General Wiper failure

Jippie · Nov 27, 2003

Hi, I'm from the Netherlands and it's pouring rain down here!!

I have a problem.

The front wiper has a failure. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. Because it is not "broken" i'm not able to check the problem.
The fuse is ok. The motor and relais i haven't checked. (where is the relais anyway?????)

Is this a well know problem? Please give me tips where to start...

Thank you very much for helping me out during this terrible weather

John H · Nov 27, 2003

The failure I had, which was like yours - sometimes OK, sometimes nothing - was in the wiper motor electronics. (on the back of the motor)

Try something first though - when it won't go, bash the dashboard area with your fist[:0]
Doing that would make mine work again, for a while..

Write here again, either way, and I'll let you know how I fixed it - or give more details about the relay.

Regards

John H

Jippie · Nov 27, 2003

Thanx John for you reply.

My girlfriend drives this Panda and smashed the dash in half! No, just kidding. She doesn't like to drive with the idea that her wipers may drop out. She tried bashing it and wigle the switch hard, but without any progress. The last time she just stoped aside the road waiting for a while till they worked again, or until the rain stoped...

- was in the wiper motor electronics. (on the back of the motor

Please inform me with some sollution. I want to repair something so I can give her more trust in Bugs. (that how she calls her Panda)

John H · Nov 27, 2003

OK

If you have the problem I had -
the wiper motor is hidden behind some sound deadening material under the bonnet on the gearbox side.
It is mostly held on by the "piping" at the top edge, but I think there is a small screw as well, near the heater matrix box.

On the back of the motor is a module* which has two sets of electrical leads into it, with a clip on cover.

Unclip the back of the module to show the back of the circuit board.
Then look at the track which goes to the 2 pin connector - one is common to one of the 3 pin connecor leads, the other one goes a short distance into the board and becomes a fairly large piece of track where the part of the self parking relay is soldered.
That joint was "dry" (poorly soldered) and needed resoldering.

It all clipped back together OK.

I took the motor off to work on mine.. I'm not sure if there's enough room and visiblity to do the job in-situ.

If that isn't the problem you can measure the voltage going out to the motor, and coming in from the car:

The 2 pin connecor is to the motor.
The 3 pin connector has 1 wire from the intermittant wipe relay, 1 wire always +12 feed (for the self parking to work when you switch the wiper off) and an earth wire.

Regards

John H

*this module provides the self parking

Jippie · Nov 27, 2003

thx John, I'll try this next saturday! Keep u informed

[8]

cmpauline · Nov 30, 2003

Originally posted by Jippie
Hi, I'm from the Netherlands and it's pouring rain down here!!

I have a problem. The front wiper has a failure. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. Because it is not "broken" i'm not able to check the problem.
The fuse is ok. The motor and relais i haven't checked. (where is the relais anyway?????)

Is this a well know problem? Please give me tips where to start...

Thank you very much for helping me out during this terrible weather

cmpauline · Nov 30, 2003

Hi ..I too have a Panda with dodgy wipers, I found with mine that maybe 7 times out of 10 if i switch the rear wash/wipe ON then OFF the front ones start working again and if that fails I have to stop and turn the ignition ON then OFF..crazy I know but it works !!!! I also find with mine that as long as I keep the wipers on 'continuous' as opposed to intermittent they seem ( she says looking for wood to touch...) ok.
Just a note as well .... i followed ANOTHER pink panda on my way home from work last week ( i was'nt driving my panda that day ..) I can't wait for the day that we manage to form a CONVOY ..( can you have a convoy of 2 ???) I've also just got back from 5 days over in Yorkshire, and while i was there I spotted a Pink Panda alive and well in Scarborough.
POWER TO THE PANDAS !!!!! ;-))
bfn Pauline x

Pete · Nov 30, 2003

Hello CMPauline.

There is an immaculate Pink Panda in the West Midlands and there is one at Dunster nr Minehead, Somerset. There were only 250 imported into the UK of which 5 came to Somerset. One was sold recently at Reading and there is/was one somewhere in Devon.

I have been told that there is/was, a Pink Panda Selecta somewhere in the London area, can anyone offer any confirmation on this please?

It would be interesting to establish just how many of this original Limited Edition are still in circulation.

Rgds. Pete.

John H · Nov 30, 2003

Originally posted by cmpauline
Hi ..I too have a Panda with dodgy wipers, I found with mine that maybe 7 times out of 10 if i switch the rear wash/wipe ON then OFF the front ones start working again and if that fails I have to stop and turn the ignition ON then OFF..crazy I know but it works !!!! I also find with mine that as long as I keep the wipers on 'continuous' as opposed to intermittent they seem ( she says looking for wood to touch...) ok.

I don't know if it's a stock fault, but the symptom you have pretty much match the way mine used to be. I progressed from pressing the rear wiper button to thumping the dashboard, as it got worse

I discovered the bad connection mentioned above by having the wiper motor unbolted from the framework, and running with the back cover off the electronics, and prodding about with a voltmeter.
(The motor was resting on that level flat bit where the spare wheel sits, twitching about

)

I'm not surprised it was a bad joint:
the connection is to the metal body of the self parking relay, which is quite heavy guage metal, and I doubt you'd get enough heat into it with a dip solder bath during the manufacture to get a good soldered joint.

Obviously there may be something else wrong with yours, and Jippies too, but it's something to consider.

Probably the easiest fix, if you're not handy with a soldering iron, would be a wiper from a scapped Panda[:0]

Regards

John H

PandaManPaul · Dec 2, 2003

Originally posted by Pete
There is an immaculate Pink Panda in the West Midlands and there is one at Dunster nr Minehead, Somerset. There were only 250 imported into the UK of which 5 came to Somerset. One was sold recently at Reading and there is/was one somewhere in Devon.

I have been told that there is/was, a Pink Panda Selecta somewhere in the London area, can anyone offer any confirmation on this please?

It would be interesting to establish just how many of this original Limited Edition are still in circulation.

Rgds. Pete.

There was one on E-bay recently, based near Reading.

Incidentally, how do you know that only 250 were imported to the UK?

John H · Dec 5, 2003

Agreed about a nice one in the West Midlands:

I saw one in the Centre of Birmingham last night

really clean - nice chunky 4 spoke alloy wheels
and a "Pink Panther" graphic on the back too.

"J" plate, 1000 FIRE badging on the hatch.

<font size="6"><font color="pink">Incredibly Pink</font id="pink"></font id="size6">

I'm not sure I could cope with it in the morning[

)]

Or any hints at sexual preferences either.
nudge nudge,

, say no more.

Enzo · Dec 5, 2003

Your name must be "Capitan Courageous" to drive that Panda

John H · Dec 6, 2003

Originally posted by Enzo
Your name must be "Capitan Courageous" to drive that Panda

Not me.

My Panda is white[8D]

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