Wiper Motor Carrier?

trillion

The heavens opened, daughter switched on the wipers, they did a couple of half-hearted wipes then juddered to a grinding halt.

The RAC man said the carrier holding the whole wiper motor and mechanism had split in two.
He told her to take it to a mechanic that she trusted, and to get the part from a scrap/breakers yard because it could end up costing a LOT of money.

I've had a bit of a google, but I can't find any mention of the part at all.
My son reckons it might be welded to the main car body and this would be what would make a repair expensive, and we're trying to work out (without having seen it) whether it's actually going to be worth the bother as the car itself is probably worth less than a grand.

Does anyone have any experience of this happening?

gilbert_and_sullivan

Considering the way the vast majority of people neglect their wiper mechanisms (and the rest of the car) it speaks well of their reliability that more of them don't grind to a halt.

Water, grit, salt etc work their way into the wiper spindles which no one ever thinks to lubricate, the pivot points start to seize and eventually something gives, often it's the worm drive in the wiper motor that gets chewed up, which deserved a bit of TLC itself.

Scrap yard and breaker search is your best solution, shouldn't be difficult to fit it yourself in most cases, but nip the top off the new/used wiper motor and check everything before fitting...and give it some grease too.

mikey72

What car is it?

trillion

gilbert_and_sullivan wrote: »

Scrap yard and breaker search is your best solution, shouldn't be difficult to fit it yourself in most cases, but nip the top off the new/used wiper motor and check everything before fitting...and give it some grease too.

Thanks, but there doesn't appear to be anything wrong with the motor itself, it's dropped down because the thing that holds it into place has broken.

Mikey, it's a '95 Vauxhall Astra Merit.

mikey72

Older than mine, but it looks like it's held in place by the nuts under the wipers, and maybe a bolt on the motor case. If you can get to it, it doesn't look too bad to replace.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1997-VAUXHALL-ASTRA-F-MK3-1-4-8V-FRONT-WINDSCREEN-WIPER-MOTOR-LINKAGE-/250926809402?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item3a6c67413a


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VAUXHALL-ASTRA-MK3-FRONT-WIPER-MOTOR-AND-LINKAGE-/220900218040?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item336eadd4b8

trillion

Wow, thanks.
Someone needs to get over there and have a look to see how it's held in I suppose.
Thank you again!

Inner_Zone

I've just changed the wiper motor on my 2007 Vectra. And as the wipers would not park it was a pig to get the timing correct, but got there in the end. The hardest part was getting the scuttle panel off.

trillion

Thanks for all your comments.
Hero son phoned around a few scrapyards, got the part for £15 and fitted it (accompanied by a great deal of bad language it must be said) yesterday.
Daughter now has her car back and is happy, though a bit cross with the RAC man and his rather drama queen attitude!

ps - gilbert & sullivan - the motor on the old part is still in perfect working order.

boyse7en

Daughter now has her car back and is happy, though a bit cross with the RAC man and his rather drama queen attitude

Bit harsh! RAC man said to go to scrapyard, which you did. The part may well be expensive from a Vauxhall dealer. (As an example, wing mirror for my car from scrapyard £20. New from dealer £245)

gilbert_and_sullivan

trillion wrote: »

ps - gilbert & sullivan - the motor on the old part is still in perfect working order.

Excellent, what caused the failure, seized linkage or constant straining simply weakened the frame?

Whichever, glad it was a simple job...good to see you had the right attitude, sit in front of 'puter like lord muck with hot tea or hot toddy and let the youngster get cold and skinned knuckles...;)

trillion

gilbert_and_sullivan wrote: »

Excellent, what caused the failure, seized linkage or constant straining simply weakened the frame?

Whichever, glad it was a simple job...good to see you had the right attitude, sit in front of 'puter like lord muck with hot tea or hot toddy and let the youngster get cold and skinned knuckles...;)

It's a mystery!
If you imagine the part is made up of a triangle of metal tubes and a thin metal plate, the plate had twisted and eventually snapped.
One of the tubes that goes from the motor to the wiper was ever so slightly bent - noone noticed it while it was in situ, but once it was out and on the ground, you could just about notice it.
Someone I spoke to said it might have been caused by trying to use the wipers on a snow covered window in the past couple of years, which might be the case I suppose.

Being Lady Muck, I'm the brains of the operation here and I didn't have kids so I could fix their cars myself, though admittedly I've shown them how to change the oil and replace the spark plugs.