HoustonL98

It is strange because the first day I had the car the wipers were stuck up and they would not activate. About a month and a half ago they started working randomly for about a week. Then they stopped again, thankfully in the down position. What do you think could cause this?

Andrew H

my wipers are intermittent too (mainly for intermittent function which doesnt work at all and wash wipe only does one sweep) -I removed & disassembled the control unit (located near the brake servo/booster unit) , re-soldered the circuit board (it's fairly crude) and it worked for a few minutes... so must have been dry solder -I'm guessing you have a similar problem, though I'd recommend getting a complete new/used replacement unit as mine still doesn't work correctly (though if you're ok with a soldering iron, maybe try the same). Take care when you reattach the unit back into the car that the spindle lines up (note down the position when you take it apart) as it could cause damage if wrongly aligned. Also note down which water pipe is which as it's easy to get it all muddled up when you reassemble.

If it's not the control unit (most likely cause) it might be the control inside the car (note, it's not likely to be the stick itself (though in my case, changing the stick fixed an intermittent cruise control problem i had!). The functions of the wash-wipe are a separte unit inside the steering column (which in turn is adjusted using the stick -in the same way changing a gear stick won't fix a broken gearbox) -just so you don't order the wrong part. If either these parts need changing and you go for used, get one out of a fairly new car as they're high-wear items (the stick is the same in nearly all late GM cars -not sure about the last few years) -I'm not sure about the control inside the column itself though -probably the same, might differ slightly.