Colin42

Have an issue with the wipers on my new car.

Some background first:

I wrote off the gold 05 Civic in December, and purchased the new car from my grandfather a few days later. (He had to stop driving so I was already planning on buying it, the accident just sped things up)

The new car is a silver 05 auto "Special Edition" sedan. It only had 78,000 kms when I bought it. My grandfather put 24,000 kms on it in 8 years, and had it serviced at Honda the whole time he had it.

I believe the issue is due to lack of use, the car was barely driven the past 8 years, only driven in town. It did get regular service at the dealer, but this isn't something they would check, and my grandfather never noticed it or he would have had it fixed. (I have all of his maintenance and repair paperwork)

On to the issue:

The mist function (single wipe) works very intermittently. Sometimes nothing happens. Sometimes the wipers will go a couple inches and then stop, like they lost power. Other times I'll get anywhere from 1-8 operations out of the switch before it stops working. And when it stops working it wont work for a few minutes. (Only the mist function)

Also the fast speed appears to be the exact same speed as the slow speed.

Would this be more likely the switch or the the control unit?

I'm planning on doing some testing when spring rolls around and it warms up around here. Just wondering if anyone has had this before.

If its the switch I'll replace it but if its the control unit I'll probably just live with it. Every other function works fine, it passed safety up here in Ontario which has pretty strict safety inspections.

ezone

I've looked at a wiring diagram, it appears the mist/low/high and park functions are all between the switch and motor, but the intermittent and swipe with washers involves the MICU.

So it would seem your issue lies in the switch, motor, or wiring.

Power is supplied to the motor thru a fuse, and the switch supplies grounds to make either low speed (blu wire) or high speed (blu/yel wire).

Park switch uses another couple wires


This makes me think maybe the park switch contacts within the wiper gearbox may have become damaged?


Get a good diagram and do some testing to be sure.
Sometimes when I suspect the park contacts are broken, I have to pull it apart and take the cover off the wiper gearbox to verify it for myself even after testing proved to me they should be the problem.

Colin42

Ok will do thank you ezone.
How often do those park switch contacts break?
I wouldn't have been surprised if that happened with the old car.
But to happen on this car is a little odd, it led a very pampered life the past 8 years

ezone

The motor operation itself seems fairly reliable IMO, but if a given symptom is isolated to the motor--3 times out of 4 it's the park switch contacts just because that's the only other electrical thing in there that can go bad.

Certainly not the only possibility though.
I suppose it's just one of several different possible problems the wipers could have overall.

Colin42

Fair enough, well I printed off the wiring diagrams and test procedures from the pdf service manual that I have. Maybe if I'm bored tonight I'll rip it apart and do some testing.
Thanks again!

Colin42

Update: tested the switch contact continuity between the contacts as per the honda repair manual and everything is good (damn).

The proceedure to test the motor according the manual is to connect power to no 4 and ground to no2. The motor runs fine. Any other suggestions while i have everything ripped apart?

Thank you

Colin42

Fixed! For now anyways.
I popped the cover off the wiper transmission and didn't see any obvious signs of damage, however the contact track and stops seemed pretty gunked up with grease and carbon. I carefully cleaned the contact areas and gaps with a pocket screwdriver and a shop towel, put everything back together and it works! I have mist and fast again, and all the other functions still work. We'll see how long it lasts.

Thank you again for all your help Ezone.