When my windshield wiper operates, it (i.e. the mechanism) makes a noise that it didn't make a few days ago. Not sure how to describe it.

A few days ago, there was snow on the window that I tried to move by wiping the windshield. The resistance was significant enough that the wiper wouldn't move.

My questions:

1. Does offering resistance damage the mechanism somehow? Or is there some sort of fail safe feature?

2. Does the emergence of a new noise indicate that I've damaged the mechanism to the point it could go at any time? Or can I just let it go and keep my eye on it?

Thanks.

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1961 Very Tolerant Wife

There is a plastic ring gear in the inside of the monowiper that breaks easily if stressed. I don't believe it has a fail-safe doohickey. My guess is you broke something. You should never ever turn on your wipers if you have snow/ice on the windshield, if you want the mechanism to break that's a sure way to do it. A good rule of thumb would be to clear the windshield of obstruction prior to operating the wipers. Think of what it takes to swing that big arm and then think of the resistance of the snow on the windshield and what it does to the mechanism, which is 13 years old. Something's amiss and the only way to find out is to take the entire wiper assembly off of the firewall and disassemble it. From what I have read you can't buy a new gear; only a new monowiper assembly but there are salvage options I'm sure. If you really tried you could probably get a new gear, if that's what's broken. I'd say you broke a couple of teeth off of the inside perimeter ring gear, but you didn't say what kind of noise it was, so the arm could be slipping on the shaft or something. Just need to investigate it.

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I've turned them on in my SD before to position 1, it went up about 8" and stopped from the weight of the snow, did position two, moved further....stopped.....position 3....made it almost all the way but stopped, so I clicked it to off, got out, cleared the window off, and they went back down into their cave. Indestructible. I noticed that the new MB's have done away with the mono-wiper in favor of the design the 126's have, they shoulda stuck with the good design all along.

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