Intm. Windshield Wipers. [Expired Topic]

**udderchaos** · 09-02-2006, 10:11 PM

My 98 has a problem with the delayed /intermitent(sp) wipers. After the wipers have been on for a while (20 + minutes), the motor seems to get "lost". It stops the wipers all over the windshield, except at the bottom. They were even stopping all the way up...... After I shut the wipers off, and wait a couple of minutes, they do ok, for a while. If I leave them on slow speed, no delay, they're fine... Is the wiper motor going bad..?? Some electrical glitch...??? How expensive is it to fix.???

**nemopoppins** · 09-03-2006, 12:09 AM

I don't know if this is the same problem but I had trouble with my 99 Suburban intermittant wipers. They would sometimes not be intermittant, sometimes stop, but most of the time they wouldn't turn off until I turned the car off. That was a real pain because it hardly ever just rains here. So, when there was some rain, I would be reluctant to put on my wipers for fear that when it dried in a few minutes I wouldn't be able to turn them off and they would keep scraping until I pulled over.

Anyway, there's some sort of control box mounted just at the back of the engine compartment on the firewall. I got a replacement part from the dealer (not expensive, I believe it was around $30). He told me they sell lots of them. I replaced the old part and that did it. I'm sorry this is not very technical, but maybe someone more knowledgeable can add to this.

**Steve** · 09-03-2006, 05:40 PM

I have only heard of this being a known issue on certain late 90's Ford, not GMC products. Do you have one of the new "rain sense" sensor systems?

**udderchaos** · 09-04-2006, 09:21 PM

I don't have the rain sensor, that I know of. I've never had a Chevy do this either. It doesn't really cause any harm, but man...it annoys the dickens out of me. They shut off when I turn them off. They even have the same speed interval that they are set on. They just stop at various stages of the wipe cycle.... It has a wiper motor from NAPA.....could have been a problem for the previous owner.??? Is the motor what tells tells the wipers how far to go, or is there something else that tells the motor how far to go.?? I hope this makes sense, because, I don't know how else to explain it.......

**Steve** · 09-05-2006, 12:38 PM

Well, it sounds like a short somewhere in the control unit, not the motor. If it were the motor, it would eventually burt itself out I would think, or it would NOT run when you want it to ... not speed up or whatever.

I have seen the wiper-control unit go bad and cause wipers to come on and off at will something...again, this was in a Ford truck though.

I'm looking a bit, don't see anything on it. I work with a woman who's husband is a GM vendor, he's at the Arlington plant all the time, I'll ask him when I see him.

**udderchaos** · 09-06-2006, 09:34 AM

Is the wiper control unit in the column.??? Is it easy to replace..???? It rained on me last night, and the wipers did fine on slow speed. No intermttent wiper action. I just used the "mist" part, when it was barely raining.....

**crappieaeg** · 09-06-2006, 03:10 PM

I had the same thing happen with mine, it is like nemopoppins said, $30.00
part and they called it a wiper motor modulator. I was having auto start
put into my 98 Suburban, so just had the dealer do it.

Hope this helps :? crappieaeg!

**84fiero123** · 09-06-2006, 11:07 PM

Check and make sure this problem was not a recall. There was a reacall on certain years, just don't remember what years.

http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/pr...callsearch.cfm

**udderchaos** · 09-07-2006, 07:20 PM

I didn't see it on there... But, I saw a couple of other things...does that stuff mean a recall or just what to look for when repairing the stuff listed..???? I SHOULD know this....

I looked at the service bulletins...