ok - so pulling the computer allowed more of the electrical harness clips to be pulled and they came right off... battery box next - less than 1 min.

so unlike other posts about the wiper motor - mine was a broken wiper arm.
I had to remove all in front - leaving brake booster. - 10 15 min

I took the existing motor off then the arm assembly. - 5-8 min

then to put new one in I took new motor off new assembly, put new motor in first hooking electrical back, then maneuvered arm assembly into place. The arms were the most difficult, moving hydraulics out of way - 8-10 minutes

installed motor back to bracket, then three wiper assembly anchor bolts, 3-5 mins.

then it was replacing everything I took off or loosened and battery box and battery... - 15- 20 min.

it does not add up but - I think 1 1 /2 hours to get it all out and all in...

so I don't hate my mini and in fact find them logical - so far easy to work on....

 

To 87fox5.0:

I also have a Cooper S. Mine is 2002 and seems that the array of things under the hood looks the same as yours. In my case, however, I have no choice but to cut the coil otherwise the motor woulnd't come out. Once I got the motor out, I tested it to make sure it worked and guess what, it did. So it seems now that my problem is with the wiring (I've already tested fuses and relays). The problem is that the motor has some sort of connector which has 4 terminals and I'm not sure which one is which. Does anyone know where I can find some infor about the motor electrical diagrams?

Thanks,
Sergio

 

All You need to do is add a ground wire from the chassis to one of the three mounting bolts, preferably the bottom one so the wire does not get in the way. Mini had chosen to use the motor bracket/chassis of the car as the ground or negative source. If there was a ground or negative wire in the wire harness, we wouldn't be having this problem.

Please read my previous post as I have described why there has been loss of ground / negative connectivity. Good Luck, I'm positive this will fix your problem.

 

Actually in my case, I had to open the motor itself and clean up one of the metalic leaves that touch the body of the motor, for grounding. The leave wasn't making contact because there was some burned material in between sort of like ashes, once I had cleaned It was able to make contact and the motor worked again. I missed to take pictures because of time constrains , as you might understand in the middle of winter. I also added another ground to the chasis just in case because it's quite tough to get to the motor. Can't wait to sell this car. Is not fun to have it once everything starts failing.

 

Does anyone have a picture of how to add the ground wire?

My wiper motor died in the rain recently, was just about to buy a new motor from another member on the site, but want to test it first with the mentioned ground wire.

 

I got it working! Thanks to the posts on grounding the bolt.

Parts used from Home Depot:

1 pack of ring terminals (2.99)
1 foot of 10 gauge electrical cable (32 cents a foot)


Took the advice of all the earlier posts

1. took off the cowl by pushing it up from underneath (finding the tabs and pushing them in)

2. took the 13 nut off that was connecting the arm and moved arm out of the way

3. took the 10 screw off at the bottom of the 3 bolts

4. put the ring terminal (connecting points wrapped in electrical tape) around the 10 screw coming out) and put the nut back over it

5. tested it by turning key to on and wiper to on, then touching the other end of the wire to a ground (worked), then making sure the wiper was put back to the off position)

6. found a screw connected to the chassis and wired the other end of the electrical wire to it (found a nice hole to run the wire through)

7. reconnected everything and bammo, rain-be-gone!

Thanks again everyone for the useful info, saved myself a good buck

 

Thanks for this post! Fixed mine today!!!!!

 

Hi. I have a wiper problem but I don't think it's a motor problem per se; they work but they don't stop once they start [even the single sweep function], when they do eventually stop the arms are at random positions. From my search thus far it could be a park switch problem?

Edit: to clarify, it is the front wipers that I have an issue with. The rear wiper is fine.

 

I have another problem with my front wiper on a Mini 2002. The wiper works but it runs approximately 12-14 turns every time i try to wipe only once (pull the switch down) or use the "normal mode" (pull the switch upward). After these 12-14 turns the wiper stops on differnt places on the window, even on the middle of the window!
Could this also be a grounding problem or other?
Anybody with the same problem that have had it fixed?

 

Thanks for the great advice on adding extra ground wire. Similar to other have mentioned, I ran a wire from one of the 3 bolt visible after removing hood cowl. Grounded it to the hood ground bolt. Just be careful to run the wire up from behind the motor otherwise the linkage will rip up your new ground (happened to me the first time).

Works like a charm now! Thanks, saved me pain and $$$$$$$$.

 

Thanks for your posts guys. Have found some interesting things about this problem. I am an engineer, in the UK, so please read what I write if you have a failed wiper motor.

Removed a wiper motor from a wrecked Mini One, took 20 mins and as instructions on this thread, however, the failed motor was on a Mini Cooper S, which has a larger brake servo, thus it was impossible to remove the motor without removing the complete scuttle panel. 4 hours in the end, never doing it before, and many hurdles to cross but all back together and working now.

So decided to look at the old motor to find out why it failed and discovered a 30 second fix that is obviously the weak point in these motors.

There is a black plastic cover, secured by 4 clips and silicone glue. It's easy to remove and maybe even possible in situ with the motor removed if you have pygmy hands and a working spine!! The earth/ground, is the pin nearest the round end of the connector, and if followed with the cover removed, you will see it touches onto the metal housing underneath this cover by way of a spring contact. If the motor gets stuck, such as when wipers are iced to the screen, this contact gets hot, because it is very small, and eventually bends away from making contact.

The fix is either to remove the cover, clean and rebend this contact to make contact with the metal case, or indeed, just run a separate ground to the motor. A simple fix that I am sure BMW knows about; but then I am sure they would rather charge the £450 to £750 to replace what is a perfectly good motor.

Good luck Guys and Girls!

 

Folks

As has been posted by many others on this thread, I too had a failing wiper motor that was easily fixed using a grounding strap.

One point to make (and hopefully avoid someone doing a test and not thinking they fixed the problem) is that if you are making a quick ground connection to see if this fixes the problem, be sure to try turning on the wipers once the new ground is in place. It is not sufficient to have the motor on and then make the ground connection.

I am guessing that there is possibly something electronic that is not being initiated properly due to the improper ground when the wiper is turned on. Grounding once the wiper motor is on did not change things in my case. However as soon as I turned the wipers off and on again, things worked fine.

 

read through this post, I found out my motor was burned. Any one can recommend a online store to buy a new front wiper motor?

Thank you!

 

A post by FOX has a link.

 

i found it, thx! but any site that just buy a new one instead rebuild parts?

 

I did the wiper motor install but couldn't see how you guys managed to squeeze it through that narrow gap.
Here's how I did.
Follow the instructions in the first post, ie, remove the vent.
Remove the first two screws from the motor. Moving the wiper arm mechanism lets you see the third bolt more clearly. Still, it's easier to remove it with a wrench.




Remove the air box top. Just pop it right off.
Behind the airbox, covering the now loose wiper motor, is a plastic wall. It is secured with one screw in the right upper corner and two in the left (just behind the battery + pole. In order to fully remove this plastic bit (which is the bit hindering you from getting the motor out, at least in my case) you have to remove the airbox completely. There are two screws on the front of the box you have to remove. Remove the tubes by popping them off, then yank the airbox straight up. Under the airbox you have the two last screws holding the wall in place. Remove them and you'll get complete access.

You have to disconnect the ECU in order to get the plastic wall out, just push it up with a screwdriver and slide the locking mechanism on the top in order to remove the connectors. There's a bolt just in front of the fuse box that needs to be removed as well.

Now you can just lift out the motor and replace it with a new one. As previous posters said, make sure you get the wipers in the correct position.
A lot more steps doing it this way, but for me it was easier considering how easy the motor was to remove. And it's a good opportunity to clean out the engine bay.
Here's how it looks after everything is removed:

 

to SteveMini (and others)
Your ground wire fix on the wiper motor just saved me $350 plus. Thanks. Fixed it myself in about 20 minutes.

 

Just spent 5 Mins (and one lost 10mm socket) to install a negative jumper wire from battery post to Wiper motor mounting bolt. Now they work like a charm.. Thanks to you all.....

 

Yes! Thank you, thank you, thank you, for exposing this grounding fix. My local guy had my '03 S in the shop, saw how difficult it would be to get at the motor, and told me to take it to the dealer, but, I printed out the two pages from this thread and gave it to him, and he actually thanked me for the trick. Phew. I thought I'd be $7-800 poorer because of this. God bless the internet!

 

Hey
This has to be the easiest fix I have ever performed on a car.
It took 10 mins and saved me oooodles of cash
Many thanks indeed
Will...

 

First let me say thank you to everyone contributing to this forum for the wiper motor. I can't tell you have much it saved my axx monetarily. All of you are awesome. I hope my addition here helps also.

I am here cuz my wife ran the wipers without detaching them from frozen ice first. Ultimately, the wiper motor replacement was my fix. Details below.

wife got home and gave me the news. After giving her my stong my displeasure, I checked the car, troubleshot fuse per details above, rear wiper working so assumed fuse good. Tried to run wipers and smelled kind of a burn smell through plastic grill cover/cowl, and proceeded to pull motor (she helped too for punishment). I went the path of radbackfur's method which was ultra tough to remove motor but later found by heating up the area with a heather, the plastic was much more pliable and the new motor went right in (those of you in cold climates). Link above from 87fox5.0 for just the motor was a freaking god send. Did have some trouble getting main linkage connection bolt back on in the right place due to clearance and the linkage moving when tightening. Will work more on that. Also broke one of the connection clips for the wiring harness so will try and zip tie that so it does not come off.

 

when you say one of the 3 mounting bolts are you referring to the ones on the motor with the big bolt in the middle aswell ?

 

Thank you, this was spot on! Even as a certified mechanic, I could not figure out what was wrong and tried everything which nearly resulted in me buying a new motor!! Many thanks!!

 

Thanks for everyone who contributed to this post! My wipers quit working 20 miles from home in a down poor last week. Thank God for Rain-X. I checked the fuse and relays they were good. Just new I was going to have to replace the motor. The previous owner told me they had quit once with him, and it stopped once before with me.
I just followed the above directions and problem solved.

The motor is under this cowl and behind a bracket.


Ring terminal installed under the bottom screw.


Routing of the wire. I used the wire tie to keep the wire out of the way of the wiper arm.


Wire routed through existing opening and attached to ground lug for hood.


I'll tie wrap the wire in place, left it loose to see it better.

 

I removed the cowl Mini Cooper S 06 it is a very difficult job. I couldn't disconnect the electrical connector, so I removed the cowl to created space. But I can tell you very difficult.

And the problem turns out to be grease that lubricate the gears get in into the electrical cam, the round part on the back so it isolate the contacts.

Removing Cowl and Wiper Motor and Linkage

Removing Wiper Arm

Installing Wiper Motor and Linkage and Cowl (the video is long but I want
to show how much trouble it is to put it back)

Problem in the Wiper Motor

After I saw the problem I figure out I could have unclipped the bottom (the rubber portion) of the motor, have cleaned the electrical contacts, reconnect without even to have to dissasemble the motor from the linkage.

Well those are hard lessons. Now I have a spare linkage plus wiper motor.