Help...wipers barely move

Hi all

The past couple of days we had snow, rain, then cold, and fluffy snow on top of it all. There was a buildup of iced snow on my windshield. I beat off the iced snow that was burying my wipers, turned on the wipers and they went half way up then stopped. I got out and realized I failed to get some further ice built up around the base of the wiper arm that was covered under fluffy snow. I cleaned it all off to the right to the bare plastic as the bottom of the windshield. The wipers were still positioned half way up the windshield. I turned them back on and the wipers move an inch up and stop, I turn off the wipers and they move an inch down. If the motor was blown, or a fuse, I'd figure they wouldn't move at all. Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

sounds like you broke your linkage and or your output shaft from the motor is slipping. I haven't looked at the way the tacoma is set up, but that would be my best guess.

 

What happens when you lift the wipers into the "sticking out" Position off the windshield? Will they rotate more then while not in contact with the windshield?

 

Do you hear the wiper motor running while this is going on. If so, then the wiper arms may have stripped off the posts or the connecting rods between the motor to the arms may be damaged.

 

I tried the wipers while pointed up, but no movement at all now. I do hear the motor try but only hear it for 2 seconds. It is not a continuous sound. My first guess is frozen components. I'm going to try hot water this evening down through the base of the arm. I'll make sure not to put hot water on the glass.... don't want to crack it

 

The wiper arm splines are intended to be the first point of failure, for just this reason, since they are easy to get to and relatively cheap. Hopefully that's it. They will have a little bit of friction that can make them act erratically, without it being enough to move the wipers as intended. The first step I would do would be to remove the arm - the splines on the inside of the arm will still be visible but will also be visibly chewed up. Hopefully that's it, a broken linkage is gonna be a harder pill to swallow.

 

I had a closer look when I got home from work (using another vehicle). I poured hot tap water around the base of the wiper arms. After 1 kettle load, the wipers completed the upward pass. I opened the hood and saw snow inside the vented or meshed area next to wear the wipers rest. I would have taken a pic but it was getting dark. Anyway, it was likely this snow had turned to concrete. After a second kettle full of hot tap water through the vent, and some gentle pushing on both arms, they completed the downward pass but not without a lot of crunching sounds. I poured more hot water through the vent and enough snow melted for the wipers to move again, but still with some crunching.

I have never had that happen before. Someone at work overheard me talk about it and said the same thing happened to their truck. He brought it to a garage and after a quick inspection, they did the hot water trick and it worked; but charged $28 for the labour.