2RotorsNaDream

iTrader: (7)

OK one day I'm going to Philadelphia and my wipers decide to die on me in the middle of a storm. They wouldn't work when I wanted them to but they would work at random out of nowhere for about 10 seconds. Stopped the car in Philly and found the fuse had burnt out. It didn't make sense to me that the wipers would still randomly work but I changed out the fuse and the wipers worked again.

A few days later the fuse is blown again and the wipers work whenever they feel like it. So now I think I have a short somewhere. I take the fuse out completely and decide I'll look for the problem later on. Driving three days ago and all of a sudden the wipers start running continuously and will not stop running. Theres no fuse in the fuseblock which is crazy and even when I turned the car off the wipers keep working. I disconnected the battery for a few hours to see if the wipers would stop. A few hours later I connected the battery again and the wipers were off.

Now I went to the car yesterday and found that the battery is dead. The A/C light is lit up all the time, even when the car is off and something is killing the battery. I hate electrical problems so much.

I'm thinking that theres a short somewhere in the wiper circuit but I want a second opinion. The only way I think that the wipers would be on even when the car is off is if the short is before the 20A fuse in the circuit. Where do you guys think it can be at??

scotty305

iTrader: (2)

If you've got a multimeter, can you unplug the wiper motor connector and measure the voltage at each of the pins? Set the multimeter to DC Volts mode (0-20V scale if your meter requires you to choose a scale for DC Volts), then measure the pin with the red probe while connecting the black probe to a clean bolt on the chassis.

From your description, it sounds like the Blue w/ Black stripe and Blue w/ White stripe wires are the ones you should check. Be very careful not to short two pins together with the multimeter probe.


With the wiper switch in the off position, both wires should measure 0V.
With the wiper switch in the 'low speed' position, the Blue/white wire should measure 12V.
With the wiper switch in the 'high speed' position, the Blue/black wire should measure 12V.


If you are measuring +12V on either wire when the wiper switch is in the off position, try removing the 20A Wiper fuse and measure each wire again. With the fuse removed, neither of the wires should have +12V.

If those wires still have power with the Wiper fuse removed, I'd try disconnecting any aftermarket electronics in the car, especially anything that has been added recently. Another thing that could help narrow it down is to remove other fuses in the car one-by-one until you no longer see +12V on those wires.


Good luck, electrical problems aren't easy to diagnose in person... even tougher to diagnose via the internet.

2RotorsNaDream

iTrader: (7)

I'm gonna go check that out now, I just gotta push the car out of the driveway and jump it. I'll reply back in a few.

2RotorsNaDream

iTrader: (7)

OK I went and measured the voltage at the wiper motor.

With the fuse in, the wipers measured 12.2V as they should.

With the fuse disconnected the wipers both measured 11.1V which is crazy. Why would these wipers still have power without a fuse??

Also, I have not added anything new to the car recently. These problems just sprung up from nowhere.

2RotorsNaDream

iTrader: (7)

I'm thinking maybe the combination switch is bad?? But how would that allow the wipers to work by themselves without a fuse?

scotty305

iTrader: (2)

Are both the blue/white and blue/black getting power when the switch is off? Those wires should only be receiving power when the switch is in the 'low' or 'high' position.


I don't think a problem with the combination switch should allow the wipers to get power without the 20A wiper fuse connected. I suspect a problem with the wiring or fusebox. Try disconnecting the battery, then remove the 20A wiper fuse and use the 'continuity' mode of the multimeter to check for continuity between the two contacts the 20A wiper fuse connects to.