Wipers Stop Working Intermittently

[Robin_M]

I did a search, but could not find this exact problem. So I am hoping someone has seen this before and has a suggestion for a fix.

The wipers on my 2007 Diplomat have started working intermittently. They will simply stop working during a rain storm, and then start up again several minutes later. (Very scary ) Sometimes they will not turn on at all when I need them, but the next day they work normally. When this happens I've tried pushing each of the wiper buttons on the smart wheel and nothing makes them move.

I've checked for loose or corroded wires near the wiper motor but can't find any. I had the recall done about 5 years ago when the wiper system was upgraded to the beefier version and it has worked well ever since then, until recently.

Has anyone else experienced this behavior and resolved it? Or, can anyone suggest where to look for the problem?

[Robi.1014]

The electric bay (road side near the driver's seat) contains logic circuits, fuses and relays. Relays are used to take a small-amperage signal voltage and close the relay contacts so that a higher-amperage circuit can be switched (headlights, turn signals, and all kinds of other stuff). The cover on the electrical panel usually indicates which fuses and which relays perform what function. Clearly, if you had a blown fuse, the wipers would never work. I'd take a look at the relay contacts. Replace the relay is step #2.

[Mekanic]

wipers are wired though automatic resetting circuit breakers form the factory.
That why they come back on. I'd say you either need a new motor of have a small short causing the breaker to trip

[Happycarz]

Call these folks and see if they can walk you though the troubleshooting. http://www.vipwheels.com/welcome

[336muffin]

Check the ground on the motor.

[Dutch Star Don]

I had a similar issue. On my 2005, they would run for a few minutes and shut off. They wouldn't restart unless the coach was shut off and restarted. Since we only used them about 5 times in 5 years, it was never a priority to fix.

One thing I did realize was that when you turn on your wipers, it turns your headlights on (a function of the SmartWheel). I believed there was a weak circuit breaker or wrong sized circuit breaker causing an issue.

I figured that too much of a power draw was causing the circuit breaker to reset, but didn't do this when new. My poor man's fix was to lube the daylights out of the arms and connections above the generator and to manually turn the lights on/off at the light switch which turned the headlights off after they were turned on by the wipers being switched on.

Well.....after lubing the heck out of the arms and joints above the generator, I never had another issue. Drove through hours of rain last year and they worked perfectly. I think the joints and pivot points get dry and cause the system to labor.

[Robin_M]

All good answers and all are things I can pursue to try and resolve this issue. Thanks much, guys.

[Robin_M]

I believe I may have fixed them. (Won't know for sure until I drive in the rain some more.) If so, Dale Robi's solution turned out to be the answer. In the front run bay there is a relay bolted to the right side compartment wall that turns on the headlights when the wipers are on. The base socket to the relay seemed to be a bit loose. I tightened that up after which the wipers seem to work normally again. Thanks Dale.

The relay is bolted to the compartment wall with the socket and the attached wires hanging down. After a few years of vibrations, it's easy to imagine that plug becoming loose due to gravity. A loose connection could result in increased resistance which may be the reason the system would fail and then reset. The fix, of course, is to use a plastic wire tie to insure the base remains tightly joined to the relay.

Thanks to Dutch Star Don, my wiper linkage also received a good lube job.