My 97 front wipers are stuck in the up position. This morning i had ice down near the pivot on the hood and they stopped in the up position. They have been working fine in the recent Ice storm. Now they don't move at all. Any thoughts on what is the problem?

 

could be a number of things.....you shoud check your wiper motor to see if it is getting power, then make sure that it isn't frozen........

 

Thanks for the quick response. I will have to wait for it to warm up some first. It is still below 10 deg and not expected to get much warmer for 2 more days. I hope its something simple. The fuse is good and I don't hear the motor running. Never heard of an electric motor "freezing". Is there possibly a wiper relay that my have fried ?

 

your wipers could be froze to the windshield also....start your truck and run the defroster until it gets warm enough to defrost the windshield...

 

I had the metal arms (under the cowl that go from the motor to the wiper arms) freeze up on me. There was slush and water that froze up under there causing them to not move. I checked my fuses and relays and it was all good. Ford wanted to charge me to use their bay while they pour warm water into the cowl to thaw the ice..........I laughed and hung up. I got some hot water and bingo.....freed them up.


You never know until you find out.....LOL Haven't had that problem since.....but I do know what to check first next time.

GL

 

or just pull them from the windshield..........a whole 2 seconds.

 

No thats not it. Something mechanical or electrical. I will have to wait till I can get it in the garage tonight and check under the hood to see if it is the motor. May have a chance to warm up some in there. Thanks again

 

like Chris said....under the wiper cowl, the wiper arms are steel and if they get wet they can freeze easy!

 

Similar:

http://www.offroadrangers.com/forum/...ad.php?t=25296

 

Thanks for the link Bob, good if i every do need to replace the motor But, it seems Rolldogg was correct. It was the steel linkage that was frozen. They worked fine after I poured some hot water down the cowl vents around the base of the wipers. Same thing happend again this morning. Turned them on and they froze in the straight up position. I poured a cup of hot water down the vents again and they worked. Funny sidenote: a guy I work with, with the same year/model of truck (97 Maxda B4000) had the same thing happen to him yesterday morning, and that fixed his as well. Its pretty cold around here right now. Thanks everyone for the reply. Looks like "Case closed".

 

Hey, glad it worked for ya and that it was that simple to fix. Nothing like wipers that don't work, especially with all the salt and slush flying around.

Best thing I found was to completely remove all the slush/snow/ice from under the cowl. There's plenty of room down there for water to sit, but it can also drain from the lower slots.....the slush and snow can't.

If you have a garage, use a hose to get all the crap from the cowl and then park the truck in the garage. This will give the water some time to drain out and not freeze up.

 

I guess you didn't read the thread. His was frozen, too.