2000 Sonata - Wipers gone after snowstorm, instantly blows fuses

If your wipers aren't in the park position, it's possible there's ice in the linkage preventing it from moving. You'll need to remove the windshield cowl to check this.

If there's no ice, or clearing it doesn't resolve the problem, and you have no other obstructions, unplug the wiper motor and try again. If the fuse no longer blows (key on), you'll need a new wiper motor.

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hyundaitech,

Thanks for your response. Didn't get a chance to look at it last night but I went out today and took a look.

Checked for obstructions/ice - nothing, put in a new fuse again (in case any ice from yesterday had just melted) and it blew instantly.

So I took the whole assembly out of the car and put 13.8V right to the Red + Black wires on the motor (from a bench power supply) and the thing spun fine. No problem, no sign of overload on my power supply, just spun freely. Tested again with the linkage in place and still ran fine.

Figured "great, it was just jammed and it must've cleared out", put it back in the car (just sitting on the engine, plugged into the harness), and it blew again.

Just for kicks I put a multimeter to it and found out every wire shorts out with every wire in the harness - between 0.0 and 0.7 ohms across any two points. I'm not sure how it's wired up, I only saw the three wires going into the motor (Red, Black, Blue), the bridge, and the 2 or 3 other wires that went inside the assembly. I tested them at the bridge. Unfortunatly I don't have any idea how the resistance is supposed to be, if this has something to do with the windings in the motor, or if it is a sure-fire sign that something is wrong (either with the motor or my electronic abilities :))

So long-story short, I'm confused. I can't quite figure out why it'll work fine on a bench but blow fuses instantly in the car. Any insight?

Thanks again,

Fred

Fred -

Just curious did you put a fuse in without the motor plugged in and turn the key on? If you did and the fuse didn't blow then you might safely assume it is the motor. If the fuse did blow then you have a short in your wiring.

el snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote:

jp,

I did check it with the motor assembly unplugged from the car and the fuse didn't blow. Thanks for pointing that out, I had forgotten to mention it.

Like I said this started during a snow-storm the other day. The wipers were running just fine, but there was a good amount of build-up under them. After about 2 hours driving in the snow, it just suddenly died two minutes from home and I haven't been able to get them to go since.

I'm really looking forward to going to Boston tomorrow, and on the verge of just going to radioshack and buying a SPST switch and a fuse and just running a VERY mickey-mouse setup to get it running through then.

Fred

You may want to save that for Monday if the weather reports are correct.

Here's my theory: your wiper arms are misplaced and causing the motor to overload.

Remove the nuts holding the wiper arms on the shafts where they come through the cowl and try a new fuse. If the fuse blows, then something is wrong with your wiper linkages under the cowl. If the fuse doesn't blow, turn the switch off to let the motor "park", and then re-attach the wiper arms in the correct "parked" position.

PB

I had the same problem with my 05 Accent last year and it was due to the linkage under the cowl being iced up and frozen. I had to pull it in a heated garage and thaw it out. After it was thawed, I sprawed the whole thing with silicone spray several times to coat it fully. After that they worked fine and it hasn't done it again yet. Bill

What is this "bridge" you mention??

Take a peek at the diagram up on HMASERVICE.COM, once you sign up go to "Service Information", give them the model year, and engine data, then open up ETM -> Body Electrical System->Electronic Time & Alarm Control System (ETACS)->ETACS . . .Schematic The schematic for the wiper section is the very 1st page at the top. Do note that most of the 'control' of the wiper motor is via switching the 'ground' (negative) side of things. Pretty much as long as the ignition switch is ON, the wiper motor has positive applied to it (if the fuse don't blow). In fact, once "parked" and the wipers OFF, positive voltage is applied to both the 'hot' side and the "Lo" side of the motor.