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Rear window wiper motor burned out -- again

The rear wiper motor on my 2000 OBW just burned out -- again, for the

2nd time in 3 years. I replaced it myself about 3 years back, and now even that one is now gone. What about this motor causes it to burn out so quickly? There's plenty of harder working electrical motors and generators on this car that have been running for a decade without failure, including the front wiper motor, but not this motor. It gets used fairly regularly whenever the front wipers are used too, but obviously not for as long as the rear window doesn't get as wet.

It happened in exactly the same way as the previous motor. I started noticing a few weeks prior to the failure that it wasn't moving as fast as it used to. And then it got stuck completely. The motor is self-enclosed, so I don't think water should be directly in contact with its electricals. This is not so much a question as venting. Yeesh!

Yousuf Khan

Reply to
Yousuf Khan
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Did you download the wiper motor driver directly from Subaru? ;)

Reply to
Hachiroku

better than 90% of rear wiper motor problems are NOT related to electrical issues - the wiper pivot seizes. If the "gaitor" or "boot" that covers the pivot, under the arm, is bad or missing, water gets into the bushing and it is "done" in short order. If there is no boot,a good covering with silicone grease can help keep the water out.

Just an observation from many years experience with the darn things.

Reply to
clare

Thats probably right. The abrupt rear end of such cars sucks up a lot of dirt when driving. And here we even have salt spray in the winter. On my Corolla Wagon the o-ring on the wiper arm bearing was bad, an the dirt got into it and the arm got stuck. The motor was fine. I disassembled the mechanism, cleaned the wiper arm bearing thorougly, greased it up, got a new o-ring, and it has been fine for many years after. Asbjørn

Reply to
Asbjørn

Yeah, but next time I'll go with the Dell website. :)

Yousuf Khan

Reply to
Yousuf Khan

You should have gone directly to Denso....git! ;)

Reply to
Hachiroku

Yousuf, WD-40 isn't a lubricant, it's a Water Dispersant (WD....)

I have seen it actually REMOVE grease!

You want a good grease, one person said waterproof Lithium. I personally like GM Rust Preventative/Heat Riser Lubricant. They sell it for $9-12 a can (depending if you buy it at a Chevy dealer or a Cadillac dealer ;)...no, really, different dealers have different prices). It removes rust, lubricates bicycle chains, frees stuck nuts and bolts, etc. Great stuff...

and about the ONLY thing I would buy at a GM dealer... ;)

Reply to
Hachiroku

Hi,

In my case, I started with something light (like engine oil) to get lubricant in and loosen things up. I had to help my wiper move in the beginning.

After that I started using heavier oils, like 80-90 gear oil. The suggestion of a glob of grease on the outer boot section for sealing out water and debris is a good one, once things are moving freely. It helped to have my door open, so what I put on the shaft could run _down_ by gravity and into the motor bushings

Duane

Reply to
TheSeeker

My first thought was that it has got to be water-related too. But I would've also thought that all of the washers and stuff would've protected it.

Yousuf Khan

Reply to
Yousuf Khan

Yup, salt spray is a huge issue here too.

Yousuf Khan

Reply to
Yousuf Khan

Waterproof silicone or synthetic grease. Or the stuff used in the bottom units of outboards, perhaps?

Shooting a bit of turbine oil on the pivot can't hurt either.

Reply to
clare

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