funky windsheid wiper motor on '97

A friend of mine has this problem, of his wipers comin' on at any random time.. When It occurred (at a car wash,) since then they come on at anytime. Maybe a light tap of the motor ? Anybody in the group have come across this situation before ? Is there any fix for this...Now he's unpluggin' things so they won't come on. Not a good thing !!

Reply to
odyssey
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Sounds like that car has "Rainsense"--detects water drops on the windscreen & cycles wipers until drops are gone. For 1997 I thought it was offered only on Cadillacs and the Park Avenue. But, I rented a '01 coupe last year that had lateral 'G' on the HUD--wasn't aware that earlier HUDs had that feature.

The "fix" is to move the windshield wiper switch all the way to the off position rather than leaving it in the first detent. Good idea to leave this off in good WX--some Caddie wiper arms have been mangled in car washes when the ignition switch has been left on.

Rainsense has a headlight interlock (turns off twilight control at night and turns on the low beams if it's daylight after 6 seconds of wiper operation--to comply with Fed and state laws that kick in in a couple of years). When he turns off the Rainsense, the twilight feature on the headlights will work properly.

HTH......Paul H.

Reply to
Paul H.

Most likely the wiper motor circuit board is wet. If he opens up the motor and cleans off the board and makes sure the drain holes are open it should bo okay. Alternatively, it could be a problem with the stalk. Playing around with it might show if that's the culprit.

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Reply to
L DaVinci

This information comes from one of our members in the Capital City Corvette Club in Columbus Ohio and appeared in our most recent news letter. Thought I would pass it along. Hope it helps.

Rod Flannery '03 Spiral Gray Coupe

"Caring For Your Corvette by Lloyd Harvey Corvette Care 614-471-3331

Working with Corvettes and nothing but Corvettes I sometimes find solutions to unusual problems.

I have seen a few C5's lately with wipers that are partially or completely inop. The wiper motor sets in a plenum that turns into a pond if water is trapped by clogged wiper plenum drain tubes.

To prevent your C5 Windshield Wiper Motor & Park Circuit Board from being shorted out by either rain water or water from washing your Corvette, reach your hand down into the space just aft of the washer fluid reservoir and clean out the debris that gets caught in these 3 drain tubes.

This is a quick and no cost preventative maintenances item that can be easily performed by anyone that does not have forearms like a gorilla. This can get very expensive if the tubes are ignored and get clogged!"

Reply to
Rod Flannery

This is exactly what the caused the problem on my 99 I just bought. I live in Las Vegas and bought the car from an individual in FLA. In early April when I first saw the car an test drove it. it was doing this. He had it checked out and they found nothing. It also stopped doing it about 3 days before he took it there. I picked the car up the end of April and drove it back to Vegas. 20 miles out of Panama City the wipers came on. It poured in FLA the night before so I new it was moisture related. I pulled the fuse and drove it back to Vegas with plenty of Rain X on the windshield. When I got back I reached in the area mentioned above and felt a rubber cow udder that had all sorts of crud in it. It has a slit in in and as I squeezed it you could hear the crap fall out. There was no way water could drain out of it. I left the fuse pulled for a few days, put it back in and the wipers no longer come on when there not supposed to. I've been told that there are two other drain udders under there somewhere.

Reply to
JG

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