Snow broke my wipers

Herzlos

I've done similar before; left the wipers on when I turned the car off the day before and then when I started the ignition the wipers went to move but were frozen to the screen and the motors burnt out. That was an embarrassing and expensive trip to the garage but lesson learnt.
So now i make sure the wipers are off before I start the car, and check they aren't stuck whilst clearing the screen.

George_Michael

cymruchris said:

elsien said:

So DIY numpty here - already have oil and WD 40 for squeaky things.What's the difference? 

WD-40 is a 'Water Displacer' (Hence the WD) and doesn't contain silicone. Yes it does stop a few squeaks - but it doesn't leave a layer of protection for long term use.

Silicone leaves a micro-thin lubricant layer on whatever you spray it on - similar to oil - however oil attracts dust and gets gunked up over time, whereas silicone doesn't. There are probably more technical ways of putting it, and more to it than this basic summary - but that gives you an idea in terms of answering your question.

"WD-40" is now a brand rather than a single product and there are now a multitude of different WD-40 products available including the original water displacer but there are also WD-40 contact cleaners, penetrants and lubricants including one that is silicone based.

cymruchris

George_Michael said:

cymruchris said:

elsien said:

So DIY numpty here - already have oil and WD 40 for squeaky things.What's the difference? 

WD-40 is a 'Water Displacer' (Hence the WD) and doesn't contain silicone. Yes it does stop a few squeaks - but it doesn't leave a layer of protection for long term use.

Silicone leaves a micro-thin lubricant layer on whatever you spray it on - similar to oil - however oil attracts dust and gets gunked up over time, whereas silicone doesn't. There are probably more technical ways of putting it, and more to it than this basic summary - but that gives you an idea in terms of answering your question.

"WD-40" is now a brand rather than a single product and there are now a multitude of different WD-40 products available including the original water displacer but there are also WD-40 contact cleaners, penetrants and lubricants including one that is silicone based.

Yes - although it's likely most people have the traditional WD-40 in their cupboards.

Biggus_Dickus

Herzlos said:

I've done similar before; left the wipers on when I turned the car off the day before and then when I started the ignition the wipers went to move but were frozen to the screen and the motors burnt out. That was an embarrassing and expensive trip to the garage but lesson learnt.
So now i make sure the wipers are off before I start the car, and check they aren't stuck whilst clearing the screen.

I guess most of us have made choices that with the benefit of hindsight and experience probably weren’t the best. I’ve had my share!

Any course of action that fails and simultaneously hits you in the pocket can be particularly galling;...however, such experiences are generally the ones you don’t forget and, more importantly, won’t repeat.

Hopefully the OP will learn from this particular faux-pas and move on.

  

Mickey666

Herzlos said:

I've done similar before; left the wipers on when I turned the car off the day before and then when I started the ignition the wipers went to move but were frozen to the screen and the motors burnt out. That was an embarrassing and expensive trip to the garage but lesson learnt.
So now i make sure the wipers are off before I start the car, and check they aren't stuck whilst clearing the screen.

Sounds like poor design to me.
My car wipers are automatic and often do a couple of wipes when I first start the car if there is rain, condensation or snow on the windscreen.  Rear wiper also operates at the same time if I'm in reverse.  A few times the wipers have been stuck fast because of a hard frost but they've never broken themselves, probably because they've been properly designed for such an inevitability.  A bit like one-touch electric windows not cutting off a hand if placed in the way.

lemondrops69

Classic mistake by the OP, nearly all posts say what the OP did wrong to break the wipers, people are now talking about rubber door seals and the composition of WD40. The real questions my wipers have broken can I fix them? The op should have written
'I've got a Dacia Sandero, only a few years old. There was a snap sound from the wipers and now instead of the wipers moving, I just get a click sound for each time you'd expect them to move. The wipers themselves are loose and you can move them freely. I'm guessing this means a connection somewhere has just come loose and I need to reattach it. I literally know nothing about cars but I'm really skint right now. Do you think it's possible for me to fix this myself? Where would I start? Thanks

Ok no doubt the question would have been asked how did you break them and I am sure we would have still have ended up at the WD40 discussion, but they may have been a few better actual answers

Adrian did give a technical answer although I am disappointed the didn't attach an exploded diagram of said wiper system

All in all classic MSE, keep up the good work all 

coffeehound

On my old Golf the wipers undid the bolt in the linkage rather than break anything; don't know whether that was the intention but at least it just needed tightening back up.  These days I try to remember to lift the wipers away from the glass when it's going to freeze.

AdrianC

Mickey666 said:

Herzlos said:

I've done similar before; left the wipers on when I turned the car off the day before and then when I started the ignition the wipers went to move but were frozen to the screen and the motors burnt out. That was an embarrassing and expensive trip to the garage but lesson learnt.
So now i make sure the wipers are off before I start the car, and check they aren't stuck whilst clearing the screen.

Sounds like poor design to me.
My car wipers are automatic and often do a couple of wipes when I first start the car if there is rain, condensation or snow on the windscreen.  Rear wiper also operates at the same time if I'm in reverse.  A few times the wipers have been stuck fast because of a hard frost...

Have you considered clearing the snow and un-sticking the blades BEFORE turning the ignition on?
Or even just turning auto-wiper off?

Radical thought, I know...

boobyd

I knew I never should have gave myself an Extra 10 mins on a snow/ice day to go out, open car, check wipers off, start, front and rear screens on, heating up a bit, jump out with scraper, clear snow from All windows, clear asmuch as possible from body, make sure side mirrors clear, if a lot of snow bung in wellies, shovel and an old bit of carpet. Job done!
I thought was basics, hey ho. 

mattyprice4004

Unfortunately this is a bit of a 'common sense' one - snow is heavy, wiper arms are visibly quite thin and the mechanism isn't particularly strong either.
Whatever you do, don't try and drive anywhere before it's sorted - if you got caught in the rain and had a crash because of a fault you knew about it'd make your current state of 'skint' look like a tea party!