My first post! My son's gf (Erin) has a 2003 Accord LX 4 cyl. with dead wipers. I have coached him on the phone thus far to do the following:

He has disconnected the wires to the motor and checked with a test light to see if there is current getting to the motor. Apart from one wire (green?, always hot), there is nothing getting to the motor. He hears some relay(s) clicking when he turns the switch on and off, but can't quite determine where the relay is located.

Questions:

What is the purpose of a constant hot wire to the motor? I assume this is to provide current for the motor to return to stop when the switch is turned off, but I don't really know.

Where are the relays for the wiper motor?

Is it possible to test the wiper motor in situ by jumping a hot wire to one of the leads?

Am I correct in assuming that the switch is good if there is a click coming from the relay?

Is this a common problem with late model Accords?

Sorry for the barrage of questions, but thanks, guys.

 

Welcome to the forum!

It's not a common issue that I know of, the first thing I would check (if he hasn't already) is the fuses, if you hear a click noise but no power it is possible that the wiper relay is bad, I believe it is located in either the underhood fuse box or the interior fuse box...

 

Thanks, Nasty. Yes, the fuses were the first thing he checked, and they were fine. In my experience with relays, bad ones often are silent. You are saying that a clicker could still be bad?

 

If I remember correctly the wiper motor relay is the same as the blinker relay and is located in the fuse box (check the owners manual it should show you) if they are the same then just swap them and see if the motor works, if it works and the blinkers don't then you know what the problem is, if not then it's going to require a bit more diagnosing.... There should be some way (I'm not sure how without a wiring diagram) to jumper that wiper motor with power and see if it will move...

 

Thought I would update. Son's gf took the car to the dealer and initially they were stumped. After trying several things over a period of a couple of days, they settled on replacing the motor, and that worked.

 

Yeah, the motor assembly includes a rotary switch & some logic that allows the wipers to park themselves. I don't have a wiring drawing to be sure, but I suppose the switch is on the ground side of the circuit. That way in mid-stroke it can ground itself until parked.

 

They have a couple internal switches that tend to break. To make things interesting Hondas wiring diagram on the circuit is wrong. That's probably why they had dificulty figuring out the problem.

 

out of curiousity, what do you do for work? the only time I have heard 'in situ' used is when referrring to soil samples...not common lingo.

 

I thought everyone talked that way! Isn't in situ a common Latin phrase from medicine and science that has crept into our everyday language?

Guess not.

OK, you outed me. I teach languages at a small college.

 

BUSTED! HA! J/k Glad that it got fixed, hopefully they didn't charge you a ton to do the repair.