rob22

I'm having a problem with the windshield wipers on my 94 LS400. The wipers seem to be moving more slowly than they should, and I can't notice much of a difference between the high and low settings. I'm just testing them; there's no rain on the windscreen; don't know if this makes a difference but I don't think there were any rain sensors etc on the LS back in 94.

Any ideas what this might be? I thought low battery but the other electrical functions seem fine, the starter motor turns fine. The battery and alternator are new as of last year. I haven't checked out the wiper motor for current draw yet.

Any ideas on this? I've tried searching but haven't found anything.

Thanks-
Rob

trukn1

Sometimes I think that mine does the very same thing on my 92. Low/high speed seem to the the same sometimes, and others there is a noticable difference. If you still have your original wiper motor, as I suspect I still do, may be just time to replace the motor if it bugs you that much. Keep in mine that your car is 15 years old, as mine is 17, and even the most obscure/never thought of parts will not last forever and will eventually wear out.

JimsGX

I'd wait till it rains and see how they work. Mine seem to have a lot of drag on them and move slower when I run them when dry or when using the washer fliud but then they work fine when its raining.

rob22

Thanks fellas, will try wetting the windshield and see if there's any effect. Maybe it's just drag.

Rob

rob22

I ended up swapping out the motor for a used one that I picked up on eBay. Here's a brief overview of how it went, for those interested:

1. Before starting, I made sure that the wipers were in the "rest" position as this clocks the wiper motor-arm linkage to a position that I can reset easily when I swap out the motor.

2. I removed the wiper arms from the assembly, two black 12mm nuts, this allowed me to lift the skirt from the front of the windshield. There are two halves to the skirt, removed both.

3. I disconnected the electrical connection. At this point, I attached the new motor and (1) verified that it worked at the slow speed, (2) verified that it worked on high, (3) verified that it worked on intermittent, and (4) verified that it moved to the wiper "rest" position when switched off. I made sure that the new motor is clocked to the "rest" position so that it will configure correctly when I swap it in. I disconnected the new motor and set aside.

4. I removed the wiper motor/linkage frame from the car (4 10mm bolts), you have to do this to gain access to the bolts that mount the motor to the frame.

5. Being careful not to disturb the position of the linkage, I scribed a matchmark on the linkage to identify its "rest" position relative to the frame. You have to move the linkage around to access the motor mounting bolts so this is important.

6. I unbolted the old motor and swapped in the new motor, making sure to align the matchmark in the wiper linkage to its "rest" position.

7. I reassembled everything in reverse.

There's definitely an improvement in performance at high speed operation. I checked current draw on the old versus new motors (with the motors completely removed from the linkage) and there was a slight difference. Both were about 1.8A at low speed, the replacement motor was just under 3A at high speed and the old about 3.6A. The most noticeable difference was the sound, the old motor made more noise when turning but the replacement was noticeably quieter.

Hope this helps anyone taking this on.