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Rear Wiper Moves Backwards

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Technical Discussion' started by brockdeck, Jul 2, 2020.

  1. brockdeck

    brockdeck New Member

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    ----USA----
    Hey there,

    My girlfriends 2008 has a weird issue with the rear wiper. Instead of wiping the rear window, it actually moves outward from the car.

    Am I missing something extremely simple?

    I come from the Land Cruiser realm and I am absolutely clueless. Electrical issue? PO install something incorrectly?

    Appreciate any help! Thanks!
     
  2. M in KC

    M in KC Active Member

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    The motor was most likely replaced and not clocked correctly when reinstalled or the linkage was not reassembled correctly at the same time. The first movement when turned on should down and to the passengers side.
     
  3. sam spade 2

    sam spade 2 Senior Member

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    Have you actually inspected the wiper arm ?
    This could be a simple matter of a broken or missing spring.
     
  4. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    By "outward from the car", do you mean that it is lifting or flopping away from the glass, or that it is moving back and forth in a regular arcuate pattern but the pattern reaches out off the left edge of the window?

    If the latter, I would go with M in KC's answer; if the former, maybe Sam's.
     
  5. R-P

    R-P Active Member

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    I doubt it has anything to do with this issue, but my Volvo has a well known issue with the rear wiper (water ingress from the washer system). So I opened it up and gave it a thorough clean. I even disassembled the motor (rusty bearing inside).

    Long story short: I probably ended putting the carbon brushes round the wrong way and the motors rotation turned the wrong way.

    The gears make sure the arm moves correctly regardless (rotation is converted into a left-right-left-wiping-motion), except for the first second: it would turn downward toward the metal (actually in this Volvo: plastic...) of the bootdoor and wipe a piece of that before going upward over the glass. Took me years and a reoccuring failure of the motor to finally figure out what I had messed up...

    But as said, I doubt this is the issue and although i hated my solution (before I found the error), I simply had my wipers restingposition 'clocked' 20 degrees too high, which was a decent workaround with lousy esthetics.
     
  6. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Yeah, a brushed DC motor will spin the other way if the brush cap is rotated 180°, and if it's a cap that's held on by two screws and goes on just as easily one way as the other....

    I did that on a GF's heater blower motor once. Hard to diagnose because a centrifugal blower will still blow air, in the same direction, whichever way it spins. It just blows a lot more air when it spins the way the squirrel cage was shaped for.

    Noticed it was doing a lousy job defogging the windshield.
     
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