I am experiencing an annoying problem with the wipers on this 944. They work fine on fast speed only. Sometimes they work on normal speed and occasionally on intermittent. Lately I have lost both normal and intermittent. I have checked the ground for the motor and checked the switch to no avail.

The only remaining items left in the circuit are the relay and the motor itself. The relay looks good but I did a little resoldering anyways. Still no go.

I am thinking of replacing the relay but don't really think that will solve my problem. I hesitate to change the motor 'on spec.'

Has anybody else experienced these problems?

Bob

hi
i think you should check a couple of things, i had this and found a small very small hose connection had a break in it and replaced it also, their is a part on the top of the inside of the engine drivers side, that you push down on.. and that seemed to fix it, it has something to do with electrical.. and can be lifted off easily, it was just possibly a connection? i don't know but that is how i fixed my issue..
is your srs light on at the same time, does it stop your ac from working?

Hi Faith,

It turned out to be the wiper motor [probably brushes]. I bought a used motor complete with all the arms and shafts and installed it yesterday and all is well again.

I did take the wiper stalk out and it was fine. I did check the relay but realized it would only affect the intermittent setting so I was essentially left with the motor and its connections as the culprit.

I am going to see if I can activate the old motor when I have it on the bench to see if it is connectors or brushes. I can get brushes locally with a bit of effort on my part.

Thanks for your input. Much appreciated.

Bob

Dear muskox37,

Hope you're well. The most likely failure point is the steering column-mounted switch, on the right side, that controls the wipers. The reason: the switch has to be moved to activate the wipers. If the car has lived where it rains a lot (as opposed to the US southwest or Australia's interior), that switch could have reached the end of its service life.

I'd swap-in a "known good" spare windshield wiper switch. I'll bet that solves the problem. The part is #1363016 (sedan). MSRP is about $60 at a US Volvo dealer. You should be able to get one for far less at a salvage yard.

Hope this helps.

Yours faithfully,

Spook

Hi Spook,

Nice to hear from you again. It turned out to be the wiper motor that was the culprit. I did check the switch and the relay and that pretty well left the motor---it would appear that the contacts for intermittent and slow wipe were deteriorating.

I ended up buying a second hand wiper motor complete with shafts, etc., which I installed and now it works on all three settings.

I was a little upset when the pivot casting in the passenger side wiper broke just as I was about to complete this latest foray into Volvo repair. I had to get another wiper arm from my local wrecking yard guy but I had to hand over forty bucks Canadian for it [about thirty US].

I am considering a try to get the old motor working. A local electric repair place told me I might be able to get brushes, etc., from them if I bring the motor to them for a look. Could be interesting.

As an aside, this is the car I drove to Puerto Vallarta in 2014. Only problem the car gave me was a blown radiator hose in Casa Grande, Arizona, which kept us overnight there while a part was brought down from Phoenix. The motoring part of the trip was uneventful. It took us eight days because I don't like to drive more than 300 miles on a given day. We were away for a month as it turned out. I quite enjoyed the drive and the car was stellar.

But I also know we were lucky.

Bob

Good call on the switch. Along those same lines is the possibility of a weak grounding path between the steering column and the dash board structure. The 700/900 cars are known for the two snap head column mounting bolts to loosen and cause a break in the ground path for the column-mounted switches. Replacing the mounting bolts with hex head bolts restores proper grounding.
--
Current rides: 2005 Volvo S80 2.5T, 2003 Volvo V70 2.4NA, 1973 Volvo 1800ES (getting ever closer to road worthiness)

Hi Chris,

It turned out to be the motor. Switch was good and the relay only impacts the intermittent setting so it was not that. I bought a complete used setup with motor, arms and shafts, etc. and it works well now. But I want to try out the old motor to see if I have a connector problem or if the brushes are problematic. I can get new brushes locally apparently.

Bob