Windshield Wiper Woes

[FinchUsed]

First off, long time no see for some of you. I haven't been here since January and I apologize. I was a little lost for a while.

I've got a slight problem with a windshield wiper. Alright we had a lot of snow and ice come down on us this past week. I thought I'd taken care of most of the ice but apparently some thicker ice built up at the bottoms of the arms (not the blades themselves). I didn't notice and I decided to use some fluid to remove a very thin layer of ice on my glass. They raised and I heard a very loud pop. They both went down and the driver side arm decided after that that it wasn't going to move anymore. It's flimsy now, I can move it easily but it won't under it's own power. Naturally I'd look at it myself but it's dark so I figured I'd ask you guys first and hope I could get some answers or ideas of what to look for tomorrow after classes when I go check it out. Thanks in advance guys!

[Kbrickman]

Sure hope your wiper motor diddn't die on you, expensive fix. Im not all to sure how to go about checking it out, but that's my guess

[shakewell]

It could be your wiper arm - the splines might have stripped out where the bolt holds it on.

It could be your wiper transmission - that's the rods that move around under the windshield cowl that turn the wiper arms back and forth. If that broke you might need to use the credit card.

You can try to take off the wiper arm. You flip the cap up at the end of the wiper arm and unbolt the nut. *caution* I've seen a few people break their windshield doing the next step - You need to pull the wiper arm off of the splined shaft. There are tools you can buy to do this relatively easily, but you can also try using a flat blade screwdriver or similar. Assuming you get it removed - If the splines are stripped on the wiper arm you will need a new one. Then try turning on the wipers - if the shaft spins back and forth you probably only need the arm. If not you'll need to remove the plastic cowl and check if the wiper transmission is broken.


Hope that helps.

[FinchUsed]

Alright, thanks a bunch. I'll see if I can't make sense of this. I really hope it's just the arm and not the tranny or motor. My wallet isn't too deep with the whole college thing plus the holidays. You wouldn't believe the price of photography paper!