taking my troubles on the road

I'm bringing my 2001 sable troubles to this forum because I've had zero response in the mercury forum so bear with me.

1.) The intermittent wipers don't work, wipers work fine on lo and hi, but if I don't turn them off at the right time in the cycle they just stop where they are and don't return to rest position. When in Intermiitent mode they start up, stop, and sit there for a while before cycling again if at all. sometimes it's several minutes. UpDATE:I found the TSB and recall for the wiper motor gear cover but merc says my car (built 9/00) is a month too late to qualify for it. However, the symptoms are EXACTLY as they describe. So I may be buying a new wiper motor.

2.) The cruise control buttons have stopped working. Earlier this spring the cruise worked once in a while but would shut off suddenly. I tried spraying with contact cleaner behind the buttons, now it won't come on at all. I checked the self diagnositcs and when I turn on the key while holding down the off button the cruise light flashes once when I push on or off buttons but won't respond when I push any buttons on the other side of the wheel. I had it in the shop for the brake switch recall. Before that the cruise worked but would shut off when I hit a bump. after the recall repair it won't work at all. The dealer in unsympathetic to my plight.

3.) Idle is erratic at times. a/c seems to make no idfference to this problem. it'll idle fine then drop to around 500 then surge back up to 1k then settle for a while and repeat over and over. Sometime it doesn't do this at all. very confusing.


I've searched the forums here and not found anything that really addresses my issues.

Ideas?

well as far as the wipers go, i have the same problem with my 93 taurus GL wagon (and i'm guessing we probably have the same wiper motor), i havent played with it much, but my theories to date stand at:

1) wiper motor isnt getting enough power on the intermittant settings

2) the relay is screwed

3) the switch might be screwed

but that's just some ideas i've had i thought you could make use of, if you figure anything out, please let me know, even though i typically only use the low or high settings (when it rains here, it RAINS so intermittant isnt much good) but it'd be nice to fix

Cruise control has a switch on the brake, and clutch if stick, pedals to disengage it when pressed so the engine doesn't fight the braking or rev when trying to shift. My 89 SHO would lose the cruise control when going over bumps because the switch on the clutch pedal had moved from the years of releasing it. So when the pedal was in the normal up position, the switch just barely made contact. Any bump that would move the pedal, or the switch since it was a little loose, would kill the cruise.

well, I took the wipers apart and cleaned all the contacts, they work fine now. The Cruise control appears to be a deactivation switch issue. It passes self diagnostics, but then gives me the trouble code flash for that switch. It's only like $30 so I'll put in a new one and hope that does it. The idle seems fine...maybe it was a fuel issue. Love my car again.