Wiper woes

[cyclezen]

My wife's '96 c280: the intermittent wiper does not work and the wiper does not park. She tried to run the wiper when the blade was frozen to the windshield.

I searched the Usenet and this site, and found tremendously useful information here, for instance:

http://www.club202.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3109&perpage=15&pagenumber=4&

The "tighten the bolts" fix at the end of that post did not work for me. While I had the wiper removed I heard the relay clicking, so I'm pretty sure the relay is OK. While the plastic shrouding was off the windshield I noticed this electrical connection, so I put a multi-meter on it. The connection has leads labeled 1-3-5 across the top and 2-4-6 across the bottom. Lead #1 is inert (non electrical, maybe a placeholder for a different model).

c:\zzz\img_2970.jpg

I got these readings with the wiper on intermittent, low, and high:
Int Lo Hi
1 0 0 0
2 .01 .05 .05
3 0 7.5 12
4 12 12 12
5 0 12 16
6 12 5-11 5-11 (wide swings from 5 - 11 volts)

I got this reading from the female side of the connection (wiper disconnected:
Int Lo Hi
1 0 0 0
2 0 0 0
3 0 0 12
4 12 12 12
5 0 12 0
6 0 0 0

Can anyone interpret these for me? Is it possible to tell whether the switch or the motor is bad based on these?

Thanks~
Dave O

[timmyj51]

Relay still might be your problem even it its working. The
wipers are controlled by the combination relay. Some functions
may work from the relay while others won't. Had problems with
my wipers ('95 C220) recently. Intermittent, fast, park, functions
didn't work. Replaced the relay and intermittent and park
functions are now working but not fast.

[gina2201]

I had a similar-ish problem with my wiper on last Merc.

It would not work in intermittent and would never sit low down enough, so would obscure my view a bit! Also, would sometimes randomly go on by itself. Sometimes even sat on passenger side.

Took it to Mercare (Mercedes Specialist) and they had a look and lubricated all the parts for me for £30 and it was ok after that!

They did say I would need a new wiper motor and wiper linkage totalling £500!!! Eeek! But since the lubrication, it workd alright so never replaced any parts!