak using the some larger bolts to go over the spindle, and then pulled it back up using the wiper bolt. This went on for a couple of hours, and eventually I was able to pull it up and down when the wiper motor was working, although it is not as free as the other spindle, which just drops when you let go.

However it is 100 times better than before and my wipers work at their normal speed again!

I'll get autoglass to replace the windscreen soon, and then they do, I'll watch to see how they get the cover off! And enmsure they don't get any bonding agent on there to make life even more difficult!

Now I just need to replace the front disks as they seem to be warping more and more :-(

Matt

[bk1]

I had my windscreen done on Friday.
The Autoglass man popped the caps off the wipers, undid the nut on each one, and heaved the wiper arms off the spindles.

I think the scuttle panel just clips in - I think he started at the top edge (windscreen edge), and popped that bit out, then worked his way towards the centre. As people have said, it's two pieces that overlap in the middle. I think passenger one overlaps driver but I can't be sure.

It looked a bit tight and fiddly around the hinges, and I had to hold bonnet about 3/4 open for him to have enough room to waggle the edges out and release the panel completely. He then put them out of the way under the car while he did the windscreen, which makes sense.