1997 Altima Windshield Wiper PROBLEM

[Rascal37]

My wipers were working great this past week, considering I used them non-stop since we had a good amount of heavy snow fall. But one morning after a night of light snow fall, I turned on my wipers and after about 3 passes, the drivers side wiper just stopped, while the other kept going. I took off the wiper arm, and saw this brass-looking post the arm attaches to. It didn't move when I turned my wipers on. So the I tried to find a way to look further, but gave up since I couldn't figure out a way to gain any further access other than taking the driver side wiper arm off..

*How can I trouble shoot this?
*How can I gain access to the wiper motors?
*Anyone have any ideas on what could have happened & what I
need to do to get it working again?


Thanks for any and all you help!

GO EAGLES!!!

[IH8SPM]

I had a similar problem on my 01. It turned out to be the the little plastic snap on ring on the wiper inner arm which attaches to the motor. You have to remove the black grill cover from where the wipers are mounted to access it. It is only a few screws and some push in pins made of easy to break plastic. You can find the part in the HELP section at any autoparts store for about 8 bucks if this is your problem. If its the motor or linkgage go on ebay they have some for sale last I checked this afternoon.

[Rascal37]

I did that last night and found that the motor is on the far passenger side under that black cowl. I saw that the driver side washer arm is attached to the passenger side arm, but in my case it's not attached and the arm came off, now causing it to not work.

I saw this rubber ring that goes between the arm and this little "nub" that's part of the pass. side washer post. The end of the driver side arm has this rounded dent in it and seems the nub is supposed to be pushed & snapped into that. Well I greased it up and tried to push it together, but couldn't get enough pressure to snap it in place. This is probably due to me trying to do it without taking the motor and pass side post off and working on it off car and then replacing it.

So, I'm gonna go out to day and take it out and try to snap it in place. I'll let you know how it work.

By the way, YES, they are very easy to break snaps>>>>

[xaltima]

i had this problem too from snow as well last year. its just where it attaches by that plastic snap deal. the plastic actually broke on mine. You cant by just the plastic peice anymore. I went to the dealer to get a new whole complete arm assy and it was only $10 for the whole thing. great price, thanks Nissan!
a new one is better than a junk yard one at that price and they are fairly common things that people replace lately. you do have to remove that whole black cover peice that covers the wiper motor and arms. ITs easy though. pull the rubber peice off first then unscrew the couple of bolst that hold the black plastic cover and there you go plenty of room to work.