Hi there,

My wipers have stopped working. Stopped this morning just before gettting to work. Went back out to the car 30 mins later and they were working fine for 5 mins then stopped. I cannot find a reference for the fuse in my owners manual. Does anyone know where the fuse is and the fuse number.
The relay is clicking when I switch them on.

Cheers

Andy

andol said:

Hi there,

My wipers have stopped working. Stopped this morning just before gettting to work. Went back out to the car 30 mins later and they were working fine for 5 mins then stopped. I cannot find a reference for the fuse in my owners manual. Does anyone know where the fuse is and the fuse number.
The relay is clicking when I switch them on.

Cheers

Andy

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Suspect not fuse as would not have worked second time if fuse had gone, maybe fault with actual motor

F42 but as Mal said it wont be the fuse. More likely motor fault, dealer time.

T14086 said:

F42 but as Mal said it wont be the fuse. More likely motor fault, dealer time.

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I had exactly same problem a couple of weeks ago. I soon sussed it was the motor. I did not fancy spending half of my life hanging about for Arnold Clark to diagnose, and then order part, and then fit part. I reckoned it would be easier all round if I bought the part and fitted it myself.
eBay soon came up trumps, £28 including p&p. Fitted in ten minutes.
I found it concerning that the motor packed in after 8,000 miles. However, soon worked out why, gap in poorly fitted lower window trim was allowing water to pour on to the motor.
Fiat build quality, what a frigging joke.
I am off again before the Fiat apologist brigade arrive.

wellfan said:

I am off again before the Fiat apologist brigade arrive.

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lol.......your always welcome here

Thanks,

I will check the fuse (in my handbook F42 is the air con compressor, that is not fitted) but agree blown fuse is unlikely. Will have a look at water ingress too as it is strange for a wiper motor to fail on it's own. Luckily i am unlikely to need the wipers as we are having such a great summer :idea:.

Suppose this serves me right as I was just saying how reliable the Punto had been!

Andy

an intermittent wiper motor doesn't make a car unreliable

T14086 said:

an intermittent wiper motor doesn't make a car unreliable

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......................except when its persisting down on the Motorway!

fiat_freak said:

......................except when its persisting down on the Motorway!

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Rain X

thats stuff really any good? used to sell it many years ago but never used it myself

T14086 said:

an intermittent wiper motor doesn't make a car unreliable

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What does then? In over 20 years of driving all sorts of cars I have never experienced total failure of the windscreen wiper system before. In a car that is only two years old I think this is rather poor. This is a critical system that renders the car unsafe to use. This failure reduces the reliabilty rating of the car in my opinion.

Booked into dealer tomorrow morning so hopefully it will be sorted out under warranty.

IMO the ability to move!

I have seen so many wiper motor failures during my time in the motor trade on all cars so therefore by your logic that makes ALL cars are unreliable!

Ever seen that micra going along with the rear wiper onfor 50 miles down the M6 in non-wet conditions...how long do you think that motor will last? Take apart a wiper motor assembly & count how many things can make that assembly not work or work correctly....loads!

Yes it does make the car unsafe to drive in wet condtions....but so does tyres, steering, suspension....infact hundreds of reasons.

Sure enough dealer diagnosed wiper motor is duff. Surprised me that with such an apparently common fault they don't hold a spare. Anyway this unreliable part will now cause my car to be off the road for 4 days. A car such as a Punto is not roadworthy without functional windscreen wipers. Therefore it cannot be used on the road, therefore it cannot move. Does this qualify it for being unreliable?

andol said:

Surprised me that with such an apparently common fault they don't hold a spare.

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Wouldn't say it was a 'common; fault.

andol said:

Anyway this unreliable part will now cause my car to be off the road for 4 days. A car such as a Punto is not roadworthy without functional windscreen wipers. Therefore it cannot be used on the road, therefore it cannot move. Does this qualify it for being unreliable?

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do yourself a favour and sell the car & buy something reliable like a toyota avensis.........infact hang on! no dont because they are bad for wiper motors failing & you dont want a unreliable car do you?

You could always catch a bus to another Fiat dealer & buy the wiper assembly & fit it yourself like Wellfan (post #6)

There is absolutely no need to be offensive. I think it was you who suggested that wiper motor failure was a common fault. In my own experience I had not come across it before. As for the rest of your rather petulant post, I do not see your point. Fiat offer an excellent warranty for a car at this price, so ignoring it and fixing myself would seem rather stupid. The fact is that the wiper motor on this car has proven to be unreliable. This has caused the car to be unusable therefore causing a failure of the complete car as a mode of transport. This happens with many complex systems and is a fact of life, no matter how undesirable.

T14086 said:

thats stuff really any good? used to sell it many years ago but never used it myself

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It's fantastic stuff! I was away with Mrs 001 and my windscreen wipers packed up. She had some and whacked it on as it was raining like you wouldn't believe all the way home on the motorway. I was able to see perfectly...

Only issue with it was the slower you go, the less effective it is - which does not do you any favours with minimal visibility

Garree001 said:

It's fantastic stuff! I was away with Mrs 001 and my windscreen wipers packed up. She had some and whacked it on as it was raining like you wouldn't believe all the way home on the motorway. I was able to see perfectly...

Only issue with it was the slower you go, the less effective it is - which does not do you any favours with minimal visibility

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The old-fashioned remedy before Rain-X was to wipe the screen over with a cut potato. The starch in the spud has a similar effect. (Maybe Rain-X is purely smashed up King Edwards. There's a thought)

I'm generally too young to remember old fashioned remedies Although driving round with spud juice on my windscreen does not necessarily sound very ap-peel-ing

I am surprised the garage didn't have a wiper motor in stock. When my wipers packed up on the Astra and needed a whole new assembly they had that in stock. It was bloody expensive though