Winshield wiper motor question

[Steve1234]

We had an ice storm here and when the wife was stopping, a huge slab of ice slid off the roof and onto to the winshield just as the wiper was going up. There was a thunk and the wipers stopped - I took it apart and found the plastic coupling joint where the motor meets the blade transmission had snapped. No big deal, went to the local Kia dealer and got a new one.

Installed it and found that when the wipers are turned off, they stop IN THEIR TRACKS. You have to time it just right when you want them in the down position, otherwise turning them off most often results them being in the up position. I checked for any kind of fuses, but found nothing. If you hit the washer button, they come on and do about 2 or 3 swipes, then shut off randomly. Sometimes it'll go down, sometimes not. Speeds are fine - but noticed the delay control doesn't work either, it'll stay on full time.

Any advice on what happened? I can work with it for now, just a matter of timing on shutting them off.

Thanks for any tips.

[93fxdl]

most wiper motors have a set of parking contacts which tell the motor it has reached the end of its travel and it sounds like this has failed
just had a look at mine and behind the multiplug there are some wires which connect to the backplate of the gearbox and i would check there first but if you take it apart it is possible there may be little parts that can fly out if all is ok there then you should check any relays for the wipers but since all other functions are ok imho i doubt this but then i am just a enthusiastic fiddler so what do i know
best of luck glenn

[jasperwt]

The problem is in your combination switch. You will have to replace it (it comes with a new wiper switch, headlight/turnsignal switch and clock spring for the air bag). The wiper parks by the wiper motor (pin #4 & #5) telling the wiper switch when to shut off power to the wiper motor pin#2. (Wiper motor contacts #1 ground, #2 lo/park #3 high #4 park #5 park. If you want to check your wiper motor anyway, put groung to pin#1, power to pin#2 and check resistance across pin #4 and #5.

[Steve1234]

Originally Posted by jasperwt

The problem is in your combination switch. You will have to replace it (it comes with a new wiper switch, headlight/turnsignal switch and clock spring for the air bag). The wiper parks by the wiper motor (pin #4 & #5) telling the wiper switch when to shut off power to the wiper motor pin#2. (Wiper motor contacts #1 ground, #2 lo/park #3 high #4 park #5 park. If you want to check your wiper motor anyway, put groung to pin#1, power to pin#2 and check resistance across pin #4 and #5.

Holy thread bump, Batman!!!

Actually, somehow it remedied itself one day. But thats good information to know.