Wipers stopped in a sleet storm! Help!
 

This evening as I was driving home in a sleet storm the wipers stopped about halfway up. They were working just fine, there had been no strange noises, or anything. I tried to clean the area under the hood out to see if they were just blocked, but they were not. I would think you would hear the motor starting to go bad, so I'm guessing maybe a fuse? Which one is it? Any other thoughts? If it makes any difference they were on the way up when they stopped.

freaky coincidence
 

Dallas got hit with an ice storm today and that EXACT thing just happened to me on the way home tonight.

When I got the car in the garage I checked the # 7 fuse on my 300SD (red fuse) and it looked good. I figured when I turned the wiper on and it froze in the upright position it hit too much resistance with all the ice and blew the fuse (or wiper motor took a dump). Since the washer motor didn't run either I figured it was the fuse.

After cleaning up the windshield and then lubbing up the glass with a ton of windex I re-attempted using the wipers with the car off (just battery power).

Sure enough they started working again.

Wierd - but I'll take it!

Only thing I can think of is it got hung on the ice, or the motor cut itself off at a certain level of resistance and turning off the car reset something.

not really sure....

Interesting... My washer still works though, so maybe the relay? Or maybe the motor?

mostl likley the fuse, even if its not blown, happen to me last year. fuse looked good. I tested it with a voltage meter, and it was showing funky numbers, replaced the fuse, never had the problem agian

I just moved it under the carport, and I'll see what I can do with it over the weekend. I'm really hoping its just a fuse. I'm really not looking forward to driving a Ford Festiva in the snow again. I don't have a meter so I'll have to just replace the fuse. I might just do them all.

yea for a while, my 240 was blowing fuses. the PO just drove the car every now and then, and since i was driving it as my DD, fuses were blowing all the time. but now they have all been replaced. heh

I'll take a guess...
 

The ww motor may have a thermal circuit breaker to stop the motor before it burns up. A sleet storm would put an enormous amount of stress on the ww system, I would think. These circuit breakers are usually self-resetting. Once the motor cools off they reset themselves. That may be what happened to Bodyart.

Thats freaky....its sleeting here too, I came out to my car at 1:15am tonight to find it covered in 1/4" of ice, and I can still hear it outside sleeting right now.

My wipers are ultra strong, I turned them on "level III" last winter when I had about 10" of snow on my car, and it PLOWED the snow off the side of the car in one massive swath and then continued wiping! :eek: I was impressed!

When I moved the car I tried the wipers again, and they didn't move, so I'm hoping for the fuses. Any idea which one it is? I think I have the card on the inside of the box, just don't want to go out there.

When ever get one of these car I replace ALL the fuses They may look good but if there old, they may not be. Its cheap insurance. And I wouldn't use those glass ones.

You should have a fuse diagram in the back side of your fuse box cover, the owners manual should also list them.

Fuse
 

I vote for the fuse... mine worked fine today under the sleet and snow....

if motor, usually you'll smell it.....

Ok, so this morning I went outside, and in 17F weather replaced the #7 fuse. To cold at the moment to any more than that. However, I still don't have wipers. When I turn the switch to an on position I hear a clunk sound, which I am assuming is the relay. It seems very loud to me. It goes clunk clunk, and nothing moves. If I was just replacing stuff I would certainly do the relay next since its cheaper, but I'm just not sure if it's needed. I've never heard the relay for any other cars wipers though.

ARRRGG... 17 degrees Thats harsh.
I think I would look for a way to get 12v to the motor directly. On the W123 theres a plug on the firewall where you can unglug the motor.

I think I saw that plug, but considering the weather I don't think I'm going to mess with it any more today. The relays are also in the fuse box?

I had a similar sound coming from mine, which I tracked down to the linkage that hooks the motor to the wiper arms coming loose. There is a ball joint that attaches the motor output shaft to the long arm that goes across under the grill in front of your windshield. On my car, the plastic cup of the ball joint had worn, and the steel ball had rusted around the edge, untill it just fell apart under it's own weight during a rainstorm.

I semi-permenantly fixed it by drilling a hole in the bottom of the cup, as well as in the top of the ball, tapping the hole in the ball, and then running a small machine screw with a washer on it through the hole in the cap, and into the ball. With a touch of loctite, I doubt it'll fall apart again before I eventually get around to actually replacing it.