windshield wiper motor

[anelder1]

I have a 90 Olds Silhouette, and every once in a while the wipers just decide not to work, go out about 20 minutes later, and they work again.

Does anybody have any ideas what this could be? I just don't want to plunk down $100 on a rebuilt one (ya, i called, thats how much they are) if the problem may be something else or an "easy" fix.

Thanks a lot.

[merc81]

My 92 transport did the same thing years back. I removed the wiper motor, pulled out the circuit board inside it and had a look. It appeared to me the board was not well soldered--some parts seemed to be loose. I say seemed because its not like anything was falling out, but I've seen lots of circuit boards and this one just didn't appear to be soldered well.

I had a go at touching up each connection on the board with my soldering iron and the problem went away when I put it back in the car. That was over 100,000 miles ago and I've had no trouble at all since that time. YMMV, but its worth a try.

[capescw]

For what it's worth - I had a similar problem on a '95 Transport (intermittent), replaced motor AND control switches, SAME results. Inside the motor, there are a pair of wipers contacting a rotor plate. Believe it or not, there was a bad contact between the arms and the wiper buttons on the end. Soldered both and problems went away (worked on both motors). Good luck !