The windshield wipers in my '98 C5 have decided not to move. I have checked the fuse (#10 under the passenger's feet) and it seems fine. The water sprayer works fine, but the wipers thenselves will now move. I listened closely, and I can hear a click coming from under the drivers side blade about 5 seconds after I turn them off. Any ideas???? :(

 

Majestic43

I have a 98 and this happened to me too!

Looks like you may have a case of the "FLOODED WIPER MOTOR"!!! Mine had the SAME symptoms and I thought for sure that the switch was bad. I used my 02 ZO6 as a doner for the known good switch and found out that the switch was NOT the problem! :cuss :mad

Next area to check was the motor itself. You have to remove the wipers and the black plastic windshield cowl. The motor is on the drivers side. It lives in a deep well that has 3 small drains. As soon as I pulled the cowl off I saw the problem. The motor was under water!!!! :eek: :eek: :cuss :mad The drains were clogged with gook!! LOTS of GOOK!!!!

If you have water in the well,,, more than likely you have water in the wiper motor and control circuit board.

The motor is microprocessor controlled and the circuit board does NOT like water!!! :nonod: :nonod:

I was lucky! I was able to remove the wiper arm/motor assembly and flush the motor and board out and blow 90% of the water out with compressed air. I dried it under a heat lamp for 6 hours. There are two relays, a cam operated switch and a circuit board. Make sure that you reference how the cam and switch are positioned with respect to the output shaft on the cover.

I had to disassemble and reassemble it a few times to get it right! Just use a perment marker pen and mark the output shaft position on the black plastic cover and once it is open, note and mark how the cam is positioned with respect to the circuit board.

You can check to see if the drains are clogged by opening the hood and reaching down between the vacuum brake booster and the fender. (If you have a 6 speed the clutch resivour will make it tough) You will be able to see/feel three 1" rubber tubes (utters) If they are soft and plyable they are probably not clogged. If they are solid, you found the main source of your problem!!! PLEASE let me know what you find! If the well is flooded,, stand by! You may also have OTHER problems too!

Good luck

Bill Curlee

PS Please feel free to ask me for help with this problem! Been there and licked it!! :thumbs:

 

bill, thanks for your help! i ran my hand under the driver's side wiper and found those "utters" you mentioned were indeed clogged with water. once i got them unclogged....everything works well! anyway, thanks again for the very informative post! :thumbs:

 

Now that you know that it was a water problem, if it got full enough to effect the wiper motor, it may have leaked into the drivers foot well and your carpets may be wet. Just to be on the safe side, make sure your carpet is dry! The water can leak in from the wiring harness body plug!

There is another drain on the other side. It is larger and does not seem to clog as easily. It is a pain in the butt to get to!

Very glad to be able to help!

Glad to see that your problem is fixed!

Bill C

 

My wipers work fine...the jets on the other hand :rolleyes: don't spray the fluid up on the glass :rolleyes: I have no idea WTF the problem is...I pulled the hoses off and the water flows fine...the jets don't seem to be clogged..I have no friggin idea :banghead:

 

pewter99

Pull off the hose and have some one activate the spray while you pinch the end of the hose shut. See if it will build up pressure and you can make it spray while you have it pinched! If it will do that the pump is working fine. If it builds up pressure see if you can remove the wiper blades and try to blow through the wiper arm hose to see if you can get air through the spray jet.
If it does not build up pressure when you pinch the hose, you have a leak some where down stream or your pump is bad.

Do you see any water leaking out drom under the car when you activate the washer??

Try those things and let us know how you make out.

BC

 

Yeah, like I said the jets seem clear and the pump seems to be putting the fluid out fine...so I don't know....not a real big priority for me..just more aggravation than anything