92.9 Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 Hello My 1996 300Tdi Discovery has been behaving strangely in the wiper department. Sometimes when I operate the wipers (soon after starting the car, and at night, if it's relevant), the wipers are extremely slow and take about half a minute to complete a single wipe. After that initial strangeness they usually behave normally on subsequent wipe attempts! It has done this a few times at random over the past few months. Tonight the damned thing did the same, except this time the wipers only moved about forty-five degrees, then stopped mid-screen. I had to get out and assist them in returning to the parked position. I tried again and the wipers stopped again, so I helped them back to the parked position and left them in disgrace. Is this indicative of a specific problem that can be solved with minimal expense/swearing, or am I going to have to get a branch and give the car a Fawlty Towers-style thrashing? Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niamh Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 Sounds like a dying wiper moter to me... Niamh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les Henson Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 The wiper spindles are the usual culprit for slow wipers, although gearbox siezing will do it as well. I would go for the spindles first, as they corrode and eventually sieze in the sleeves. Les. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
92.9 Posted March 4, 2012 Author Share Posted March 4, 2012 Sorry for the delayed response. I didn't get any e-mail notification so I presumed that no one had replied! I'll have a look at the spindles firtst then. The only strange thing is that it did it intermittently for a little while, returning to normal wiper operation after each problem event. That is up until this time, because it's stil like it! Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teabag Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 Either lubrication or an HR earth connection Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
92.9 Posted March 5, 2012 Author Share Posted March 5, 2012 Okay, thanks, I'll look into that also. I hope it's something that doesn't require the wiper motor being removed! I take it that HR means high resistance though, doesn't it? I couldn't think of anything more specific that it could refer to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teabag Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 Sorry. HR = high resistance .. I had my electrical engineers cap at the time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
92.9 Posted March 6, 2012 Author Share Posted March 6, 2012 Ahh thanks! I thought I had better double-check before I went off and starting poking around for a Halibut Rotator. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
92.9 Posted April 27, 2012 Author Share Posted April 27, 2012 Right then, after two months of my life revolving around the weather forecasts I have finally tackled the damned thing and fixed it! Despite the intermittent occurrences of the problem, and everything convincing me it was going to be an electrical fault (a notion fortified when I noticed the absent wiper motor earth lead), the problem turned out to be seized wiper spindles, as suggested to me above! I can't imagine why (or how) an intermittent seizure can exist, but it did! I took the wiper motor out and noticed the motor body was red hot, as everything had seized a few degrees past the park position. I'm surprised something bad didn't happen as it must have been like that since it seized up two months ago. After taking the operating levers off the spindle pivots I had to hammer them to get them moving, then spent about five minutes on each one with the mole grips and WD40, oil and grease before they were free again. Contrary to my usual experiences when finding a problem and apparently fixing it, everything worked when I put it back together. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teabag Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 "Contrary to my usual experiences when finding a problem and apparently fixing it, everything worked when I put it back together" Well done Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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