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V40 Headlamp wiper motor

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Old May 12th, 2006, 00:05   #1
Viking V40
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Default V40 Headlamp wiper motor

Okay dokey, tonight when I got back to base, I noticed the LH headlamp wiper had 'parked' sitting near vertical . The only way I could get it to park at the bottom of the headlight was to keep switching the ignition on for a couple of seconds.

I've had a look through the Haynes manual and I get the general drift about getting to and removing the headlamp wiper motor. That seems to be the easy bit.

I've had a search through the forums and found a lot of people have had headlight wipers with the same symptoms as mine, albeit on 850s and V70s. A common fault seems to be dirty motor commutators. There are some really good detailed notes about disassembly, cleaning and rebuilding.

Think I'll get the motor out, re-assemble the front of the car so that it's driveable again and do the wiper motor job on a work bench in my own time.

Has anybody else had a stab at doing this job on a V40 - is it possible to open the casing and dis-assemble the motor then rebuild it so that it works properly again?
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Old May 12th, 2006, 22:51   #2
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GETTING THE MOTOR OUT:

Undo the Pozi-drive screw holding the indicator in, unclip the electrical connector and lift out the indicator.

Then use a 10mm socket to undo the 4 nuts holding the headlamp in position, unclip the main electrical connector for the bulbs; leave the electrical connector for the headlamp levelling motor at the moment - you can't get it off yet - the battery is in the way.

Carefully ease the washer tube off the wiper arm. Use an 8mm socket to undo the nut on the end of the wiper motor spindle and take off the wiper arm.

Lift up the car with a jack and position an axle stand under the 'Y' shaped stiffener leading up to the bulkhead (put a piece of wood on top of the jack head and on top of the axle stand to prevent damage to the car's metalwork). Think safety.

Working underneath the front of the car - use a 10mm socket to undo a few of the screws holding the plastic shield immediately behind the bottom edge of the front bumper. The plastic rivets can be removed by pulling on the smaller diameter plastic flange. This allows you to get access to the two screws holding the bumper in position.

Remove the two screws (recessed into a folded metal C-section which runs towards the rear of the engine bay) with a 14mm socket and extension.

In the wheel-arch, at the edge where the plastic bumper meets the metal wing, there is a screw securing the side of the bumper. Use a Torx T30 bit to take out the screw. Have a clean rag handy now, gently ease the bumper forward, place the rag between the side of the bumper and the wing to prevent scratching the paintwork.

Ease the headlamp cluster out, removing that electrical connection to the headlamp levelling motor.

Use a 10mm socket or ring spanner to take off the two nuts securing the wiper motor in position. Ease out the wiring loom and disconnect at the plug and socket positioned near the bonnet catch. The motor is now out .

The motor has a plastic casing with lots of 'snap' hook fastenings. I've got it on the bench now - I'll let you know when I get around to having a look at it. The bumper, headlamp and indicator are back in position so the car is driveable again in the meantime. I hope I can fix it, price for a new motor is £98 + carriage at cost .
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Old May 13th, 2006, 21:43   #3
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REPAIRING THE HEADLAMP WIPER MOTOR:

Having taken the complete wiper motor out yesterday, I spent a bit of time on the internet last night and found a SAAB 9000 owners' website where someone had detailed photos of wiper motor internals, you may have to copy and paste this into the 'address' feature on you browser, but it's definitely worth a look!

http://www.saab9000.com/procedures/e...wiperepair.php

The V40 headlamp wiper motor is almost identical to the one on that website - except the one in the V40 has a straight rack as opposed to the curved rack on the older SAAB item. Both units manufactured by Bosch.

If you work slowly and carefully you can 'spring' the small plastic snap hooks on the plastic casing without damaging them - I got lucky and only managed to break one of them. Tease the flat cover away with a small flat bladed screwdriver. Nothing should come out, so don't worry.

Having made lots of alignment marks (for re-assembly) with a fine permanent marker on the rack, gears and metal plate, I proceeded to push the spindle back into the casing a bit, then removed the rack, plate and two gears - leave the worm gear in place. I got the small electric motor out by carefully levering it up at its back face. It's not soldered in, the two electrical tabs on the motor slip into contacts held within the plastic casing. Its shaft has a 'D' shaped cross section that locates in the plastic worm gear.

We need to clean the gaps between the commutators, so the next step is to open up the small electric motor itself. I damaged the two small tabs on the metal motor casing trying to open them out but don't worry about that - the motor is held so that it won't come apart anyway. Very carefully work between the plastic cap and metal casing and slowly pull the plastic cap away. Be aware that the two brushes are in the plastic cap so be very careful as you remove the cap. It is a good idea to pull on the motor shaft itself to prevent damage to the thin strips that hold the brushes.

The brushes were fine - plenty of meat left and no damage. The commutators were shiny and no signs of burning etc but the gaps between them were filled up with carbon. Carefully scrape that out with the point of a craft knife blade. Give the commutators a clean with a bit of really fine wet and dry (used dry - and wipe around the commutators - not along their length) then a wipe with some electrical contact cleaner. (I didn't have any - so I sprayed a little brake cleaner on a small bit of cloth and used that instead).

Work carefully on re-assembly. There is a little bump on the plastic cap which locates in the metal motor can for alignment, make sure you get that in position. I'm confident that it will stop the cap spinning relative to the can, another reason for not being overly concerned about damaging the two folded metal tabs on the motor casing. You may need to rotate the motor a little to be sure that its D shaped shaft locates properly into the end of the plastic worm gear.

Put everything back together - using the alignment marks you made before dis-assembly as a reference.

We're lucky on the V40 - we can test the wiper motor works before re-installing - just reconnect the plug and socket and get a helper to operate the windscreen wash-wipe while you hold and watch the headlamp wipe motor. (I wrapped a bit of tape around the wiper shaft to make a flag - so I could check that it was actually operating properly).

All good and well, so re-install the motor, headlamp, bumper and indicator, also replace the cover under the bumper. Operate the headlamp wipers a few times so that you can be sure the shaft is in the parked position before refitting the wiper arm.

JOB DONE!

If you decide to do this job yourself, print these posts out if you think they will help and go to that SAAB 9000 website too and print the article out. The chap that wrote that article gives an address for a company that can supply the small electrical motor on its own if you need one - rather than scrapping an otherwise service-able set of wiper mechanics.
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Old May 13th, 2006, 21:47   #4
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You also need to get the headlamp alignment checked seeing as how they have been disturbed, the V40s MOT is due in a couple of weeks - so will get the alignment checked this week. A rough check by looking at the beam pattern against the workshop door shows that it isn't wildly out of line so an happy enough till I get them done at the local garage.
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Old Apr 29th, 2011, 23:52   #5
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Hey!

I have to say this is a great explanation! I went through like I knew what im doing, but Ive never done it before. I put a motor a part, cleaned the brushes and rotor contact points but that didn't solve the problem. It looked like something getting stuck and wipers only turned to a certain point, later I discovered that next to smallest gear there is a bit of plastic that should slow down the gear as it hit the contact point which parks wiper in correct position. I have slightly bend the bit of plastic back and that solved the problem
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Old May 26th, 2011, 21:36   #6
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Hi there iv'e just joined this site after buying a 1999 volvo s40 yesterday. It's a great drive and got a bargain of a car as it's very clean etc for the year. Ive since noticed that the headlight washer motor is constantly on as you can hear it buzzing from the o/s/f headlight area. i just wanted to ask if it could be unplugged for now rather than stripping out the headlight bumper etc.
many thanks
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Old Jul 12th, 2011, 18:37   #7
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Not sure if this is the same as my V70, but.....

I decided today to unplug both headlight wiper connections, at least for now anyway. I will keep the Link though should I want to change or clean out the headlight wiper motor in the future.

I am not really sure if I fancy taking the headlights out myself TBH. I might get them out, but not know how to put them back in properly. LOL

The Problem I have been getting on my Volvo V70 D5 (2004) is that the 15 amp fuse for my windscreen washer was continually blowing out and the headlight wipers have stopped working correctly. After reading many Volvo forurms they all pointed to the same problem of the headlight wiper motor, either dead, dying or needing a good clean out.

I had an excellent local mobile auto electrician come to have a look at this for me today along with doing another thing on my car, he managed to find where the actual connections were for my headlight wipers. He also replaced two bulbs for me all at the cost of £10 cash! ;-)) He's ACE.

This afternoon I managed to take both connections off (once I had turned the ignition on and off a few times, enough to get the headlight wiper blades pointing in the correct starting point).

I am hoping that although my headlight wipers won't work at all now, not that they are that necessary anyway, my windscreen washer will work again without blowing the Fuse all the time. fingers crosses, touch wood etc.

If anyone would like me to upload photos of the actual connectors for the headlight wipers, I will gladly take some and upload them for you. So you know exactly which ones they are. They are near the back of the lights under the bonnet either side of the Radiator.

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Old Jul 13th, 2011, 14:28   #8
thelaird
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You do not need to remove the bumper or headlight, the motor caan be accessed from under the car after removal of the undertray. Yes it is fiddly and you have to much of it by touch, but having done it last week, it is quite easy.
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Old Feb 21st, 2013, 16:11   #9
sarumboy
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Default Headlamp Washer Motor Removal

Yep - just to confirm, you can remove the h/l washer motors from underneath the car after removing the undertray. A 10mm hex socket, flexi-drive and a bit of fiddling is all you need. It beats taking out the headlamps and dropping the bumper.

'01 V40 P2 2.0ES auto
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Old Jan 23rd, 2019, 10:40   #10
scoobian
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Default Headlight wiper motor removal

Great threads, very useful to know that front end removal is not required.
How long does it take to do this task?. Due to age and health I cannot do a lot of the repairs to my beloved and abused V40 Sport (previous owner) so have to take car to local Volvo robbers, sorry dealership and don't want to get ripped off.
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