Front Wiper Woes RESOLVED - new motor fixed problem

[alberniken]

Howdy


This thread is to track my troubleshooting for an odd issue - I know there are lots of posts about wiper failures here, but my symptoms are a little different from what I have found.


Upon first starting, wipers work as normal for 16 seconds, then stop. According to my Bentley manual, this is by design to protect the wiper motor of blades are jammed or blocked. Nice..... except that having owned dozens of cars, including an Austin Marina, I have not yet had a wiper motor burn out from being jammed. Sorry Herr BMW engineer, but your are trying to prevent a non-existent problem


Anyhooo, I lubed the wiper arms assembly, still no joy. Took out, opened up and cleaned contacts in the Wiper Motor Relay; nope, still not fixed.


Took out wiper motor, opened up gear case and checked that all items turn freely - yup they are not binding. Finally, open up the electric motor and wash down with contact cleaner, spray lots of WD40 in there and reconnect wiring. JOY all items move freely, quietly and I leave turning for several minutes to make sure I get past the 16 second issue. ALL GOOD; put all components back in place, index the wipers to parking, fire up car and run wipers -Awwww, sh!# - 16 second demon back on the job....


Looks like issue is motor on way out (not cheap, but cheaper than General Body Controller). Have ordered new motor and hoping that will fix. Will update this thread when done that.


Cheers
K