Wiper speed controls

[98olds]

The windshield wipers on my 98 Silhouette operate only at high speed - none of the others work, low, intermittent or the timed washer circuit. Turning the dial on the stalk does nothing except all the way at the high position. It seemed to have happened after they froze in place on the windshield and were switched on for about 10 seconds. When nothing happened, the switch was turned off. Thought it was a fuse for the speed control or something related - couldn't find anything.

Thank you for any help

George

[UHRIG]

I'M GLAD TO SEE THAT I AM NOT THE ONLY PERSON WITH WEIRD WIPERS THAT RUN ON HIGH ONLY. MINE IS A 96 OLDSMOBILE SILHOUETTE. DID YOU HAVE ANY LUCK GETTING YOURS FIXED? ANY HELP WOULD BE APPRECIATED.

[Donald Duck]

Ah the infamous wiper problems.

If you search a broader GM vehicle spectrum you'll find that there may be a recall on the PC board in the Wiper motor for the years around your vehicle's manuf. date.

But you WON'T find it valid for YOUR car!!! Despite the fact that you can take the PC board out of the wiper motor and find EXACTLY the same weak/cracked soilder joints at the connector for which the recall was introduced.

This is another one of GM's wonderful displays of concern for you the customer. The National Transportation and Highway Safety folk made em do a recall...but would you expect them to do a good job looking up ALL the possible vehicles affected? Nope, the fewer the better.

I took mine in to the dealer WITH a magnifying glass...I said, look...this is exactly why other models and model years have been recalled. Did he call GM and say, hey boys we need to extend the recall models/years. NOPE.

When I asked the dealer about his discretionary GM funds for stuff like this... he had the balls to say...well, if you had bought this vehicle from us I might have considered that.

Bottom line, you need to do some part replacement work. The pulling of the motor is simple. The parts store will have the PC board replacement if you don't want to try to resolder the cracked connection solders yourself, they knew what I had in my hand the second I walked in the door (doesn't that tell you something about how widespread this issue is).

I recently replaced the whole whiper motor unit, PC board and all....but I'd start with the PC board depending on your symptom. It seems there are a couple of things that can go wrong with the whiper system besides that PC board.

In particular the way the contacts, cam lobe, and "reset point"
align up in use. In the case of the PC board connection being bad you'll find your wipers just freeze and not work. In the case of the contacts issue (which forced my replacement of the whole unit) the symptom was random one speed operation and an inability to turn the damnnnn things off.

Sorry for the wandering reply. Let me make it simple. Go buy a rebuilt wiper motor.

[stomana]

problem is a ground skru on senter the wiper box battom

[TexasGuy]

Just done a same thing on my Lumina APV '95. Motor would quit working on bumps and then after another bump would start again. When I disassembled the motor there were like 6-7 connection solder cracks. Took me some time to solder them all again, I don't have much experience. Now it works like new.

[stomana]

the problem is a smolest ground bolt on the midle side under the wiper motor box.