Over a period of several months, my windshield wiper began making more and more noise until it slowly ground to a halt. Actually, the last part occurred fairly frequently. The wiper speed continued to decrease until one day, I found myself without wipers that move any longer, in Portland, OR, no less. As there is no noise at all coming from the motor any longer, and the horn still works (implying that the fuse did not blow) I figure that the motor is probably seized at this point, and can either be disassembled and fixed or should simply be replaced. Any ideas as to how to isolate the motor as the spot of failure rather than a bad connection somewhere? I took out the glovebox and now have access to the motor, so I should be able to validate that I'm getting juice at the motor, if I knew where to look (hint, hint).

Thanks, in advance, for some assistance,
Victor Weinstein

Take a trip to the Damascus U-pullit..And get yourself a used motor. I had the same problem lots of noise coming from the wiper motor, till it siezed.. Used motors are about $10 at U-pullit.

William R.
84' 240 ti

Thanks for your suggestion. I had a great time in the "cemetery" looking for my wiper motor, and I found one that did the trick for $8.50. The highlight of my day was clearly when I discovered that my radiator has a leak as I was putting in the new wiper motor. Looks like I'll be in Damascus this coming weekend, too!

You can check for voltage to the motor inside the engine bay. Unplug the electricial connection and check it with one probe, and the other grounded. It is probably the motor if it gradually got slower then died. I replaced my motor last year and it wasn't too hard to do. I bought it at IPD for $95.

Right now I am in a different situation with my wipers and the relay. The wipers are totally dead and I have resoldiered the relay, still nothing. Hopefully replacing it will fix the situation.

I live across the river in Vancouver, WA and I can tell you it is a drag not to have wipers here.

Good luck,


Zack

Silver 83' 242Ti (206k)

Also the wiper motor is grounded to the body through the inside arm and not the motor itself. Mine was isolsted on rubber grommets bolted to the firewall. When I replaced my dead one with a used one I freaked when it did not work. Then after attaching the bolt to the inside arm it worked fine.