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Siezed rear wiper arm on Corsa C.

Hi all,

Part of my fitting a towbar and quick tidy up of the 2001 Corsa (our daughter has just acquired from her b/f) was to deal with why the rear wiper wasn't working.

I got her to do all the work, from checking the fuses, locating and measuring the voltages on the wires in the boot (while I had the panels removed for the towbar wiring (she helped with that too)) and measuring right up to the motor.

We had to borrow a mates puller to get the arm off the spindle (a lesson on why things often take longer than they should) and then we stripped the gearbox to find not only the output shaft seized solid but the motor armature winding burnt out as well (not surprising of course as it appears it's been 'like that' for over two years now). ;-(

So, a replacement should be winging it's way via eBay but is there anything one can do to ensure this one doesn't seize up as well?

In the past (Morry Minor / Escort) I've either externally lubed or stripped, de-corroded / lubed wiper arm / motor spindles but they were typically all metal but this casing (and maybe the bearing) is plastic, or could there be a metal tube within? Should I be able to remove the output spindle and if so would it be worth applying some silicone grease etc?

And what a strange design for the rear 'mudflaps'. I must have emptied

1kg of mud out of the n/s rear one and both of the rear wheel arch trims were full. Mind you, that could be partly down to it spending most it's life in the back of Scotland . ;-)

Cheers, T i m

Reply to
T i m
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add in a circuit like the rover 200 has: if the front wipers are on and reverse is selected then the rear wiper runs. This will ensure that it gets turned on every now and again, and if it is in use then it is less likely to seize up.

Reply to
Mrcheerful

We were just thinking about fitting the replacement wiper ... then it started to rain and funnily were discussing the idea of that. I can't think of a circumstance where you wouldn't want the rear wiper to come on so if a bit of regular use is a good thing I might look into it (a relay 'AND' from the front wiper and reversing switch).

So, would my 218SD have that as standard as I can't say I've ever noticed it (or you talking about the later 'bubble' shaped 200's)?

Cheers, T i m

Reply to
T i m

the bubble one has it, it would be a trifling matter to add it to any car, just a plain old relay, up the front near the fuse box or you could fit it behind the panelling in the boot, if the front wipers are running then the pulse or continuous could go through the contacts of the relay and off to the wire to the rear wipe (not the continuous power one, but the one from the intermittent relay) , while the power from the reverse light feed would hold the relay 'closed'

Reply to
Mrcheerful
[...]

I can. Dry day. Bird crap on screen. Jump in car, use wash/wipe, select reverse and the rear wiper scrapes across bone-dry rear window.

I was looking into finding a way to disable the "feature" on my Focus...

Chris

Reply to
Chris Whelan

the rear wiper only works if the front ones are on.

Reply to
Mrcheerful

Which it would be if I was trying to remove bird crap from the screen...

Chris

Reply to
Chris Whelan

ah, I see what you mean, you would only do it once though :)

Reply to
Mrcheerful
[...]

My other half has a caravan on a large site at Selsea, so bird crap is not an uncommon occurrence :-)

Chris

Reply to
Chris Whelan

;-)

To be fair I think this wiper would have been ok if a) it had seized in the 'park' position (only taking current when it got the intermittent feed so may have been repairable) or b) something had been done about it at the time (to stop the motor from burning out, like unplugging the fuse or motor connections [1]).

The bad (or possibly good) thing was this family weren't into things practical so it would be given to the garage to fix if it was considered important, as this might have had the car not been replaced by a new (Corsa) and given to the boy and had the boy looked into it etc.

Cheers, T i m

[1] Apparently it was looked at by the garage and they concluded 'there is voltage getting to the motor'. Looking about a new motor seems to be about £125+ and if it wasn't actually needed legally or considered that useful ....
Reply to
T i m

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