V70 Headlight Wiper Motor

Hi,

I have a V70 Auto 1999 SE and the drivers side headlamp wiper arm is in an upright position...occasionally it moves so obviously either the motor is going, has gone, or is just playing up intermittently. I dont really have the time to do repairs myself and when I do, I usually end up with a worse problem (usually just after the stores have closed).

Does anyone know if it is a long and...therefore expensive job...for a garage to take the wiper motor out and replace?

I noticed there is a step by step for a C70 wiper motor replacement on the forum but not for a V70. Be grateful for any advice.

[sarge]

Driver's side is I believe a bigger job than nearside - I had nearside replaced recently by my dealer and it cost c£200 inc. VAT for the motor and fitting.

Sarge
'99 V70 AWD

[Jod T5]

clearly martin the call is yours, £200 from main dealer or you could source one off ebay for £15
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/VOLVO-S40-HEAD...QQcmdZViewItem
and allocate half a day to fix it if you are not mechanically swayed...i know which way i would go but if you dont fancy it, looks like you will have to bite the bullett......
as a point of interest (or not) when my 850 one went the wiper only moved when i turned the ignition on and off and then slowly, i turned the ignition on and off till the wiper returned to the parked position and i then disconnected it...for some reason having a wiper permanantly in the upright position, or just not right really bugged me....
cheers
jod

HI,
I've just bought a 1998 V70 and that's exactly what my driver's side wiper motor is doing (why the driver's side where you need to remove lumps of other stuff to get at the motor?).
I just removed the blade for now...
I'm wondering whether there's a 'self-parking' switch inside which isn't open-circuiting properly, so it keeps nudging the wiper blade a little more. That being said, could it be an electrical fault within the motor body that's not enabling it to work properly, and not a matter of the gears being stripped (which I gather is what can cause this motor to fail)?
If you find an answer, do please post it! And if I do, I will.

[warthog]

The reason the motor will slowly return the blade to park on repeated switching of the ignition is that there is, within the motor assy. an electrical thermal overload cutout switch. When the motor or mechanism gets tired the motor draws more current and the overload switch operates. Switching the power off allows the switch to cool and reset.

I need to investigate my driver side motor again because it too stopped working, but seemed fine after I dismantled and cleaned everything. Now I've disconnected it as it's a pain to have the blade sticking straight up! I wonder if the thermal switch doesn't get weak with age and cut out at a lower current as the motor works fine with the wiper blade away from the headlight glass. Next time I may just disconnect the thermal switch.

Does anyone know what the normal current draw should be for these wiper motors (not the fuse rating as the thermal cutout should operate before the fuse blows)?

[Chris_Rogers]

I found that you need to dismantle the actual motor and clean the commutater for the fix to be effective.
Make a note of how relative positions of the gears etc. as there are lots of ways of reassembling the thing incorrectly.
From memory the motor took about 3 amps free running before cleaning and about 1 amp afterwards.

[ClassicChris]

I know, it's an 8 year old thread, but if it helps anyone...

Having just been through the pain with my 2000 V70, I can confirm that the cause of failure is that the gaps in the motor commutator become clogged with conductive gunk, causing the motor to draw a large but useless current. Mine was trying to draw over 10A (!) and would have very quickly smoked if I'd let it.

With patience, it is possible to fix this problem. Opening the plastic case is the main obstacle - lots of gentle prising of the numerous plastic tabs. Remove the cover carefully and observe the placement of the 1cm square of thermistor material - it really does go in diagonally between the copper strips. The rest of the mechanism is fairly sane. The motor can be prised/knocked out. Opening the motor case requires bending the nasty little metal tabs back. Scrape out the gunk from the three grooves in the commutator and re-assemble. Once cleaned, my motor drew 0.3A free running and about 0.5A once fully re-assembled and driving the mechanism.

All this for a motor that must have cost pennies! TBH, were it not for the ugly holes in the bumper, I would be quite happy without headlight wash/wipe.

[Clogs]

This is a horrible job as the ducting near the motor won't shift if something won't come undone, like the bolts around the radiator header tank and then the whole lot won't shift backwards enough.

The motor has to be winkled out between the ducting, which will probably break if forced to bend as it's old plastic. The alternative is take off the bumper, but then the rivets inside the wheel arches need to be popped and redone, so not a screw driver and spanner job. I gave up. The motor on eBay is cheap... one day I'll try again!

[catflem]

There is a handy "how to" for anyone suffering similar problems

http://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=51146

[SteveSarre]

Hi all

I recently replaced the RHS wiper motor motor on a 2001 C70.

Access to these is as awkward as on a V70.

What I ended up doing, because I had to replace the front bumper anyway, was to remove the front bumper, RHS headlight, RHS sidelight, then loosen the crash panel (that the headlight attaches to).

Then you can approach the wiper motor from the front. It was really just a 4 minute job once I had got down that deep!

On a C70 the front bumper can be removed without having to drill out any rivets. On a V70 I think you might have to do that.

Hope that helps.
Steve