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Windshield wipers won't turn on

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by juliem, Aug 12, 2010.

  1. juliem

    juliem Junior Member

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    My front windshield wipers seem to have gone kaput. I went to clean the windshield yesterday, and while the fluid shot out freely, the wipers didn't move. I tried intermittent, frequent, etc, and nothing got them to move. The back wiper works fine. I restarted the car, checked to make sure that nothing was blocking movement, and still no movement.

    Does anyone know which fuse controls the wipers? Before I head to the dealer (it's been 5 weeks since my last visit), I'd like to see if a blown fuse is the cause of the problem.
     
    #1 juliem, Aug 12, 2010
  2. Boo

    Boo Boola Boola Member

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    Section 9 - Specifications - Fuses of my 2007 Owner's Manual shows that the fuse is in the instrument panel fuse box and shows and describes it as:

    4. WIP 30 A: Windshield wiper
     
    #2 Boo, Aug 12, 2010
  3. juliem

    juliem Junior Member

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    @Boo thx! I found that page in my owner's manual, i hadn't realized it would be listed there. Then I popped off the fuse cover, and realized my manual listed the wrong location. :-/ . But the fuses looked fine, so it's back to the mechanic I go. Sigh.
     
    #3 juliem, Aug 18, 2010
  4. RobH

    RobH Senior Member

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    You might try replacing the fuse even if it looks ok.

    The only way I managed to identify a blown fuse was to pull the lot of them and test each one with a meter. Once I'd identified the bad one with a meter, I could finally see the open spot, but it sure wasn't easy.

    On close examination, it appears that the fuse terminals are exposed through very small holes through the colored part. The voltage could be tested with a sharp enough probe, without removing the fuse.

    After identifying the fuse, the next game was a survey of 3 local auto parts stores. On a 4 foot square rack of fuses at each store, the last one I visited had 2 packages with an assortment of fuses of the right type. One of them was actually the right value. Probably would be a good idea to purchase a set of spare fuses to have on hand.

    As for which fuse, my fusebox (inside the lower left dash) has more fuses in it than are documented in the service info. I made my own drawing of the values of each fuse position before pulling any of them since the documentation wasn't complete.
     
    #4 RobH, Aug 18, 2010
  5. juliem

    juliem Junior Member

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    @RobH I wonder why the information is wrong, or missing. As someone that works in publishing, I'm disappointed that Toyota allows this misinformation.

    I finally got the car back to the dealer yesterday, and as it turns out, the mechanic that replaced my transaxle (for the long backstory, see here) forgot to reconnect the wiper motor connector. So that was quickly remedied, and everything is all fixed now.
     
    #5 juliem, Aug 26, 2010
  6. RobH

    RobH Senior Member

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    Now that I think of it, the extra fuses may be spares. The ones that I did identify were correct, but there were a few extras. Unless one of those extras blows, I don't think I'll investigate what they're connected to, if anything.
     
    #6 RobH, Aug 26, 2010
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