Central texas weather resulted in a misty rain during the Austin get togather yesterday.

This is the first time I had to use my wipers and they are painfully slow in all settings. As a note the intermitnant wiper adjustment wheel is not installed.

I thought I had read a thread on refurbing the motors similar to what other have done with the door window motors.

Can this be done and will it help? Is there another common issue that will resolve the problem?

 

Would it have anything to do with using the wiper circuit switched 12v power for the electric fans?

 

Wow, good memory!

I did tap into the switched ignition wire of the wipers for the switched signal for the fan relay but the fans don't run off that as a power source. The power source for the fans is a seperate wire off the jump post.

if I remember correctly the wipers were slow before I did the elctric fan mod.

 

I think all the early cars had this "super-slow-mo" wiper systems.

Mine were like that since day one and it is about time I took it all apart, cleaned, lubed and reassembled the whole thing. However, I am not convinced this will make them go any faster. It almost looks like the existing motor driving it wasn't designed to move any faster.

 

I cheated Jim. I was reading an old post of yours about installing electric fans. I just followed the advice in that post last nite. My 80 euro has slow wipers too. I compensated by using lots of Rain-X. I'd sure like to know what the real fix is.

 

I think the wipers on all years should be fine if they are working correctly...

There are really 2 possibilities:

Electrical or Mechanical:

Mechanical - lube the motor, all the gears and linkages - make sure nothing is binding up, check bearings.

Electrical - measure the voltage while running at the motor end - could be contact resistance somewhere if you see a big voltage drop.. check grounds, connectors. Maybe clean the motor commutator/brushes.

Alan

 

Also slow wiper syndrome here, at one point they stopped working alltogether, thought maybe the switch control, but decided to check the motor itself first, because of already having to refurb a window motor. very easy to R&R the wiper motor. the reason my wipers stopped was due to crud build up in the brushes, just needed a good internal cleaning. The wiper action actually seemed to be faster than before, but several months later they seem slower again, but they are better than before. Rain x is the best way to go, only need intermitant wipers at most anyway.

 

If it's slow, nearly guaranteed it's the wiper bearing.
It has no seals so it looses it's grease, and/or fills up with water and rusts.

You will be amazed how fast the wiper goes with a new bearing.

I've done two motors, so far. One super slow, the other DOA.
Next time, I am going to try a ceramic type!


(Overhaul thread)

 

My wipers on my S4 are juddery... I just never drive in the rain if I can help it, but I really got hosed because I had to go rescue Grant from BD's... Jim, when you left that is who I was talking to on the phone. His Explorer died...Porsche 928 to the rescue! LOL! He saved Doug when his GT3 911 broke down after one of out GTG's last fall!