my sons 2000 monte carlo shuts off with blades at 180 up position. he has probably had this problem for some time. but i looked at it because he got mad and tore the blade apart. when i went to replace the blade i bolted the blades on so they would run the motor cycle without hitting. i thought he would be happy the blades were fixed but he is mad because the motor shuts off with blade up on windshield instead of down below. i spent another 3 hours in the cold trying to get the blades to stop at the bottom of windshield instead of top. the motor turns clockwise and is adustable speed but but when you hit off button the blades rest right at the top of windshield. i dont have a clue why the blade shutoff is at the the top instead of the bottom like its supposed to. i am hoping someone has encounterd a similar problem and might have an answer for this dilemma.

 

The wiper motor needs replacement. When they start to fail, they will park in the middle of the windshield like you are experiencing.

Before you attach the wiper arms after replacing motor, cylce the motor on then off, then reattached your wiper arms at the proper location.

 

The wiper motor is fine and does not need replacement. The crank arm is either damaged, or the tab that it hits is bent. You need to remove the black cowl covers to gain acsess to the wiper motor. There is a metal bracket that holds the wiper motor/transmission to the cowl. On this bracket, between the crankarm and the fender, is a little tab that should be bent up at 90°. If you manually operate the wipers with your hand, you will see that there is a little piece on the crankarm that is supposed to catch the metal tab when in the proper PARKED position. Oh, the crankarm is kind of anodized gold in color, and is bolted directly on top of the wiper motor.

 

Please explain.

The motor contains the circuit which senses when the wipers are in the down position. If this sensor/motor is failing, it will fail to detect it properly.

Your statement was a little premature.

 

My statement is not premature at all. This is a very common issue with the GM W Body vehicles. This problem mostly occurs in the winter months when outside temperatures are below freezing. Water enters the cowl area and tends to freeze to the crankarm mechanism and prevent it from making contact to the tab on the motor bracket, which causes the wipers to park in the position as stated above. There is a revised part numbered crankarm and water deflector(on later model W Bodies) that is to replace the previous design to prevent this from reoccuring. Even though it is possible that the crankarm was replaced with the updated part, the condition is likely to reoccur due to the metal tab on the motor bracket becoming stressed and inturn bending a little bit, just enough for the crankarm mechanism not to contact it to properly park the wipers. We repair alot of these every winter, by replacing the above mentioned crankarm and deflector. Along with that repair, we straighten and at times, strengthen the tab by adding a tac weld to prevent future bending. But we do see a ton of them in the warm months as well. Over time, the water intrusion will begin to rust/corrode the crankarm mechanism, thus of course, requiring crankarm replacment.

So, being the car in question is a 2000, the updated parts may not be applicable. But, the crankarm could be a little rusted/corroded, or the tab could just be ever so slightly bent, just enough to not make the wipers to park. Only way to tell, is to remove the cown panel to visually inspect it.

These wiper systems are a bit different from what other models are using.

A wiper motor only needs to be replaced if the wipers were totally inoperative, and power/ground was present at the motor connector, along with the signals from the wiper switch. Also, if the high modes were inop, low modes worked fine, the windings inside the motor could be shot, requiring motor replacement. There is a circuit board, which is serviceable, that can cause problems as well. But this one stated by l.mitchell, is not one of them.

 

Your explanation is good and I'm sorry if it sounded like I was questioning you.

Merry Christmas!

 

No need to appologize, no offence was taken. Everyone is here to help.

Gotta go,
Merry Christmas to you as well, thanks .