HOW TO: Fix strange wiper behavior (PICS)

[2000tahoeZ71]

Forgot to add this. I also had issue of the washer fluid motor not engaging when I hit the switch from time to time. Unplugged it and tested with a 12v battery and it sprayed all the time. After I resoldered the joints on my control module, this erratic behavior went away as well.

 

[nimrod.sixty9]

Just noticed the others day, mine seem to "double tap" when in the intermitent position radomly when the come to the rest position. Wonder if mine needs this fix. I'll have to look into it. Thanks for the write up.

Welcome! Mine did this and many other strange things. Im not gonna say this is the fix for you, but I know my symptoms were all symptoms LOL. GL

 

[TonyBuckets]

My wiper motor was completely shot so i bought a replacement motor, now when i turn on my wipers they stop in the "up" position, and the intermittent setting still does not work, just the slow and fast settings, thinking of just re wiring them to a toggle switch so that they are either on or off, no speed controls. also i have no problems with the washer fluid that works fine.

 

[MarkD51]

I had the odd wiper issue on my 97 Hoe about 7 or so years ago. Chevy was willing at that time to re-imburse for the new board, which was a known common problem, and there was a recall issued for a good number of years. I was in the "Clouds" in Cloudcroft NM at the time, and in a rain, so it was good I was in the habit of Rain-X'ing all the glass. They were intermittent to none basically that day they failed.


After all the ******** chevy wanted to put me through, with copies of utilility bills, and a bunch of other stupid runaround BS, I decided to do some surgery myself, and said screw chevy. (and I'm glad I did, I hate dealers)

What I found was a board entirely covered in red grease, and on the worm gear where there should've been some, basically no grease at all.

After a spray down on the board with good electrical contact cleaner, I could see no evidence of any cold solder joints. (which even back then was one of the common known issues of failure)

I re-distributed basically all of the grease to the gears where I felt it should've been in the first place, I also noticed what looked to be two brass (or copper) contact wafers which were loaded with grease also. I removed much of it, leaving only just a thin coating.

I cleaned the plug connection, re-assembled, and all worked perfect. Haven't had a problem since.

 

[trevcda]

I've known about this fix for as long as I've owned my Tahoe and always seemed to forget about it when I didn't need my wipers and didn't really want to get into fixing them in the rain when I was reminded that I needed to do it. Well today, for some reason, the planets aligned and I was presented with the perfect opportunity to do it. Damn, that was so stupid easy I can't believe I didn't do it back when I first recognized the issue. Everybody with wiper issues- just do it! Stop putting it off! As somebody else said, it's a $10 soldering kit and about a half an hour of time. Not ventured, nothing gained. As they say, "60% of the time it works every time!" I'd probably that percentage a little higher. Thanks for posting the tech tip.