04 forester wipers stopped working

[canoeist11]

this a.m. and it is 0 degrees and snow; and of course no garage.

 

The motor and washer do not operate; I checked and replaced fuse and does still to no avail.

 

Any suggestions would be helpful. Hopefully, if it is not a quick fix I can have a non-dealer do the repair?

[Rooster2]

Any chance it is something as simple as the wiper blades frozen to the windshield?

[nipper]

Any chance it is something as simple as the wiper blades frozen to the windshield?

 

 

Or they WERE frozen and now the wiper arms are stripped.

 

The washer nozzles may just be frozen, I wouldnt be too worried about that. As the car warms up they should start to work.

 

nipper

[Skip]

many instances the wiper arm to the gear box output shaft

can just be tightened.

Flip the cap and see it the nut can be tightened.

 

IF this were the case though you could hear the wiper motor

running.

[Scoobywagon]

Troubleshooting process:

 

Step 1) Ensure wipers are not bound (i.e. frozen) to glass. Apply hair drier as needed.

 

Step 2) Set wipers to "High"

 

Step 3) Smack wiper motor with hammer. If motor begins to operate, replace motor.

 

It is REALLY unlikely that the arms are stripped out. The motor just doesn't make that much torque. You CAN, however, burn up the motor if the wipers are frozen to the glass.

[nipper]

The motor does make enough torque if you multiply it by the length of the arms on the pivots.

 

It is a common thing to srip/damage or have the bolts loosen if you turn the wipers on when they are frozen to the windshield. This is why the shafts are made of steel and the base of the arms alumunim, to protect the linkage and the motor. Wiper motors are very torquey, as they have a lot of force to deal with at highway speeds.

 

do NOT use a hairdrier, you may crack the windshield wuth the sudden temperiture change on a frozen windshield. Use the cars own defrosters.

 

nipper

[Scoobywagon]

Been doing glass for a LONG time. Never seen the arms stripped out except where they had been installed improperly.

 

As far as the hair drier goes...you're right. I should have issued a caveat with that. Be VERY careful if you're going to do it that way because you CAN crack the glass very easily.

 

The bottom line is that the most likely mode of failure is the motor.

[Rooster2]

When my wipers freeze to the windshield, I pour cold water on the windshield and wipers to melt the ice. Cold water has enough heat in it to melt ice, but not warm enough to cause the windshield to crack. Just my 2 cents worth!

[canoeist11]

Thanks for all the good advice.

 

Problem solved!

 

After taking your advice and reinspecting, there was one small piece of ice (about the size of a marble) wedged in the base of the wiper arm at just the perfect location to create a jam. Nearest I can figure, the car had been warmed up, at which time the wipers were working. Apparently, snow had thawed from the roof, ran down the windshield and refroze at the wiper arm base where it was not too visible. Turns out the washer function is just an unrelated freeze issue, which has happened on a couple of past occasions.

 

Thanks again.

 

BTW, it is up to 8 degrees below today.