86' Cutlass Supreme Wipers Won't Shut Off!

[PharaohVII]

Greetings forums! First time poster.

I'm coming to you because I made the fatal mistake of trusting my roommate to drive two blocks to Wal-Mart yesterday. Upon entering and firing up the car this morning, I noticed my wipers were going (on low) but the switch was set to "OFF". I played with it (while driving) on my 45 minute drive to work trying to twist/turn/shift it to stop going with no luck.

After 45minutes my Check Battery light had come on, something I've never seen before while driving. Also the temperature light came on, forcing me to pull off because my car is now overheating >=(

Are both symptoms connected to the broken wipers? Or is it just bad timing all together?

Thanks in advance for any help I receive!

-P7

[snshddog]

Sounds like a bad ground to me. Try looking at the ground on the back of the head on the passenger side. A quick test would be clip one side of a booster cable to the metal case on the wiper motor mount and the other side to the battery negative. This will confirm it is a ground problem or not.

[PharaohVII]

Originally Posted by snshddog

Sounds like a bad ground to me. Try looking at the ground on the back of the head on the passenger side. A quick test would be clip one side of a booster cable to the metal case on the wiper motor mount and the other side to the battery negative. This will confirm it is a ground problem or not.

Forgive my ignorance, I'm a 23yr old living on my own in Las Vegas and I know NOTHING about cars:P What exactly is the "ground"?

Sadly I wasn't able to make it home in my car, I took the fuse out to stop the wipers from going which solved the battery/charge light from coming on. But now the Oil/Choke light comes on immediately after firing the car up. Not only that, but now I can maybe make it 3 blocks before my car is bubbling and spewing coolant out. (

Did I mess something up with the fuses?

My uneducated guess is my roommate severed a wire or something causing wires to touch and drain my battery, I don't know how the overheating plays into all this but I'd love some help so I can go get my car that's currently posted at a Wal-Mart Super Center


Thanks again

-P7

[snshddog]

This might be tricky if you don't know that much about cars. Negative terminal on the battery is the ground. As for the overheating it might be a coincidence being the same time.

[Ralph123]

I would say your wipers is the least of your problems.

Is your belt attached to the water pump pulley?

[PharaohVII]

Originally Posted by Ralph123

I would say your wipers is the least of your problems.

Is your belt attached to the water pump pulley?

Sadly I have no idea, I'm not car savvy in the least. I know a little about radiators only because every car I've ever owned has overheated on me

I just got an oil change and the coolant levels are fine as well.

I've researched similar cases where people's automatic choke/oil light will force the car to overheat to warn you something is wrong.

-P7