Replaced wiper motor...still don't work.

[Matt S.]

I have a 97 GT wagon and the original rear wiper motor began to work slower and slower and then just died totally. Took it apart and found very little rust and everything inside still lubed up good. But, I figured with the miles on my car, and since I had the old one out, I'll just throw a reman. one in and be done with it.

Just put the reman one in and tested it before I put everything back together and the motor sounded very weak. Put the wiper arm on and same thing as the old one. Got about half way up the window and just died.

What else is there to look for? I thought I read on here a while back about a wiring problem for the rear wiper motor, but I can't find it for the life of me.

Any clues?

search words: rear wiper motor slow wiring wagon

[phi11]

bad relay?

[Matt S.]

Would a bad relay cause the motor to act "weak" ?

[phi11]

couldn't tell you off hand.

I did just look up the rear wiper in the '99 FSM.
in 6-2, listed as 464, it has the inspection for:
1. COMBINATION SWITCH
2. WIPER MOTOR
3. REAR WIPER RELAY
4. WASHER MOTOR

I would check 1 2 and 3?
do you have a multimeter?

[02_Legacy]

check the ground connection too. One of the wires has to ground somewhere and the connection to ground may have become corroded.

[Matt S.]

Ugh! Thanks for the suggestions guys. Turns out I am an idiot :) When I checked the rear wiper motor after installing it, I just turned the key to "on". After messing around and checking some other things, I went to start the car...and nothing. The battery was dead!!! The car seemed to be turning over a bit slower the last week or two, but I would have never thought that was the cause of the new wiper motor not to work, especially since the original acted identical to that when it died(although it's been dead a while so the battery wasn't the cause of it's demise).

Works fine now. And all this because the garage wouldn't inspect the car because the rear wiper didn't work!!! I'm all about safety but that's ridiculous IMHO.

On the bright side, got the reman. motor from Advanced Auto, $79-$20 core-$20 online promo code= $39. Woohoo!

[redlegacygt]

Glad to see you got it straightened out!