Windshield Wipers That Won't Go Down - Happy Birthday To My Car

Me and The Dale. I found the jacket while doing volunteer work at our local Coats for Kids distribution center. I mean, seriously, what's the chance of that happening?

My 2002 Monte Carlo (#899 of 3,333 Dale Earnhardt Intimidators) celebrated its 13th birthday this past Halloween by wearing out its windshield wiper transmission. This on top of the ABS system not working had me thinking, briefly, that it might be time to shop for that Dodge Challenger R/T that I've decided will eventually replace the Monte. Facing combined repair bills for the brakes and now the windshield wiper transmission (a windshield wiper transmission? Really?) of north of a grand, you might agree that it might be time. However, I'm not your typical mild manner suburban homeowner and the 13 year old car that I drive has less than 85,000 miles on it. It still has a lot more to give. So, let's get at it.  

 



My car is essentially a two door version of the Chevrolet Impala. It's also very similar to the Pontiac Grand Prix, Buick Regal and Oldsmobile Intrigue of the same vintage.
 

God Bless youtube. The first thing I tried was to follow along to a video of a crude fix of my exact windshield wiper problem. This happens to some degree of regularity on cars like mine (GM W-bodies) and the fix seemed very straight forward. Remove the cowl and bend back a small metal tab that acts as a shift point that engages a cam on the wiper motor when the wipers are turned off. That tab had, apparently, gotten worn down but if you pull it up a tad it works just fine. The "fix" worked at first (this problem has been ongoing for the better part of year) but after a heavy snow last winter the wipers acted up again. It's not the end of the world since the wipers still worked, it's just when they're off, they're stuck up. Quite the annoyance. I "fixed" them again but I had a feeling at that time the next time they broke that more extensive surgery would be required to fix them since I had bent the shit out of that tab.

 

Wipers stuck up. Amazingly, I did get used to driving with these things up like this.

 

That time finally did come just as my car turned 13 years old. I was right, too; there was no fixing the wipers again with the quick youtube fix despite spending hours attempting to do so. This was one of those problems that just felt like it was going to be expensive to repair and I was right. A call over to my very courteous new car dealership's parts and service counter had me a out the door estimate of  just over $500 for the fix. $260 for parts and another $250 or so for labor, shop fees and what not. God. Damn it.

 

This donor wiper transmission came from a 2003 Monte Carlo and cost me only $57 with a one year warranty.

 

Here's where I think a lot of people let themselves down, though - they don't listen to what a repair shop is telling them when they're being told what needs to be done to their car. When I called the dealership and explained the problem they told me exactly what needed to be done, replace the wiper transmission. I told them I'd call them back in a few minutes but instead of calling them back, I called a local junkyard and asked them if they had a windshield wiper transmission for my car. They did. What was more, they wanted just $45 for it. Bingo. I had them throw in a one year warranty for another $12 so out the door I'm in the black for at least $450 on this project. This, friends, is how we do it.

 

These 1aauto.com videos are fantastic

 

The only thing left to do was to follow another youtube video (these 1aauto.com videos are  fantastic) on the removal and installation of a windshield wiper transmission and voila. Mission accomplished. It was a very straight forward process. By the way, I'm not sure which I like better, making these big, unusual repairs on my old car or saving wads of cash. Bit of both I'm sure.

 

Work is about to begin 

 

No sooner had I completed the project and boasted to my wife of my latest accomplishment that she  told me she's going to use the money I didn't spend on buying her mother airline tickets so she can spend Thanksgiving with us.

 

 

Half hour later the donor transmission is in the car and bolted down.

 

I can't wait to see what breaks next to see what she spends the savings on.