I did the module repair a while back (see thread) and a couple months ago, the motor started making a whirring noise. The wiper action also has gotten slower. It seems reasonable that the motor was on borrowed time (though seemingly coincidental with the diode failure in the module).
Today I got a text a little before 11am that her wipers had failed. Sigh.
Quick scour of the interwebs yielded low stock at the big 3 stores, with only Advance Auto in Pawtucket having a new motor, for $77, with a single and very poor review. The poor review indicated that the arms excessively move down before wiping, to get out of the park position, which means you have to attach the arms higher in the sweep. That's dumb. No idea if they installed the linkage wrong (maybe) but I checked car-part.com. No local yard had one, but they were $25-$35 anyway.
I made a call to my local yard and sure enough they had quite a few (everyone has a ton of Malibus of this generation, it would seem). $35.
They even explained how to line up the linkage arm when reinstalling, which I thought was nice.
When I got home, I moved the car up to the garage so I'd be sheltered a little from the rain (didn't really rain much). I also noticed the wipers did work but very slowly. Ok, fuse works, probably a bad motor. Time to dig in. Would this be a bit PITA?
As with the other thread, the job starts out much the same. Remove wiper arms (13mm nut), cowl plastic push rivets and cowl cover.
There's the wiper motor, again.
Apparently I misread the FSM instructions (loosely followed). You don't have to remove the control module from the motor assembly. I did for some reason. Just like last time, I guess. Must be muscle memory. You do have to disconnect the motor harness, though.
I think what I misunderstood was the "3" bolts. The three bolts you need to remove actually attach the entire motor and transmission assembly to the cowl. One on the motor, and one at each wiper stud. Those are 10mm.
Once you do that you can turn the motor over and loosen the nut that attaches to the transmission assembly.
Then I laughed out loud. Why? Because I was struggling to remove the nut from the motor, with the unit still in the cowl. Turns out I wasn't really studying how this all works and it comes right out!!
That's right. The entire thing, the motor, transmission and the splined studs. How ridiculously easy is that? This car was made to be assembled quickly and this is a huge bonus. I have no idea how many other cars are like this (probably a lot), but I'm loving it. Close up.
Remove the two bolts that secure the motor to the tubular arm support. This is with the new motor on.
I did my best to line up the linkage about the way I think it looked when I removed it, and put it all back into the car.
Before doing anything else, I plugged in the motor harness and tried running the motor. I wanted to make sure everything looked and sounded normal, and the motor parked properly. I did use the module that came with this motor, so if they begin working only on high speed again, I'll swap to the original module where I had replaced the diode in the other thread.
Fixed!
Total time: about 35 minutes (and $35). Didn't even diagnose in person. Just stopped on my way home from work to pick up a junkyard motor. Once again I ask: would someone throw this car away because "it's falling apart?"
2000 Chevy Malibu: wipers stopped working
2000 Chevy Malibu: wipers stopped working
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