99 Ford Taurus Wipers wont work

I have a 99 Taurus and my wipers will not turn on. It happened about a month ago they just stopped working one night. Then without touching anything they worked the next day so I just forgot about it. After a month at least of working they stopped again. I tried turning the car off and back on and after a few times they would work, and stop again right away. They have not worked since. I found out the motor works fine but jumping wires to the motor. I have 5 wires going to the motor and 1 of them has a constant voltage. And when I cross it with another wire the wipers turn on. Once they are on the switch somewhat works, it will recognize when it’s in delay mode and lo, but will not go into high. I also noticed when I click it into hi the relay under the hood switches, but nothing happens. Obviously I checked the fuses and it isn’t them. Does anyone know what it could be?

Well if the wipers work when they are jumped, and the fuses are good, that leads me to beleive that it would be the multifunction switch in the steering column. I replaced the one in my dads 97 taurus. We ordered ours from NAPA. Its not too hard to replace. We pulled the steerimg wheel, and removed the side covers. took about an hour.

I replaced the switch in the steering colum just the other day, it did not help.

The multifunction switch is connected to the Generic Electronic Module (GEM) and the GEM actually controls the wiper motor. It sounds like you are not afraid to work with electrical systems, so if you would like the wiring diagram for the wiper system of a 1998 Taurus (which should be very similar to your 1999), private message me with an e-mail address than can accept PDF attachments.

-Rod

I am having the exact same problem with my 1998 Taurus. The wipers will work fine sometimes and will fail others. They will also stop at any point on the windshield, they do not park at the bottom. I have also had them stay on with no way of turning them off.

I have also been having problems with other electrical components, windows, dash lights, stereo, etc..

I have kinda given up and resigned myself to accept these problems as the typical Taurus electrical bugs since my car has 220,000 KM's.

I have checked the ususal suspects, fuses, battery terminal, etc..

This problem is definitely baffling :banghead:

Not sure if this is helpful or not, but I'll shoot anyway, I'm talking about my '91, but I imagine the design is still pretty much the same in the '98.

I had a similar issue with my '91. First the wipers wouldn't park. Turned out the motor went bad, but that's obviously not the case here.

Traced it to the control module. In my '91 its under the dash, behine the middle console near the floor. The module had a part number on it with a paper label. I suggest calling the dealer, finding the part number, or however you can get the part number, and start crawling around with a flashlight, searching for the control unit. Found mine this way. Unfortunately dealer only, not cheap, but once it was replaced, all was well. Stalk, motor, and control module are all new in my old thing.

Hope this is of some help.

Just FYI. I checked the catalog for a wiper governor but unfortunately your Taurus doesn't have one. As shorod said the wipers are controlled by the GEM and it is a bit pricey. Just over 300 from the dealer. If that turns out to be the problem you may want to go boneyard hunting on this one. MM.