A Painful Diagnosis With a Cheap Fix

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Fellas

The saga with my windsreen wipers on my 2001 4.4L X5 has been a long one. The wipers were operating unreliably and would not return to the park position unless the ignition was turned on and off. No rain sensor is fitted to this vehicle.

Removal of the windscreen wiper motor for the first time revealed the motor operated AOK with an external power source applied. Chased all wiring from its source at the wiper stalk thru to the motor relay, could find no failed components. It was looking nasty it appeared I had a General Module failure.

Removed the windsreen motor for the second time and confirmed 5V was present on the park switch supply wire (rsk). Beauty the General Module was probably OK.

Put the motor up on the bench and ran it on slow speed via an external power source. Connected a multimeter set to continuity check across the park switch supply pin to ground, after numerous motor revolusions suddenly the park switch stopped providing a closed contact. Removed the mounting plate supporting the park switch and confirmed that all diodes in this circuit were serviceable and registering correctly on the multimeter diode checking function. This left only the switch as the component creating the problem.

Question was where and how to replace the switch. A trip to Dick Smith(Aussy electonic component supplier) sourced a suitable sized switch, however it didnt have the same lenght actuating arm as the original, removal of the old actuator and soldering it to the new switch actuator resolved this problem. Only other issue was removal of the NO switch contact and extension of the NC contact to make it compatable with the mounting plate lugs. Cost $A3.50 for the switch plus my time.

Wipers now totally functional after full reassembly of motor and refitment to vehicle. Not even certain the stealers supply this switch as a replaceable component or whether its a case of replace the motor complete when this fault exists.

Going by the number of posts regarding wiper problems I hope this may assist someone else to save a Dollar.

Catchya

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