My rear wiper never worked since I owned the car and I think it may be a switch or electrical problem rather than an issue with the motor. The prior owner advised the car would blow a fuse if the rear wiper was turned on, so before doing anything I greased the linkage per the instructions in the FAQ (no corrosion I could see and everything moved freely).

After playing with the switch and making sure the fuse was good, I took off the tailgate panel and tried a replacement motor with no luck, then bought a harbor freight multimeter to confirm there is no power when the switch is on.

It is as if the rear wiper switch and wash button are not connected to anything - I also can't hear the washer fluid pump run when I press the rear wash button. However, all other functions on the wiper switch work fine (front wipers and wash function).

I checked the rear wiper motor relay and noticed it had a 1/18/2010 date stamped on it, so someone else was likely trying to fix the problem. Given that the relay is only 3 years old, I didn't take it apart to check for issues, but did ensure it was seated properly and had no corrosion on the posts.

My questions are:

1) Where next should I start fault-tracing to locate the problem?

1) If the wiper switch itself is bad, is there a way to repair without major dissassembly?