Greetings all,

Just had an issue that I thought might warrant giving the forum a heads up.

My daughter reported last night that the wiper stopped working and just froze mid sweep on the windscreen. I assumed it would be a fuse or relay, but they tested out fine.

I removed the wiper arm, and was beginning to figure out how to remove the motor assembly when on a whim I decided to see if it worked with the arm removed. Funny enough it seemed to work fine without the arm... was the motor weak? No, it was something else and it's worth checking out to prevent trouble.

I removed the cowl cover that contains the windscreen washer nozzles and that the wiper shaft/spline pokes through. You remove the 5 star screws that hold it in place, but you don't have to disconnect the washers -- it will lift up enough to provide access. Once you lift it up you will see a large diameter nut that holds the wiper shaft/spline in place. This nut had over time worked itself loose. As it worked loose, it got to the point that the wiper arm was rubbing against the base in the cowl cover. Fortunately, my daughter didn't leave the wiper stalk in the ON position because this situation would have likely burned out the motor.

It's a quick and easy to task to remove the star screws and lift the cover enough to check if the mounting nut is secure, and will hopefully save someone having to replace a motor.

Cheers