Passanger windshield wiper doesn't move

[jcattau]

Hey folks,

We had a freezing rain and then snow overnight. As I was out scraping my car this morning, I turned on the wiper (probably shouldn't have) and the drivers side moved all the way but the passenger only moved a little. Then after I got everything cleared off (no ice or snow on or around the wiper) it still doesn't work. Does anyone know the problem? The little plastic flap that covers the bolt fell off somehow, I don't know if that would have anything to do with it.

[kvn4]

check the nut holding the wiper they sometimes loosen.

[viggy58]

the arms are pretty cheap at autozone and they come with the bolt cover. less than $20. i just replaced mine because of the same thing.. over time they can strip out. if the bolt is already tight (it's a 13mm btw) it has probably stripped. If you're feeling cheap, the generic fix is to clean the threads, slam some blue loctite on there, and see if it'll grip.

a quick check... take the arm off, turn the wipers on. if you see the shaft turn, the arm has stripped out.

[PaulVT]

Thanks for this post and the proposed solution. I have a similar problem on my 2000 S10 pickup but on the driver side. The problem started awhile back (1 year) where after heavy snow/ice the wiper would not go completely down but it still worked. Recently I found the driver side wiper blade stuck under the right blade arm. Then the driver wiper would not move at all. The other ones has been fine. Seems like the arm is stripped as suggested. I'll give that a shot. Thanks again!