wiper blades wont rest low enough

[fernando65]

my wipers seem to be off a tooth or two.. they dont sit low enough when at rest.. and when theyre on, they over extend- the drivers side one actually goes past the edge of the window a little.

 

how can i fix this? im guessing i have to remove the big black plastic trim peices at the base of the wipers, find the wiper motor, remove the splined attachment point to it, move wipers down, re attach, test.

 

right!?

 

thanks!

[Cobalt60]

I have no idea, but one thing thats been really bugging me about my wiper blades is that when theyre not on, they are up so high that I cant see my hood. In general, I like to see my hood on my cars when Im driving, and I would especially like to see this one...

[silverarrow89]

Doesn't the wiper arm shaft, that comes out of the cowl, have splines? Once you remove the wiper arm, you should be able to reposition and reinstall. Take a look.

[fernando65]

yeah i figured i could do that. but seeing as how theyre both off by the same amount, maybe i can adjust both at once... but youre right, it may be easiest to do what you said

[Ernie88TSi]

The wiper motor is mounted right on the firewall. You don't have to remove the black cowl piece. There are 4 bolts that hold the wiper motor in place.

 

When you turn the wipers off, do they park in the same position every time? Or, do they stop kinda wherever they feel like it?

 

If you take the cover off of the wiper motor, you'll notice a plastic disc with teeth on it. It's got a metal contact that goes across it... and there is another metal contact on the cover piece. That is what tells the wiper motor where the parked position is. That area is packed with white lithium grease. Over time, that grease dries up and gets pretty nasty (that also effects wiper speed to some extent, they don't move quite as fast as they did when the car was new). It also can cause the wiper motor to not get a good connection between those two contacts. When that happens, the wipers will stop wherever they please, instead of the parked position where they should be.

[fernando65]

thanks!! yes they do stop wherever they want.. in addition to being offset from where they should be.. it is very tricky to get them to stop at the bottom of their stroke

[rocheman1]

They come off really easily. Lift the cap at the base of the wiper arm, there is one nut, and then just pull it off and reposition the splines to your liking. Edited June 20, 2009 by rocheman1

[mistapickles]

thanks!! yes they do stop wherever they want.. in addition to being offset from where they should be.. it is very tricky to get them to stop at the bottom of their stroke

ETACS, I bet your problem lies there. I'd first make sure the amperages coming from your battery is good but then check the ETACS. Do you have problems with your door locks not locking both doors? or your dome light doesn't fade off?

[Ernie88TSi]

It's not the ETACS... clean the contacts in the wiper motor. It's a pretty common problem.

[mikec]

ETACS affects ONLY the intermittent (variable speed) wiper operation. The LOW and HIGH wiper speeds are totally independent of ETACS. As is the PARK function. The LOW and HIGH just use the wiper controls switch to send power to either the slow or fast side of the motor. Those PARK contacts Ernie described are inside the wiper motor gearbox... they "maintain" the motor running (in low speed mode) until the motor PARKs. Basically those contacts are in parallel with the LOW speed wiper controls switch.

 

The ETACS, in intermittent/variable speed mode, uses a relay to briefly simulate a control switch on LOW. ETACS triggers a relay for about 1 second, just enough to get the wipers moving... ETACS then expects the PARK contacts to do their job, keeping the wipers running for one whole "swipe" and then back to PARK. If they don't work, your intermittent wipers will do a peice of a swipe, stop, run a little further, stop again, etc... i.e. a herky-jerky swipe.

 

mike c.