Merc Wiper trouble

FuzzyWuzzyWazza

Hi,

I am having a problem with the wiper on my 1995 C180. It is a single wiper, which is ment to move in and out as it travels the 180 degrees of the windshield.

Unfortunatlly it is not doing this at all, as it wipes it more or less just stays where it is put(from an 'in/out' motion point of view), but over time it moves outward, so I have to push it back in to stop it catching on the edge of the A-pilars, and then repeat a few weeks later.

I have taken the entire motor and linkage out and as far as I can tell all the parts inside look to be working correctly, I ran the wiper while I had it off the car and it all worked ok, going in and out fine. But when i put it back on I am getting the same result.

Could this be from the motor being old and not having the power to push the blade in that way, or would it be a problem with the linkage.

cheers,

MercMad

This is a very common problem with these cars. I have fixed loads over the years !

It is actually down to poor lubrication of the shaft. It basically semi seizes in its housing and if not rectified it can lead to stripping of the splines on the motor ouput shaft. Even this car be rectified but first try the easy solution.

You need to ensure you have 100% silicon spray. DO NOT use anything else or you could make the problem worse. You seem to be able to strip it properly so I wont bore you with that just get the spray and clean up that shaft the extends and retracts until the shaft is shiny cleany. Spray plenty of silicon lubricant onto it and move the assembley in and out until you are hapy that there is no resistance.

Reassemble but remember to index the motor splines correctly, i.e ensure that when the motor has parked that you fit the linkage so that the wiper has parked too. It would be a good idea to make a tiny scribe line at the splines just in case the above doesn't work and you need to verify if the splines have moved relative to eachother !

If you need more info the let me know and I will provide as much detail as you need !

BTW this failure is due to the fact that this area was not lubricated regularly over the years. all the main dealers and independents know to lub this shaft, which for future reference can be done without stripping anything. Just turn on the wiper and when it is in a vertical (extended ) position turn off the ignition. Apply some lub to the shaft and leave overnight. Repeat every 6 months !

BTW always remove the ignition key when working near wiper mechanisms with your hands, these things have the torque to take your finger clean off !

Good luck !

mike65

Interesting, I've never even thought about doing mine or read of anyone doing this dispite being on serveral Merc message boards. Must ask about...

Mike.

FuzzyWuzzyWazza

Cheers MercMad, I will give that a go and see what happens

FuzzyWuzzyWazza

OK, so I did as you suggested MercMad, and there has been no differance. The movement seems a lot better (when I am doing it by hand) but the wiper still just goes back and forth.
However I did the work on sunday and this evening I noticed that there where some wiper marks (from dust on the window) indicating the wiper had a least once moved correctly, but when I turned the wiper on again to check it was just doing the same old single movement.

any more suggestions?

unkel

MercMad wrote:

This is a very common problem with these cars

Yes I've heard of several too. A friend in the UK spent £800 to get the wiper motor replaced by a main $tealer on his late 90s C-class :eek:

bazz26

unkel wrote:

Yes I've heard of several too. A friend in the UK spent £800 to get the wiper motor replaced by a main $tealer on his late 90s C-class :eek:

Ah! The old "If you can afford the badge then you can afford to fix it" syndrome from the stealer. It figures..:(

mike65

My solution is fairly simple - breakers yard. You'll pick up a complete wiper assembly (except motor which you swap over) for no more than 80-100 euro I'd say. Possibly a bit less.

Mike.

FuzzyWuzzyWazza

mike65 wrote:

My solution is fairly simple - breakers yard. You'll pick up a complete wiper assembly (except motor which you swap over) for no more than 80-100 euro I'd say. Possibly a bit less.

Mike.

yeah that exactly what I was thinking, I just hope that the one I get dosen't have thje same problem!!

The other option is a place in Clondalkin, called GSF Car parts, the do parts for german Swedish and french cars, they are a UK company and they have a genuine linkage on their website for £245stg + VAT (£42.88). But I bet the price over here will be higher then a straight conversion of €420

mike65

GSF have a warehouse here check "The Knowledge" sticky for the phone number

Mike.

FuzzyWuzzyWazza

mike65 wrote:

GSF have a warehouse here check "The Knowledge" sticky for the phone number

Mike.

Handy, that will save me having to look it up in the golden pages. The warehouse is the place in clondalkin I was referring to:D

I have used them before to get a replacment indicator, when the origional just fell out while I was on the M50 one day.:eek: