So this recent storm in new england left a lot of ice on the truck here in RI and after scraping off my windshield and around my wipers i got inside and went to turn on my wipers to get the rest of the slush off and they went up and got stuck in the middle. So i turned the switch off and they stayed in the middle of the windshield but i decided to just drive it out and maybe they'd defrost and start going. Long story short i used some of my room mates de-icer spray all around the arm that didnt work, took the whole wiper arms off and it still doesnt work. Got back to school and got some hot water and dumped it all around the knobbs and still nothing. Do I just sit it out and wait for the sun to beat on it and hopefully unfreeze them or did I break them somehow? Any thoughts?

 

lol... same exact thing happened to me last night coming home from the bar... i haven't bothered with it yet.

i figured i blew a fuse or something.... i hope its nothing major

 

i ended up just keeping the winshield wiper arms off and they're just sitting in my cab...figure it out when it starts snowing/raining again haha....never thought about checking the fuse though

 

never use your windshield wipers if you think they might be frozen to your windshied. when you turn them on, and there frozen, the wiper motor keeps trying to work the wiper, but since it's frozen, the motor might burn itself out or in the very least, blow the fuse. if i'm not sure if the wiper is going to stick, i'll try lifting it off of the windshield before turning them on.

 

i lifted them off the windshield...i think at the bottom of the arm is where it got stuck....should have just taken the time to clean the rest of the windshield with the brush...i'll have to go check the fuse out tomorrow

 

yeah as soon as mine stopped, i turned them right off. luckily they're standing straight up, and not in my line of sight, lol.

i thought about the ice and all, but mine look to be free from any obstruction. i really don't know why they'd just stop the way they did...


anyone know which fuse is the wiper fuse??? i dont have a manual for my truck... it's a 2001 by the way.

 

Looks like I am not the only one with this problem! I tried the hot water and everything else too and they aren't moving. Guess checking the fuse is next? Anyone have any luck yet?

 

Recently, I have heard about a couple of cases of wipers stuck because of frozen wiper linkages. As I understand it, this was caused by ice inside of the cowl. If you look on the firewall, there are a couple of rectangular access plates that you can remove to have a look.

Turning off the wiper switch at mid stroke does not necessarily turn off power to the wiper motor. The wipers have a feature that tries to return them to the park position when the ignition is in RUN or ACC even though the wiper switch is turned off. Hopefully, you haven't already damaged the windings in your motor.

The fuse on your 01 is #16 (30A) in the dash box.

 

If you look at where your wiper arm end where the cowl with the honecomb look is, look down inside with a flash light and look and the arms inside underneath the cowl. They get wet from all the slush and snow melting and dripping down inside which when parked freezes. De-icer or pull in a garage and use warm water to de ice. I did this earlier on a customers 99 and worked wonders, complaint was wipers quit, I'd quit to if i was soaked then left to freeze.

 

mine had some ice in the cowl area. allowed the wipers to go up, but locked up on the down stroke. i could hear the mechanism diggin into the ice in there. dumped some near boiling water in the cowl and all is well again.

 

My secretary had the same problem today in her focus. She panicked and took it to the dealer. He told her there was ice jammed in the mechanism around the wiper motor. Said he had never seen this problem before but managed to thaw the ice out and charged her an hours labor, no parts needed. We had weird weather here yesterday, slushy rain most of the day and then a dramatic temperature drop which flash froze everything. Maybe if you can get your truck in a heated garage for a while the problem will fix itself.

 

I have same problem. The wipers were not stuck to ice. I always make sure they are stuck. Just got to mid-stroke, where there was some ice although not enough to stop the wipers, and stopped. The fuse is not blown. I haven't looked at the relays yet though. It has been in the single digits & teens for the last couple of days so ice in the mechanism could be the problem. Hopefully it will warm up and they'll move.

 

damn... i didn't think about that.... hopefully it didnt burn itself out trying to set the wipers back down...

i'm gonna go out there this afternoon and take a look... first i'll check the fuse just because that involves nothing.. then i guess i'll be taking pots of boiling water to the cowl.... wish me luck

thanks for the info guys!!!

 

It seems people on other forums are having the same trouble! I hope it is just ice bogging the motor. Be careful with that boiling water though!!!!!!!! Boiling water and cold glass don't mix!!!!!!!!!

 

i came home for the weekend from school and parked the truck in the garage....not heated...but better then sitting outside in 15 degree weather....turned the ignition on after letting it sit for a few hours and they moved and froze again.......so i'm letting it sit in the garage over night and a majority of tomorrow in hopes that whatever ice is left around it will melt off

 

I parked in an area of the parking garage at work that is underground thinking it might be a little warmer so I could check relays for the wiper problem. After work I got out to the truck and what do you know? When I turned on the ignition, the wipers moved to where they should be! It must have been ice blocking the mechanism and where I parked was just warm enough to melt enough of the ice. So pouring boiling water in the area would probably work!

 

i poured about 6 gallons of hot water on the cowl, and it free'd it up...

my wipers work just fine now.

thanks for the help guys!

 

6 gallons huh......i was going to switch the the heat gun method......but looks like i have some room for more water to go on....i'll keep trying that method and hopefully they'll free up......i hate not being able to keep the road salt/slush off my windshield!

 

Same thing happened to me awhile back when we got dumped on with ice and snow. Don't push on them or pull on them. For some reason I did that and after they thawed out, the drivers wiper is out of alignment and doesn't work right. The 6 gallons of hot water does work.

 

ended up finding some ice around the arm that goes between the 2 cowels....dumped a couple pan fulls of very hot water and they're back in action....thanks again for the help guys

 

give or take a gallon... i did the same thing you did... i kept running in and out of the house with one of my mom's larger cooking pots. after a couple of trips in and out, they finally started to work again.


good to hear you got yours working again, too!!!

 

Just as most others suggested, I poured approx. 2 gallons of hot (not boiling) water around the cowl and at the area where the wiper arms connect and it thawed the area that was frozen under the cowl and the wipers started working again!!!

 

 

Dang--doesn't anybody here have a woman with a hair-dryer? Seems like that'd be better than pouring a bunch of water everywhere.