Broken again!
02-11-2005, 10:53 PM
#1
Banned
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: In self-imposed exile.
Posts: 14,072
Likes: 0
Received 8 Likes
on
7 Posts
Broken again!
Figures. Now it's the windshield wipers. In the middle of a violent rainstorm. Great.
Fortunately this happened at the END of a rather unpleasant commute (and I left EARLY!) I was about 1/2 mile from home when all of a sudden the wipers just stop. Literally stop dead just past the "parked" location. I had 'em on intermittant and they had just begun a sweep cycle and they just stop. No noise, no sounds. Nothin'.
Well, I'm almost home so no biggie. I turn down my street and shut the car off and restart it, hoping maybe it was just a relay that needed to be reset or something. Nope. Nothin'. When it's REALLY quiet, you can actually hear the motor running (so it isn't a fust) but the wiper arms don't move. I then tried running the wipers and getting out of the car and jiggling one of the wiper arms a little bit. That made it work - for one sweep. Then nothing again. Tried it again - same thing.
Anyone know what this could be? I had something like this happen on a car once where there was a metal post with splines on it onto which the wiper arm pushed, secured by a retaining pin. In that case, the friggin' splined shaft got rounded out and I didn't feel like disassembling half the car to fix it (POS Pontiac Firebird) so I just put the wiper arm in place on the dead shaft, drilled a hole through the wiper arm AND shaft and put a bolt in it. Worked until I sold it. I ain't doing that to the Porsche though. Are these cars even that same type of system? I've never bothered taking the wiper arms off. Is it a big deal? Stuff to watch out for?
Fortunately this happened at the END of a rather unpleasant commute (and I left EARLY!) I was about 1/2 mile from home when all of a sudden the wipers just stop. Literally stop dead just past the "parked" location. I had 'em on intermittant and they had just begun a sweep cycle and they just stop. No noise, no sounds. Nothin'.
Well, I'm almost home so no biggie. I turn down my street and shut the car off and restart it, hoping maybe it was just a relay that needed to be reset or something. Nope. Nothin'. When it's REALLY quiet, you can actually hear the motor running (so it isn't a fust) but the wiper arms don't move. I then tried running the wipers and getting out of the car and jiggling one of the wiper arms a little bit. That made it work - for one sweep. Then nothing again. Tried it again - same thing.
Anyone know what this could be? I had something like this happen on a car once where there was a metal post with splines on it onto which the wiper arm pushed, secured by a retaining pin. In that case, the friggin' splined shaft got rounded out and I didn't feel like disassembling half the car to fix it (POS Pontiac Firebird) so I just put the wiper arm in place on the dead shaft, drilled a hole through the wiper arm AND shaft and put a bolt in it. Worked until I sold it. I ain't doing that to the Porsche though. Are these cars even that same type of system? I've never bothered taking the wiper arms off. Is it a big deal? Stuff to watch out for?
02-12-2005, 01:12 AM
#2
Cleveland Rocks
Rennlist Member
Rennlist Member
I've never heard of that same problem Jeff but since the wiper motor itself is such a PITA to get to, you might try just checking what kind of motor voltage you are getting first. That might tell you if you have an intermittent ground problem or such.
If that tests out OK, then since you say you can actually hear the motor running might be a good idea to just take the wiper linkage loose from the motor and see if it is really running or not, or look to see if the splines are actually stripped. Might just be a loose nut on the linkage, too. Once you get that far I think you'll find your problem. But this problem does sound unique, I've never heard of it before.
Good luck!!
If that tests out OK, then since you say you can actually hear the motor running might be a good idea to just take the wiper linkage loose from the motor and see if it is really running or not, or look to see if the splines are actually stripped. Might just be a loose nut on the linkage, too. Once you get that far I think you'll find your problem. But this problem does sound unique, I've never heard of it before.
Good luck!!
02-12-2005, 01:26 AM
#3
Race Car
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Albany, CA: celebrating 100 years of independence from Berkeley, CA
Posts: 4,887
Likes: 0
Received 2 Likes
on
2 Posts
Did you check to make sure that the arms aren't just loose? I guess that wouln't explain why both arms stopped going....
02-12-2005, 01:49 AM
#4
Banned
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: In self-imposed exile.
Posts: 14,072
Likes: 0
Received 8 Likes
on
7 Posts
Thanks guys. I'll take a closer look at it in the morning when (hopefully) it's stopped raining. I have the white car in the garage right now freshly waxed so I'm not taking it out in the rain! That'd just annoy me after the hours it took to properly Meguires' 3-step it!