Here in Oregon windshield wipers are one of the most essential parts of any car. I have been living without the washers for some months now, even though my washer pump tested good. The switch in the wand is not closing the power circuit anymore and at over a hundred bucks for that part I have been putting off the replacement until a convienient time. BUT THEN...on Thursday evening my wipers went crazy! All of a sudden they failed to run, or would run for a little while only if I restarted the car with the wand in the HIGH position, and when they quit, ....they would go into the park position and then instantly jump back to the lower windshiled and sometimes just stop somewhere up on the windshield. I immedialty thought that the wand had coughed its internal cookies, but after a quick look at the factory manual, it seemed that the problem would lie in motor and its run-on and park system. I then pulled the motor...a small bit of a nusance with plastic shrounds at the base of windshiled and the wiper arms to come off first, The motor has a plastic box that encloses a circuit board with electronic components and a set of 'points' contacts. Close examination revealed no exploded or burned electronic parts but the contact points didnt look too hot so I got a really fine diamond abrasive file and dressed them to a shiny finish. The board itself was made of the lowest grade of materials I have seen on a PC board in years. I wondered if has absorbed moisture and caused errant operation of the electronic circuits plated onto it. I tossed it all back together and guess what...It worked, for about 2 minutes....Obviously this board was still malfunctioning so drove over to the Chevy shop and blew close to a hundred bucks for a new one......By 7 PM I had it all removed and replaced again, this time with my husband watching over my shoulder. He is always amazed that I have mechanical skills......Anyway, NOW the wipers are working just fine again. I also ordered the control wand while I was at the dealer..they did not have any in stock. I guess it won't be long and I'll have to pull the column apart and replace the wand, hopefully to restore the operaton of the washer function..

Observations......The plastic shroud at the base of the windshiled glass is held in place with a handful of really crappy plastic rivits. These have virtually no holding power. They are a pain to loosten and remove without damage. What ever happend to threaded fasteners????? The electronics board that I replaced was made of really low grade parts. ....and it was made in some far off place overseas no doubt by the LOWEST possible bidder. I'd have to look at the box again to recall the county of origin, but is was one of the smaller far east third world nations. I cant help but think that if the materails were of higher grade that it might ave lasted longer. In the past I have had or known cars with HUNDREDS of thousands of miles on them and decades of age, and the wipers still worked just fine! So here we are, 9 years old and this is the second electronic board that has failed in my C5. The first one was the HVAC display control board, but we fixed that with a re-solder job...Thanks to EG for the pix on that fix!

I just wish these cars were better made. They look great, and have some EXCELLENT mechanical sytems...the engine, the chassis & suspension are top flight engineering. After that, were down to the same cheap and crappy electronic systems used by the rest of the low cost Chevy and GM line. Too bad the Corvette division never had the authority or the budget to buy most of the electronics and such from a reliable high quality supplier like Bosch.......Oh, well, at least my wipers are running again. The seat foam and cheap leather are also crummy "GM grade" materials that drive down the overall quality of the C5. Thats something that an aftermarket supplier will help me address this summer when I replace the rotted and collapsed seat foam. I have fitted sheepskin seat covers and I'm not too sure I'll like what I see under them when they come off for the repairs. When they went on, the leather was already failing with both wear through and seams tearing. Its gotta be worse now as over 2 years have gone by and the underlying seat bottom foam has REALLY now gone south.

I still love my Vette and am completely comitted to keeping it going!

 

It's good that you're making headway. I know what you mean about low bidder components. I guess it's a necessary evil to keep the car affordable.

As weird as it sounds, you might want to do a search for "udders". The drains in the cowl have traps for organic material (such as leaves). They often become clogged and can lead to premature failure of the wiper controls. Considering the $$ to replace the controls, it's at least worth a peek.

 

Yeah, I know all about them, and keep up the constant battle to make sure the drains are clear. If I ever get the car far enough apart to get to the bottom of some of those things, I'll hit them with a razor blade or clipper and open the size of the drain hole so there wil be less trapping of pine needles and leaves and the other small junk that nature drops. These drains are another 'wish list item' that I wish had been better designed from the begining, as they are more a self sealing water trapper than a drain. The cowl drains in my old VW Golf NEVER clog up...just a blast with a hoze spray and they stay clean as can be. The Vette requires vacuuming, then prodding out with a old piece of rubber hose to push out all the stuff in the bottom of the tubes, then a flushing with water....
Jennifer

 

I couldn't agree more. Good luck with the wiper saga.

 

Is the wiper "Park" function controlled by the board under the motor?? Mine have not parked in a long time.
Another "flooding" problem caused by the udders is the A/C module, it does not work well when it is under water.
Pat

 

Yes, the park function IS controlled by the module on the motor. It will have the motor work in reverse for a moment, causing a mechanical linkage it rotate backward and push the wiper arms down against the 'stops'. I must say the method is clever and as long as the electrics are working, the mechanicals seem to follow reliably.
Jennifer

 

FUBAR

 

In the post VietNam era, my friiends who had served over there and were lucky enough to make it home, introduced me to this term....They used it to describe the 'screwed up' and badly managed military operations . Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition

Keep it clean!!
Cheers

 

The stuff I see everyday at work, we call it FUBAR But its all the same