No Wipers

[rp2813]

A search didn't produce any similar discussions, so here's the deal:

The wipers on my '03 Baja won't work on any setting. They'll take a swipe if I push the "wash" button, and the fuse looks good.

I've only had the car for several weeks and haven't driven it in wet conditions until today. I'm suspecting the switch, but is there anything else that might be wrong or is there some way to isolate the problem? Even if El Nino is a no-show, I'm going to need wipers at least until May.

[bajaguy]

When I bought my Baja, the wipers wouldn't stop at the bottom. Replaced the wiper switch for $40 (legacy) and it works great. Unfortunately, the new one does have intermittent, but not adjustable timing intermittent.

[rp2813]

Thanks for the reply. I can't imagine what else it could be other than the switch.

I checked my Chilton shop manual (admittedly inadequate in many respects) and became both annoyed with their instruction process and intimidated by its perceived complexity. I'll probably leave this to a pro. Unless the amount of labor involved for the wiper switch is a budget buster, I may have them replace the presumed-bad back-up light switch while they're at it.

[bajaguy]

The switch is easy to replace. The clear/white housing thing that it and the blinker switch go in requires taking the steering wheel off to replace. Fortunately, you don't have to mess with it. I don't know what the chilton book recommends, but I thought it was only like one screw holding it in once you take the plastic cover off the steering column.

Its easy to take the plastic cover off if you want to just take a look and see how easy it is.

[bajaguy]

Well I was just going through old stuff and happened to come across the bezel that was left over from when I fixed mine (when I bought it off ebay it came with both switches in the housing thingie). There are two screws (not pictured) that are above and below the switch. Remove these and the arm slides right out. You don't need to replace the white/clear part. Hope this helps.

[rp2813]

Thanks for the additional information. If I don't have to remove the steering wheel, I'm willing to look into the DIY option.

If I understood correctly, the clear/opaque component can remain in place (because I'm only replacing the switch and not the entire assembly), the screws holding the wiper control stem become accessible after the column cover is off, and once they're removed, the stem can be extracted.

So there's no messing with wiring at all? This is sounding like a fairly easy repair. I'll take a look at it, since "they" insist el nino is still coming.

[bajaguy]

Yup, white part stays. You do have to remove the plug from the wiper arm and then plug it back in on the new one. Other than that, no wiring stuff.

[rp2813]

OK, so I got the bottom of the steering column cover off easily but can't get the top to budge, which means I can't access the top screw holding the wiper arm into the white/clear part. Is there a trick to getting the top cover off? It seems like it would crack or break if I used too much force.

I'm also seeing a range of part numbers that all supposedly fit the Baja and a few other models over a wide range of years. They all start with 83114, but have seen suffixes of AE110, AE150, and AE151. Is there a particular suffix I should be looking for, and can it be found on the actual wiper arm part once I manage to extract it?

[bajaguy]

Did you adjust the steering column down? There might be a screw through from the bottom holding it on as well. This was about 5 years ago when I did this. I bought one that fit a legacy and was probably a different part number but still worked. It doesn't have the adjustable intermittent thingie.

[rp2813]

I did adjust the column down as low as possible. I looked and felt around for screws/holes in the upper column cover but didn't find anything. I'll take another look. It felt to me that the dash end of the cover was where it was attached. The switch lever does have a screw at the bottom, which was visible after the lower cover was out of the way, but I couldn't get the upper column cover to move enough to get a look at the top of the switch lever mounting. Regardless of whether there's a top screw securing the lever or not, it looks as though the upper cover needs to be loosened enough to position it out of the way so the lever assembly can be extracted.

I did some on-line research and it looks like the current part number for the wiper switch assembly is 83114AE151. It supersedes suffix 110 and 150 and settings on it are identical to what's on my Baja now, including -- I think -- the interval adjusting ring for the intermittent function.

[rp2813]

Well, this is awkward.

I've only had my Baja for a couple of months, and so far have had only one occasion where I recall driving it in the rain, and the wipers worked fine. I'm apparently still on a learning curve because -- on my other car, the wipers are operated by turning the end of the stem. Somehow I had a memory lapse and was trying to operate the Baja's wipers by turning the ring that sets the interval for intermittent operation. After looking at wiper switch assemblies on Subaru parts sites and ebay, It dawned on me that the wipers are activated by moving the entire lever downward. Doh!

So the wipers work fine, and I clearly need to keep spending time behind the wheel of the Baja so I can shake the learned behaviors from my other car, which is getting a well-deserved rest now that I have the Baja for buzzing around town and hauling stuff.

Sorry to have wasted time and bandwidth on this and thanks for the useful advice, but the good news is that at least for the time being, I don't have to remove the column cover, and I can safely take the Baja out in the rain, which is arriving later this evening and staying for a few days.

[bajaguy]

Haha! Glad it all worked out! Now I'm curious how I got it off though...maybe I'll go mess around with it sometime.