Suspected bad wiper motor, looking for second opinion
#1
10-20-2012, 11:31 AM
Suspected bad wiper motor, looking for second opinion
Hello,
My wife has a 2000 Civic, and a few days ago, a rainy day, she got back in the car, turned the wipers on, and the 20A wiper fuse blew.
I replaced the fuse with a spare from the fuse box, which promptly also blew. Figuring it could possibly just be old fuses, I plugged in a new one I had in the basement that was about a year old or so. It blew that one as well.
The next day (a sunny day), I put in another new fuse, removed the cowl/whatever and tested the wiring at the 5P wiper motor connector (to the best of my knowledge). I got 12V on the GRN/BLK with the ignition switch on, 12V to the BLU on LO, and 12V to the BLU/YEL on HI. Ran a jumper cable from the ground to the GRN/BLK terminal on the wiper motor and from the positive to the BLU terminal, and the motor ran fine at low speed. Ditto at high speed with the positive to BLU/YEL.
As nothing seemed amiss, I put it all back together, put the wiper arms back on the spindles, and with the ignition switch on, but the car not running, the wipers worked fine. Wondered if the problem might be moisture related.
Well, today is pouring rain, so I went out again, turned the ignition switch to ON (well, started the engine actually, not sure why), tested the wipers. Worked fine on INT, switched to LO, blew the fuse.
Disassembled stuff again and ran my same wiring and motor tests (after replacing the fuse, of course). All seemed good, I can't find anything wrong based on the tests I've done.
The possibilities I can come up with:
1. The wiper motor is on the way out, and when given the extra load of wipers being installed on the spindles, it's trying to draw more than 20A and blowing the fuse.
2. There is, in fact, a moisture related problem/short that I couldn't find.
I also thought perhaps having the engine running vs. not had something to do with it, but then I remembered, before my first round of testing, it had blown even when the engine was not running.
Do you think I should get another wiper motor, or is there another test I can do that I haven't thought of?
Thanks in advance!
My wife has a 2000 Civic, and a few days ago, a rainy day, she got back in the car, turned the wipers on, and the 20A wiper fuse blew.
I replaced the fuse with a spare from the fuse box, which promptly also blew. Figuring it could possibly just be old fuses, I plugged in a new one I had in the basement that was about a year old or so. It blew that one as well.
The next day (a sunny day), I put in another new fuse, removed the cowl/whatever and tested the wiring at the 5P wiper motor connector (to the best of my knowledge). I got 12V on the GRN/BLK with the ignition switch on, 12V to the BLU on LO, and 12V to the BLU/YEL on HI. Ran a jumper cable from the ground to the GRN/BLK terminal on the wiper motor and from the positive to the BLU terminal, and the motor ran fine at low speed. Ditto at high speed with the positive to BLU/YEL.
As nothing seemed amiss, I put it all back together, put the wiper arms back on the spindles, and with the ignition switch on, but the car not running, the wipers worked fine. Wondered if the problem might be moisture related.
Well, today is pouring rain, so I went out again, turned the ignition switch to ON (well, started the engine actually, not sure why), tested the wipers. Worked fine on INT, switched to LO, blew the fuse.
Disassembled stuff again and ran my same wiring and motor tests (after replacing the fuse, of course). All seemed good, I can't find anything wrong based on the tests I've done.
The possibilities I can come up with:
1. The wiper motor is on the way out, and when given the extra load of wipers being installed on the spindles, it's trying to draw more than 20A and blowing the fuse.
2. There is, in fact, a moisture related problem/short that I couldn't find.
I also thought perhaps having the engine running vs. not had something to do with it, but then I remembered, before my first round of testing, it had blown even when the engine was not running.
Do you think I should get another wiper motor, or is there another test I can do that I haven't thought of?
Thanks in advance!
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