Technical Windscreen Wipers (stopping / parking problems)

[lee gagg]

Hi guys i gotta 2.4 abarth(52 plate)not had it long have seen this post before about wipers stopping in middle of screen and having mind of their own well mines doing this now has anyone had same problem and how did you cure it.Have noticed it goes away when wipers been on for a short while its only happens really when first put wipers on (cold).Cheers.:bang:

 

[Rich]

Re: Wipers Going Silly

Sounds like they are struggling. I think the mechanism was changed to have new grease, one that deals with cold temperatures better. Might need the motor mechanism stripping then regreasing.

Or, I might be going in the wrong direction; does this happen in auto (rain sensing) mode or in continuous wipe?

 

[adamcot]

Windscreen wipers sticking??

Hi! I bought a 02 reg Stilo 1.6 3 door Dynamic two weeks ago. With all of this bad weather were having i have managed to unearth a fault. The front windscreen wipers get stuck randomly on the windscreen. Sometimes, this can be dangerous as it blocks my sight on the road. I have a three month warrantee from the garage i bought it off but id rather not take it back as its not close by. Is there anything I can do to stop them getting in the way?? Otherwise, im a very happy owner of this great car.

 

[Chris@souls]

Re: Windscreen wipers sticking??

sounds like the motor may be at fault!

 

[Deckchair5]

Re: Windscreen wipers sticking??

There's the possibility of a power or earth problem but you can check that out easily with a multimeter. When the wiper stops, check the power in and earth connections at the wiper motor

The grease they use on the wiper commutator tracks is known to cause problems causing loss of contact of the brushes and the wiper stopping randomly. If you want to get your hands mucky then you could take it apart and wipe off the surplus grease, gently clean up the tracks and brushes and off you go


This is a picture of a Punto wiper mechanism but they are almost the same

 

[adamcot]

Re: Windscreen wipers sticking??

Thanks for the fast replys! How easy is it to get to the motor?? I had a look and all I can see is three plugs to get the cover off. Surely theres more to it? Cheers
Adam

 

[Deckchair5]

Re: Windscreen wipers sticking??

Removing the wiper arms from their splines adds to the fun and you are better off obtaining a proper wiper arm removal tool prior to the battle.
Mark the position of the scuttle before removing it


Other than that there these 6 torx screws holding the cover on the motor

 

[Argonought]

Re: Windscreen wipers sticking??

As Decks has said, take careful note of how scuttle is fitted as many have trouble refitting it properly (photo might be good idea).

Removing wiper arms could well be worst of the whole job

 

[adamcot]

Re: Windscreen wipers sticking??

Cheers for all the help guys! I had a go at it this afternoon and ive managed to clean a large amount of grease off. The wipers seem to be moving along nicely now and I agree the wiper arms are the worst bit. Thanks again! Adam

 

[galaia2004]

Re: Wipers Going Silly

Lee,

After searching through the posts I came across your post regarding the Stilo Wipers. I have a friend who (I believe) has the same issue with the wipers.

Like you mention in your post the wipers stop in the middle of the screen and then after a delay continue wiping again. Oddly it appears to be perfectly timed - I forget the exact timings but the wipers will run for say 8 seconds then stop midway on the screen for about 5 seconds.

I am sure they also said that after a while it does go away but I will need to double check this.

Did you manage to get you problem fixed, and if so what did you do/have done to get them working again? The dealer has so far suggested replacing the wiper moters but they will not guarantee that this will fix the problem and we are hoping to get some confidence that this will work before agreeing to having this work done.

Many thanks,

John

 

[Deckchair5]

Re: Wipers Going Silly

Take the cover off the wiper motor and clean off the excess grease from the contact tracks. There's usually so much excess grease in there that the contact strips lose electrical connection and the wiper stops mid stroke.

 

[Jiminspain]

Re: Windscreen wipers sticking??

whats the scuttle

 

[Argonought]

Re: Windscreen wipers sticking??

whats the scuttle

The area the windscreen wiper motor (and sometimes the alarm siren) are located in.

The black plastic cover just in front of the windscreen is what you need to remove (can be a bit tricky)

 

[Deckchair5]

Re: Bizzare windscreen wipers

Here's a Stilo wiper motor.


Remove the 6 star drive screws of the cover


Pull the cover off nice and straight but note and take care of the thin paper gasket there. Just look at the excess grease in here. The electrical contacts hardly stand a chance of making electrical contact. Remove that excess grease to a more acceptable amount

 

[euan]

Re: Windscreen wipers sticking??

I just had my 02 Stilo in the Garage (Arnold Clark) to fix a broken wiper linkage (passenger side wiper was dead). I looked at it to do it my self, but those 3 clips put me off it. They just break when I try to remove them.

Mr Clark says the whole motor assembly needed replacing which i find surprising. 186 quid is the quote. I laughed when they told me that. The only good news is that they cracked my windscreen putting the cover back on. Nice new screen for me I guess.

 

[lifeline]

Re: Windscreen wipers sticking??

i have been meaning to cure this problem since i bought the car, it was embarrassing and driving me mad....cleaning the grease off worked a treat - wipers working perfectly now! Thanks Deckchair and Argonaught!

 

[OzMoSiS]

Re: Windscreen wipers sticking??

ok guys, in some bad rain my wipers decided to stop working, thinking it was a fuse, i checked and it wasnt.

then they started working again, albeit juddering. stopping at times then working when i hit a bump or something, then stopping again then working.........

so i thought ha, loose connection, i had this with the washer pump, so i fumbled around the forum and found this.

did the procedure yesterday but to no avail. nothing happens at all when i switch the wipers on, no sound, no movement, nothing.

i cleaned the contacts and sprayed them with contact cleaner and some conductive grease (lithium), but still, nothing.

if it makes any difference, the rear one works fine.

so do you think my wiper motor is shot?

any other thing i could try decks? :worship: are there other fuses in the line other than the one in the cabin fusebox (F43 i think it was).

thanks

 

[Deckchair5]

Re: Windscreen wipers sticking??

" did the procedure yesterday but to no avail. nothing happens at all when i switch the wipers on, no sound, no movement, nothing.

i cleaned the contacts and sprayed them with contact cleaner and some conductive grease (lithium), but still, nothing".


Do you mean you took this top off the motor and cleaned out the excess grease the same as the guys above?

Just look at all that excess grease in there, no wonder the thing doesn't work when the grease congeals

The fact it's starting and stopping means poor contact (rather than a fuse gone) but just where it is will need you to trace it down. Think I'd start at the wiper motor end and work back if you already have the scuttle off. Check for power and earth at the wiper motor itself. Look in previous posts for wiring diags

If you've put it all back then start at the other end and see if you have power coming out of the switch at the right terminals. Gets complicated though as there are a lot of selections - intermittent- slow -fast speed ect

Does it falter on all settings or just some?

Scroll down a bit and you'll find someone recently had rear wiper working but nothing from the front wiper at all and that required a complete switch change. Just depends where the power or earth supplies stops and goes open circuit

 

[OzMoSiS]

Re: Windscreen wipers sticking??

ok so i completely stripped the thing today, motor and all, and i was rather suprised to find bits of sheared off magnet inside the motor casing, there were very fine filings and slightly larger bits.

anyways, cleaned the lot out, degreased and regreased, thought i'd just plug it in without fitting it properly just to see if theres any life in it, and nothing happened. so got annoyed and put everything back together then started the car to put it back in the garage and lo and behold the wipers worked! (i'd forgotten the stalk on the fastest setting). got excited and tried all different speed settings including the one off 'up' setting and it all worked................. all of 20 seconds that was, after that nothing, tried giving all the bits a shake and the connector, but nothing.

:bang:

 

[Deckchair5]

Re: Windscreen wipers sticking??

Ok You'll need to methodically check through your circuits
Easy stuff first
Does your rear wiper and washers work?
If so then the fuses and supply to the switch are fine


Undo and clean up and check out the earth lines C10 and C11 as the earth for the switch and the front wiper motor go through them


Front wiper circuit diag.
N22 washer pump
N15 front wiper motor



Here's the connector layout for the switch