Robin W.

I'm fixing up an '83 944 for my fiance and I'm finally down to the last few things before it hits the road. But now that I've taken it for a test drive a few times the wipers do some weird stuff. They sometimes come on (intermitent setting) when you adjust the heater fan or AC fan. They have also come on when turning a corner, that could be from the turn signal, or the physical turning of the steering wheel.

Any idea where to start? Should I pull off the wheel and check the wiper switch? Look for bad wiring/ground? It almost sounds like a bad relay, clicking rapidly.

Sometimes they turn off after a few strokes, the other time they ran till I turned off the car. Moving the stalk didn't help, but it would cycle through low/high/intermitent, however "off" did the same as intermitent.

Search didn't turn up anything but non working wipers.
Thanks

Her '83 on the left, my '86 on the right.

jtsporsche

mine does the same thing, saddly ive learned to live with it

mikemyers924s

I'm almost positive that it's related to the turn signals. I've talked to a couple different people (I have the same problem) and they all point to the connection between the switch for the turn signals and the switch for the wipers. Unfortunately neither of them had a solution. My temporary fix was to pull the power to the wiper motor. It's a plug located directly in front of the driver under the hood, near the base of the left wiper. I'll plug it back in when I expect precip. Good luck!
Mike.

Robin W.

Thanks for the replies guys. I'll have to dig into the problem, my fiance won't put up with random wipers.

I'll post my findings and if I solve the problem or not.

harrisonrick

Check the wiper relay too...it may be stuck "closed" or "on".

pnbell

You could move to an area where it rains a lot... Seattle or England maybe?

Robin W.

That would be the most creative response I've ever heard. Vancouver BC (just north of Seattle) has the same type of weather. On the other hand I'm quite fond of all the days of sunshine we get here so I'll see if I can fix it.

It's electrical, it can't be that hard.... lol I finally got all the power window switches working, bit of sanding the contacts, and cleaning them out, bend the weird little springs back into the correct shape.

I8A4RE

My '84 944 just started doing this, too! The wipers sometimes start the intermittant cycle when I switch on the left turn signal, or sometimes just when the steering wheel turns. Sometimes they will stop by themselves; other times I have to switch the wipers on, then off to make them quit.

I'll be investigating the problem this week. I'll post an answer if I find one. If anyone finds an answer first, please share!

Anthony
'84 944 na

JohnKoaWood

Anyone with this problem tried changing the wiper switch out?

sturm

I've probably got the same switch in my 964 and I have the same problem. Temporarily I have removed the relay from the electrical box. Wipers work fine but they don't have the delay function and they won't park themselves; if this makes any sense.


'93rsa 3.8

jtsporsche

TRIED, didn't fix

safulop

Yes indeed, this happened in my 85 seven years ago, and it just started happening again. Back 2004, I fixed the problem by replacing the two connected wiper and turn-signal stalks/switches. There is some sort of arcing inside the switch that causes the problem, it is possible it could be repaired by cleaning the switch or spraying with WD40 or something, I am going to try this remedy in a bit.

When the wipers come on on their own, you can hear a "tick" sound from inside the wiper switch, so it is literally just a local problem at the switches. If a new switch doesn't fix the problem (and I mean, brand new, not somebody else's used switch), then it is possibly from the connections to the switch itself.

-Sean

mikemyers924s

PLEASE post results!
to clarify; you replaced the physical stalk or boom that you move to turn on the wipers or blinkers and this fixed the problem until now? I'd definitely be willing to give that a shot.

safulop

Yes that's right, back in 2004 the wiper arm with switch and the turn signal/cruise arm with switch were each around $40. Now, they can be a crazy price if you want colors to match. I think my brown signal/cruise arm assembly is now $300, but I think black ones are far less.

You could potentially just replace the wiper arm/switch without replacing the turn signal, I just decided to do both because it was fairly cheap preventive maintenance and I didn't know if it would matter since the two are connected together in the steering column.

Hollywood D

My guess would be to change the actual stalks, with new ones. I know the little fingers on the back of them are brittle and can damage easily.