After driving my car in the winter last year, and with some ice and frozen arms etc. I noticed that after I'm done using my wipers they don't tuck down, they stay in a low position but its not completly out of sight like it used to be. How could I fix this? Is it a common problem? Did something break? An electrical problem? Or would simply removing the arms, turning the wiper on, having it "reset" its position, and the putting the arms back on work?
I have a 97 sunfire. 2dr coupe SE edition.
When the wipers are fully at their off position and hidden, they're "parked". The "park" function is controlled by contacts in the motor itself that sense when the power is actually turned off (or on) and compares that with wiper position to determine if it's time to park or unpark and go (or not go) into wipe mode. I've not heard of it being a common problem and I haven't taken a J wiper motor apart for diagnosis. I'd either try and open the motor up or replace it with a used (known good) one. I wouldn't move the wiper arms. If nobody has more thoughts, I'll take a look at my manual tonight and post some more info. - Mark
My wipers stopped parking three years ago, and I just put up with it. The wiper motor finally died a couple of weeks ago, and after replacing the assembly with a used one off a junk car the wipers park fine again.
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I got this problem on my winter Z from time to time. I find when it's been snowing and there is a big build up of snow under the wipers/cowl area they will sit ontop of the snow. Now if I remove all the snow under the wipers altogether they will still stay up for a period of time, not in the (parked position). But i find this is only a problem if it's a really cold day, like the other day -20 with a windshield factor of -27. But when the temp warms up they will go to the park position. Dunno if the wiper motor finds it really cold, wiring or whatever.
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GoldFire wrote:I got this problem on my winter Z from time to time. I find when it's been snowing and there is a big build up of snow under the wipers/cowl area they will sit ontop of the snow. Now if I remove all the snow under the wipers altogether they will still stay up for a period of time, not in the (parked position). But i find this is only a problem if it's a really cold day, like the other day -20 with a windshield factor of -27. But when the temp warms up they will go to the park position. Dunno if the wiper motor finds it really cold, wiring or whatever.
Thats how it started with mine - but it just stopped parking at one point. Like sometimes once the snow was cleared it would park, then other times it wouldn't - until it consistently stopped parking. I can drive fine the way they are its not like they reduce visibility or anything. Its just something I never checked into when it happened and I saw a post before that made me think of it.
Inside the wiper motor there is a little piece that rotates with the wiper arms. It actually "parks" when it makes contact with a thin metal strip. This thin metal strip is very flimsy and when you take the motor apart and move the pieces by hand you can see that the thin metal piece kinda gets out of shape with age/use/time. It feels kinda hard to explain but I promise if you take the motor apart you'll see what I mean. My Z has 230K miles on it and I've actually had my wipers "park" halfway up my windshield twice because of that little metal tab. Before I ever tried fixing it myself I bought two wiper motors from the junkyard and they were already messed up so I tore them apart, fixed them, and took em back. Bottom line the little metal tabs are weak! I really hope this helps.
So with a little ingenuity and time I could fix my motors? Or is it something that merits getting new motors?
Additionally I was just wondering if this was normal: the yellow lines are the angles my wipers would fit into place....
Ok I fixed the lack of syncronous wiper arm motion as shown in the last picture, but I am still wondering if the 2 metal strips near the white wheel are the contacts everyone has been referring to. If that is the case what is supposed to happen with them. Ie. bottom when makes contact when in motion but top one does not...or wtv it is...
Thanks for any help.
OK well It seems I have created a problem. All I did was open up the plastic cover - look at it take pictures and close it. I decided to put the motor back on my car today and as soon as I send some voltage to the motor through the arm switch on the steering column it parks the wipers in the right place, but then no matter what speed I set it to it stays parked. I checked the voltages coming from the wires and it all seems ok...any thoughts?
Jeffrey M White wrote:OK well It seems I have created a problem. All I did was open up the plastic cover - look at it take pictures and close it. I decided to put the motor back on my car today and as soon as I send some voltage to the motor through the arm switch on the steering column it parks the wipers in the right place, but then no matter what speed I set it to it stays parked. I checked the voltages coming from the wires and it all seems ok...any thoughts?
Additionally, I just took off the actual mechanically moving parts and reconnected the motor. All seems to move well with just that on. The motor will continue spinning until I turn the power to it off....must be something to do with the moving parts...some sort of alignment issue or something? Any ideas?
I have a 2002 sience it was new , did not even know it was suposed to park, is this an earlier model thing because mine never tucked in.
Well I'm fairly certain my father's 03 Grand AM parks, so I'm assuming the newer fires/cavs park also - don't see why they wouldnt.
I have the motor from my 95 Cavalier sitting in my garage almost threw it away. If someone needs it or wants to try it just PM me. shipping plus a few bucks and it's yours.
Works as far as I know I haven't driven the car since 2005, but they did work when I took them out a few months back.
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