[jburns3185]

Hi all!

I've been stalking this site for quite some time now. It's an awesome resource to have, and I've gotten some good advice from just reading the posts (stating the obvious). But, my E needs some help, and I don't have the answer! Hopefully someone might recognize the problem. Here goes:

A couple of weeks ago, during one of those crazy Midwestern thundershowers, I got in the E and headed out for the road. All was fine. I turned out of the parking lot began down the street, when I noticed rain was starting to build up on the windshield. I tend to fiddle with the wipers (intermittent complaints...blah) and thought i must have just turned them off without realizing it. But, nope...they'd turned themselves off.

I turned the switch on and off, all the way down to the fast position, and then all the way up to 1 wipe, and nothing. I pulled it to me, and the washer worked, but the wipers wouldn't swipe. I tried the back wiper, and it DID work, but much to my dismay, the front still would not. So, I pulled over, found the fuse panel, and tried to get #20 out (turns out I couldn't with my fingers, but as it turns out, it didn't matter anyway...the fuse is okay). I turned the car on and off a couple of times, and nothing.

After about 15 mins, the rain slowed down, and deciding my best bet was to drive it home and deal with it at a more convenient time (i was in STL for the afternoon), I began down the street once more. After about a mile, i tried the stalk once more, and on they came!

I took the vehicle home, and tried to do some troubleshooting. I got the hose out in the driveway turned the wipers on. Worked perfectly. I looked through the cowl and found what i thought to probably be the wiper motor and found a harness and pushed it toward the motor. There was a little give, but not much.

Flash Forward: We had a system move through that dumped 4 inches of rain in about 2 hrs, and guess what? worked fine for about an hour, and then gave out!

I spoke to Cape Girardeau Honda and a local shop in which I trust, and both of them prefer the wipers be doing nothing (essentially) when it's brought in to locate the problem, else wise it will be very difficult to find. So, then I wait.

Anyone have any ideas as to what I might be able to do in the meantime?

Here's what I've observed:

You can't reproduce the problem until the E's ready

It seems to happen after the circuit is interrupted, like while the interrmittent wipers are on, or when the car has been started to leave after an errand.

They'll start working again after a period of time. 15, 30 mins...

It is a pain in the a##.

Thanks to all that read and offer suggestions. I appreciate it.

 

[in2steam]

If I were to take a guess its either the motor, or a connection. My feeling is that until you have it happen when its dead your dealer will only throw parts at it if the system is working fine. I have had trouble with the internal park switch going bad on other vehicles, if you shut the E off in the right spot near the bottom, that may work. I have also had vehicles that have healed them selves due to lack of use(the vehicle sat for nearly a year), the wiper motor was dirty internally, once it got a good use it started to work just fine. But neither of these was a honda.

Chris

 

[jburns3185]

If I were to take a guess its either the motor, or a connection. My feeling is that until you have it happen when its dead your dealer will only throw parts at it if the system is working fine. I have had trouble with the internal park switch going bad on other vehicles, if you shut the E off in the right spot near the bottom, that may work. I have also had vehicles that have healed them selves due to lack of use(the vehicle sat for nearly a year), the wiper motor was dirty internally, once it got a good use it started to work just fine. But neither of these was a honda.

Chris

Thanks for the reply. As much I figured. I spoke to another mechanic about the issue, and they state the same...it'll be hard to find unless it's doing it at the time. I've thought about driving it around town with the wipers on while I'm out and then running it in to the shop when it happens, but I'd really rather not risk scratching up the window and putting a strain on the motor as a result of trying to wipe a dry windshield.

 

[jburns3185]

found the solution: it was the wiper motor...cost about $115 at a local shop, and they're working fine!