Front wipers not working

Hiya
My TD5 2003 front wipers have stopped working. They are stuck about halfway in their cycle. Fuse is ok. I don't think I hear any noise when I use the switch other than the switch noise. But I can't remember if that's normal or not. I'm ordering a new park switch. But I took the old one off and it seemed ok as far I could tell. Any idea how I can tell if it's the relay? Or, any other ideas of what the problem could be?

Thanks
Stu

Stuey77 said:

Hiya
My TD5 2003 front wipers have stopped working. They are stuck about halfway in their cycle. Fuse is ok. I don't think I hear any noise when I use the switch other than the switch noise. But I can't remember if that's normal or not. I'm ordering a new park switch. But I took the old one off and it seemed ok as far I could tell. Any idea how I can tell if it's the relay? Or, any other ideas of what the problem could be?

Thanks
Stu

Click to expand...

Could be seized wheel boxes …

Thanks. It turns out it wasn't the park switch. I moved the wipers to home position. Motor now tries to move them but can't. I'm getting 12v at the motor. Not sure what to try next

Stuey77 said:

Thanks. It turns out it wasn't the park switch. I moved the wipers to home position. Motor now tries to move them but can't. I'm getting 12v at the motor. Not sure what to try next

Click to expand...

Still might be wheel boxes ...

Thanks. If so they'd need replacing? I'll see if I can read up how to. Might be beyond me !

Stuey77 said:

Thanks. If so they'd need replacing? I'll see if I can read up how to. Might be beyond me !

Click to expand...

Have a search, they are fairly straightforward, some differences with old and new type, but all doable...

It can be as simple as the wheel box spindles [ the shafts coming out to the wipers ] getting stiff and seizing. Get some RP90 or Plus gas down them. The little rubber boots that stop water going down the shafts are often rotted away.

Try taking the rack and its tubes off the motor and see if it will run without any load on it. If so, it's a mechanical problem with the wiper mechanism. The 'rack' is in fact a flexible wire with a spiral wrapped round it and this passes through the wheelboxes and turns a cog attached to the wiper spindles. The rack and cog wear and it tries to jump a tooth and jams usually. This can be fixed temporarily by bending the wheelbox casing inwards vey slightly to hold them closer together. Another problem with the design of the mechanism is that the cogs are only staked or peened onto the spindles and come loose, so the motor appears to be whirring away but the wipers aren't wiping. Last time I bought some new ones I was pleasantly surprised to see that the wheels had been fixed to the spindles with a couple of dabs of weld, which was much better. These ones haven't failed yet.

Once the motor has been trying to turn jammed wipers unsuccessfully for a while it's probably past its best and it might be worth thinking about replacing it anyway as it'll be semi burnt out.

Another weak point in the TD5 wiper system is the wiper relay (which lives behind the speedo binnacle). It's more of a control unit than just a relay as it's got printed circuit boards inside too. I've found that replacing this helps eliminate some odd wiper behaviour such as failure to start or stopping at random positions on the screen.