Hey y'all... a week or so ago, I was driving in the rain with my wipers set to intermittent... a few minutes after I switched them on, they stopped moving in mid-swipe. Shutting them off or adjusting the speed would result in wildly unpredictable behavior... the wipers would either speed up or freeze in mid-swipe again, even if I turned them off or if I pressed the lever to perform a single swipe... truly bizarre! It was as though the speed positions on the stalk were being randomly remapped to other speeds and wiper functions every time I turned the ****. I had to keep setting the wipers to different speeds to get them to stop at all until I shut the car off. I didn't use the rear wiper at all while this was going on.

My journey to and from my destination that night was short, so it wasn't too much trouble for me at the time. I decided to wait and see if the problem happened again before I took the car in to be looked at... up until today the wipers were fine.

It's been raining here for the past couple days, and everything was okay until I was driving to work on the turnpike. I glanced in the rearview mirror and noticed my rear wiper was frozen a fifth of the way across the glass. The front wipers froze a moment later. I turned both sets of wipers off for a few minutes, then used the single swipe for the next few miles. Eventually I set the wipers to intermittent again, and they behaved normally until I turned the rear wiper on, which in turn immediately froze the front wipers. I turned both sets off, set the front to intermittent again, and they were fine for the duration of my drive.

Once I got to work, I called the same guy who replaced the corroded wiring in my dash after my car was revived from its long slumber this past year. I'd been meaning to take the car back for him to tackle my DOA power locks and my radiator and air conditioning fans, and the wipers were the final straw. I told him what was happening with the wipers, and he told me he would have trouble diagnosing the problem if he couldn't reproduce it himself. My (and his) suspicion is that water has contaminated some portion of the electronics that control the wipers.

I'm posting because I'm curious if anyone has any idea what the problem may be. While I fortunately use Rain-X windshield washer fluid (which so far has kept my windshield relatively clear even without using the wipers) I am afraid for my wipers to go out again in truly bad weather if he can't get to the bottom of the problem once I take the car in on Tuesday. I am hoping that someone here can point me (or him) in the right direction once he has a look at it. I do not have the rain-sensing wipers.

Thanks for any help any one can offer!!!

 

I had a similar experience with the wipers on my '06. Found out the day after a particularly nasty thunderstorm and went to clear my windshield in the morning. Hit the stalk once to do a single wipe, but it kept going for a few more then stopped in the middle of the windshield. I don't really remember having the issue with my rear windshield wiper, but I don't think I was paying attention to that. The only way for me to get the wipers going once they stopped was usually to turn the car off and back on. The dealer replaced the wiper motor and linkage and it fixed the issue.

I assume mine was either caused because of water getting to it, or possibly the lightning that was striking all around the house the night before. Didn't notice any trees near the MINI hit, the ones that were were too far away to have affected it...

Yours definitely sounds like an electrical issue. With all your other electrical issues, it almost sounds like it could be the something with the Body Control Module itself. The BCM has a part to play in the door locks, AC and radiator fans, and wipers as well so it's definitely something to think of. I would double-check all of your fuses also if you haven't already done so.

 

I also have this problem.
But I have no issue with rear wiper... yet.

Should I change the wiper motor and link ?