Windsceen Wiper failure

YorkshireHill

A2OC Donor
Started up my car today as now feeling fine after my recuperation. The car has been driven a few times by others during the past month with no problems. Today, however, no response from the windscreen wipers. I didn't get very far!

What can I check or any ideas as to likely cause?

There was torrential rain yesterday but it still doesn't work now that is has dried out

Thanks

Hilary
 
If there's no movement at all it could well be the earth problem. I havnt got a link but there is a thread here somewhere with a way of fixing it quite easily.
 
I suppose checking the fuse might be also worth doing just in case, but it is quite rare for the fuse to blow on the wipers, the earth problem is more common, but just in case....

Fuse Locations

Fuse 6 is the one worth checking perhaps?

Steve B
 
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Thank you

Lots of helpful contributions on that thread

And only a couple of weeks ago that same thing happened to you A2Steve?

No, mine was luckily just the relay and was still moving slightly. I think the relay is numbered 602. If it turns out to be the motor pm me as I've got one.
 
happened to me a while back, checked the fuses, earthing, etc and all seemed ok. needed a new wiper motor in the end. they're not cheap im afriad.

i hope its the former for you!
 
Happy to report that Hilary's car is now wiping fully!
We had expected it to be the 602 relay, but that worked fine when it was tested on my car.
It turned out to be a bad earth. So a length of wire and a couple of stainless screws later and it's fixed.
 
Yesterday my wipers stopped working. I had to drive home in the rain! It obviously caused me some concern. Today I used the A2OC Forum to see what might be the problem. It looked like earthing to the wiper-motor was most likely to be the problem. One of the threads showed a couple of photo's from "craigyb" .... very clear! I made a short earth-strap and with the minimum amount of work, I fitted it. After only 30 minutes, the wipers are working fine!
WHAT a great Forum this is!

David
 
Yes David and so many people contribute to the help on this forum including you!
It really is a forum to be proud of.

By the way I try to carry a small bottle of “Rain X” (or similar) in the car just in case the wipers pack up.

As an experiment I once drove along the M4 from Heathrow to Reading, in torrential rain, at night and without using my wipers. Thanks to the “Rain X” it was an entirely safe (and quiet) journey.
The water just rolls off the screen. Very useful in emergencies, or for regular use.
I find wiper noise a nuisance and this resolves tgat because you hardly have to use them.
it gets me by until I get my new wiper, a new One runs pretty much silently (especially the Bosch floppy blade.

Steve B
 
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Think the motor on Tank is failing - if you get into the car and you've left the wipers on, or knocked the lever, if the windscreen is dry the arm will go halfway up then stop. Won't come back down until you leave it a few mins and wet the screen too.

13 years out of a wiper though - wonder how many wipes that is per pence?
 
Think the motor on Tank is failing - if you get into the car and you've left the wipers on, or knocked the lever, if the windscreen is dry the arm will go halfway up then stop. Won't come back down until you leave it a few mins and wet the screen too.

13 years out of a wiper though - wonder how many wipes that is per pence?

Amazing when you think about it.
You will probably get another 13 years out of the same wiper motor with the earth fixed too. They are the classic symptoms as you know.

Another thing that that blows my mind is the number of times the pistons have gone up and down their bores!!!

even at 3000 revs per minute that is hundreds / thousands of millions of times for the majority of A2s and it is very rare to hear of an A2 needing a rebore.

EDIT. Just did some very basic maths and based on 2000 rpm that is 120000 times in one hour and you would roughly have covered 50 miles.
so if you have covered 100,000 miles (as most of us have in our A2 (sone many more than this) your little pistons have gone up and down 240 MILLION times at least (that is each piston!)

Steve B
 
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Talking of Re Bores, I keep forgetting to say our A2 has had the 1.4 Petrol Piston Slap since around 60,000 Miles. Now done 110,000 Miles. How long can it go on ? Who is the best person to fix it ? Re Bore or Short Motor ?
 
Amazing when you think about it.
You will probably get another 13 years out of the same wiper motor with the earth fixed too. They are the classic symptoms as you know.

Another thing that that blows my mind is the number of times the pistons have gone up and down their bores!!!

even at 3000 revs per minute that is hundreds / thousands of millions of times for the majority of A2s and it is very rare to hear of an A2 needing a rebore.

EDIT. Just did some very basic maths and based on 2000 rpm that is 120000 times in one hour and you would roughly have covered 50 miles.
so if you have covered 100,000 miles (as most of us have in our A2 (sone many more than this) your little pistons have gone up and down 240 MILLION times at least (that is each piston!)

Steve B

CRIKEY - Baby Boomer's nearly at Half a BILLION :eek:
 
mine is coming close to 3/4 of a billion - that is insane :cool:
and still uses next to no oil between services
 
Hi, My windscreen wipers packed in the other day too. Parked up, went for a coffee, came back - no wipers. Checked the fuse, then got sensible and checked the A2OC website...dodgy earths, try shorting the body of the motor to the engine mount???? Yup, saved me a load of mucking about - put a self tapper into the wiper motor chassis (be careful where you drill) and added a new earth cable to the earthing point on the cam cover (with plenty of slack to allow for engine movement). Problem solved. BTW if you want to access the wiper relay under the passenger footwell, don't worry about removing any plastic trim. Just slide the seat back and lift the carpet starting from the edge nearest the seat. You can pull the edges of the carpet out from under the trims far enough to reveal the three fixings that secure the triangular panel. Rotate them 90 deg and lift off the panel. To replace the carpet you may need a wallpaper stripping blade to ease the carpet back under the plastic trims.

quill
 
Glad you found the thread about the wiper earth, many people have been told that the wiper motor needed to be replaced and of course that works, but only because the new wiper motor makes a fresh contact.

As for the carpet, I have a tip for that too.

When you replace the carpet, lift up the centre by a few inches, this pulls the edges in a bit and you can then get the edges under the trim on each side easily and then press down the centre of the carpet !

Steve B
 
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Glad you found the thread about the wiper earth, many people have been told that the wiper motor needed to be replaced and of course that works, but only because the new wiper motor makes a fresh contact.

As for the carpet, I have a tip for that too.

When you replace the carpet, lift up the centre by a few inches, this pulls the edges in a bit and you can then get the edges under the trim on each side easily and then press down the centre of the carpet !

Steve B
Hi, new to the forum and new A2 owner (my son really).
After a few days of ownership I experienced, what I found out on this forum was a ‘common failure’, that the wiper motor suddenly stopped working.
Thanks to this forum I got it fixed today in 10 minutes...by routing a new earthing cable from the wiper motor to the chassis?
Just like magic?


Thanks?
 
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