Windshield wiper stuttering

wws944 · 08-04-2012, 03:29 PM

I have a new-to-me 2004 Alero GLS. The car has been stored for the past six years and has only 13k miles. Despite the low miles, there are a few things to sort out. My first Olds, but I have been fooling around with cars, both GM and non-GM, for a long time. So I should be up to speed on it shortly.

One issue it has is the windshield wipers. Sometimes, on the intermittent setting, they will go to full sweep - but then come back down in stages. Maybe a quarter second between each stage. This does not happen on non-intermittent settings. In fact, switching to regular wipe and then back to intermittent seems to 'fix' it for awhile.

Is this a common problem? Is there a wiper module that might have cold solder connections?

sleepyalero · 08-04-2012, 03:34 PM

first of all, welcome to the site, and very nice find!!! 13k miles wish i had that..

other then that, im not sure, mines done that once the whole time i have owned the car.

wws944 · 08-04-2012, 04:20 PM

Thanks for the welcome! The car belonged to an uncle of mine who recently passed away. I wish he could have driven it more than he did. As of a week ago, it only had 11k miles. But then my son and I put on about 2k miles over the past few days driving it to its new home.

Besides the wipers, another problem is a squeal from the serp belt area when cold. It goes away within a minute or two. Listening to it with a stethoscope, I am thinking I need to replace the upper idler pulley. Alternator, PS pump, and water pump sound fine, as does the lower idler pully. Might need to replace the tensioner pulley too - as it sounds a bit rough.

xXManwhoreXx · 08-04-2012, 05:03 PM

Sitting like that is bad at least it was garaged. I want pics cause this sounds too good to be true

a.graham52 · 08-04-2012, 05:34 PM

Spray the belt with water when it squeals. If it goes away then put a belt on it. Check all the puleys for dirt when u have the belt off too

wws944 · 08-05-2012, 09:05 AM

I'll give the water trick a try this morning and see what happens with the squealing.

So no thoughts on the wiper problem? It doesn't rain very often here, so I can ignore it for a while. But like Morton salt, "when it rains it pours".

03glgold · 08-05-2012, 01:56 PM

mine has issues with the intermittent settings doing that if i am at idle but if i am driving it is just fine, don't make much sense, however half the time by the time i decide to stop using mist and turn them on it is raining too hard for intermittent anyways

wws944 · 11-06-2012, 07:01 PM

I am going to get a chance to investigate this problem in a couple of weeks, and would like to get it resolved. Looking at the Haynes #38026 manual, there are only two things which could possibly be bad - one of the switches in the steering column, and the motor itself. Or more likely the circuit board attached to the motor has a cold solder joint. Considering the number of miles on the car, I am ruling out the switches. Am hoping I can simply touch up any soldered connections on the motors circuit board, and not have to replace the whole motor assembly.

Looking at page 12-14, it doesn't seem that difficult to r+r the motor assembly. Any tricks I should know about? Am thinking about going over to the Pick N Pull to practice on a junker.

Also, when looking up replacement motors, it seems that there was a running change in Feb 2003. Since there doesn't seem to be a lot of discussion on this problem, I am wonder if it is primarily an issue with cars like mine with the post-Feb 2003 motors? Or do earlier ones have the same issue?

billytheman1188 · 11-06-2012, 09:26 PM

Might be a 2003+ thing. I had an 02 with 160kthe and never had an issue....have a 2000little now with 96k and the original motor. Swapping them is cake...take out the 4 clips thqt hold cowlthen pull it forward a little cause the back part of the cowl goes ynder the windshield. Obviously take wipers off first...good luck with that.

03glgold · 11-06-2012, 09:34 PM

I have had mine apart before, my passenger side wiper arm broke free from the transmission so I did a personal upgrade so it won't happen again

Trace62 · 11-07-2012, 01:23 AM

Not too be an ass. But Have you changed the wipers. I bought mine with 120,000 and noticed a big difference.

wws944 · 11-07-2012, 11:11 AM

Thanks guys. Good to know the r+r is an easy job.

Trace: the wiper blades are clearly not an issue. The "stuttering" is 6 or so distinct stop-start-stop-start movements on the downward stroke.

My guess is that there is some problem with the intermittent wiper circuitry. Probably a cold solder joint or two. Looking at some photos of the motor, it looks like it should be easy to get to the circuit board.

a.graham52 · 11-07-2012, 12:05 PM

If your going to a you-pul to get a motor to practice... just swap it in the car and see if it fixes your problem first. no poin in wasting a good motor if you screw up for nothing. you verified that the wiper motor is indeed stopping (stuttering) and not just slipping on the trans?

sleepyalero · 11-07-2012, 12:16 PM

did the water trick work? mine squeals cause its got some powerstearing fluid on it, would the water trick help with my slight squeal?

a.graham52 · 11-07-2012, 03:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sleepyalero

did the water trick work? mine squeals cause its got some powerstearing fluid on it, would the water trick help with my slight squeal?

the "water trick" only tells you where the noise is coming from. it does not fix anything. try degreaser on the belt and wash well. give it a few hundred miles to clean up. otherwise if its bad enough, get a new belt.

sleepyalero · 11-07-2012, 09:55 PM

okay thanks man

wws944 · 11-08-2012, 03:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sleepyalero

did the water trick work? mine squeals cause its got some powerstearing fluid on it, would the water trick help with my slight squeal?

I created another thread on this in the LA1 3400 Specific forum. It turned out that a new (Gates) belt fixed it.

wws944 · 11-08-2012, 03:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by a.graham52

If your going to a you-pul to get a motor to practice... just swap it in the car and see if it fixes your problem first. no poin in wasting a good motor if you screw up for nothing. you verified that the wiper motor is indeed stopping (stuttering) and not just slipping on the trans?

By the time I buy it at the PNP, the price (including core charge, taxes, environmental fees, etc - this is California...) works out to nearly $40 for something that has a zillion miles, led a hard life, and is probably on its last legs. If I need to, I would rather buy a new part. OTOH, the $2 admission charge is an easy way to get a little practice on the r+r procedure, and take a good look at the part, before my daughter gets home with the car.

03glgold · 11-09-2012, 12:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by billytheman1188

Might be a 2003+ thing. I had an 02 with 160kthe and never had an issue....have a 2000little now with 96k and the original motor. Swapping them is cake...take out the 4 clips thqt hold cowlthen pull it forward a little cause the back part of the cowl goes ynder the windshield. Obviously take wipers off first...good luck with that.

I am assuming that the same motors were used in cavy's and other gm models as well. I was on the ecotec forum and there were many people who also listed having this issue with the intermittent settings and most of them had 03's

wws944 · 11-09-2012, 08:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 03glgold

I am assuming that the same motors were used in cavy's and other gm models as well. I was on the ecotec forum and there were many people who also listed having this issue with the intermittent settings and most of them had 03's

Yep, you are right. The Delco part number is 22711473. Besides the Grand Am, it also fits similar year (2003-2005) Cavaliers and Sunfires.

Looks like Grand Ams outnumber Aleros at the Pick-N-Pulls around here by about 5:1.