Windshield wiper problem

[Donystoy]

Came home in the rain tonight in my 02 Explorer and the wipers started acting up. When on intermittent they immediately go to half sweep and stop, nothing more. If I put them on steady slow or fast speed they work fine but will not park when turned off. Before I start trouble shooting the situation I was wondering if anyone else had experienced this and found the problem. Did a search on the forum and found nothing similar with solutions. Without looking I am suspecting the motor.

 

[Exproblems]

Came home in the rain tonight in my 02 Explorer and the wipers started acting up. When on intermittent they immediately go to half sweep and stop, nothing more. If I put them on steady slow or fast speed they work fine but will not park when turned off. Before I start trouble shooting the situation I was wondering if anyone else had experienced this and found the problem. Did a search on the forum and found nothing similar with solutions. Without looking I am suspecting the motor.

I haven't experienced your problem, but I was thinking it could be related to the "Multi-function switch" on the steering column, which is where you adjust the speed of the wiper arms in motion. From what you wrote, the wiper motor appears to work fine in certain speed positions, that's why I was looking towards the MF switch. The "contacts" inside the switch are prone to getting dirty and could just use a cleaning. "BigRondo" has a post related to this under his "list of repairs" tabs that he has done. His post shows you how to remove the switch from the steering column.

 

[Donystoy]

Yes I read during my search that it might be the multifunction switch but just hoping it is the motor since the wipers will not park. From my schematics the park switch is in the motor but there is also a wiper run / park relay that might be defective. Something to play with tomorrow.

Edit: Checked this morning and occasionally they would work o/k but mostly they would hang up. I interchanged relay #54 (Wiper Run / Park) with the fog light relay (#50) and now they seem to be functioning fine. The one time that I checked the fog lights they worked fine as well. I will see how reliable they are when it rains again.

 

[BigRondo]

When I bought my Ex the wipers had a mind of their own. While troubleshooting I changed the relays & the Multifunction Switch with no luck. It turned out that it was the wiper motor. I got a Motorcraft replacement from Rock Auto pretty cheap.

I can send the troubleshooting steps from my shop manuals upon request.

Good luck getting it sorted!!

 

[raulcasadiego]

Hello BigRondo my truck is facing the same problem like Donystoy could you please send me the troubleshooting steps you found in your manual? Thabks.

 

[BigRondo]

Hello BigRondo my truck is facing the same problem like Donystoy could you please send me the troubleshooting steps you found in your manual? Thabks.

I'll send them tonight when I get home. :biggthump

 

[Donystoy]

I am still having issues with my wipers. When this originally happened I interchanged the park relay and the problem seemed to go away. Now they work fine if on slow or high but sometimes when on intermittent they will hang up and stop usually half way up the windshield. They might start again during the next pulse to operate or mostly I have to turn on slow to get them to work again. Checked my schematic and there is a wiper control module that the column switch feeds into. Does anyone know the location of this module? I am thinking that there could be a broken wire possibly at the firewall but if the module is inside the vehicle this is unlikely. Might try to trace the wires from the motor back. Tough to troubleshoot a problem that only occasionally happens.