V70 Rear Wiper removal and fix

Post by **Jack Rock** » 27 Apr 2011, 06:27

I finally got tired of looking at the rear wiper arm parked at the 1:30 position of my V70. It wasn't just a matter of
repositioning the wiper arm because this would just cause it to wipe the tailgate. The entire window would get wiped - it
would go from 1:30 to 3:00 back to 9:00 then home to 1:30. I searched around this site and found at least one other person
with this problem but no solution, so here's my first how-to.

Remove the wiper arm with a 13mm wrench and leave the nut off.
Remove center cap trim by pulling towards you 1/2" then up.
Pry tailgate release trim out from the top then slide up. This was very hard and I got several small cracks be careful.

: trim1.JPG (27.78 KiB) Viewed 14170 times

You don't need to take all of the door skin off, I just released the top by working one set of fingers between the
plastic and the window and the other in the hole created by removing the center cap, then pull up. You can see how the
clips are attached in the picture. You should now be able to reach in to take out the wiper assembly.

: panel clip.JPG (21.49 KiB) Viewed 14170 times

Disconnect the electrical connector and remove three bolts with a 10mm socket. The wiper assembly should slide right out
of the window grommet.

: assembly.JPG (19.39 KiB) Viewed 14170 times

Next I fastened the assembly on my work bench. I put the wiper arm nut back on tight and put a wrench on it to simulate the
wiper arm, hooked up a 12V power supply and watched how it operated. I found that the linkage that attaches to the motor
itself must have slipped somehow at one point because the motor only spins in one direction and stops in the same spot every
time. In order to get the motor to stop at home you need to give the yellow wire 12 volts but when you turn off the power
it just stops, so simply touch 12 volts to the orange (this is the intermittent) until it goes home.

: wiring.JPG (29.45 KiB) Viewed 14170 times

Remove the nut on the motor shaft, pry off the linkage. At this point I spent a bunch of time unseizing the wiper shaft.
There's a small cir-clip near the wiper arm nut, just pry it off and tap the shaft out from the assembly (the motor side
linkage must be off for this to come out). I used emery cloth on the shaft and a fine file for the bushing because of the
amount of corrosion then applied some grease to the shaft and put it back together.

Rotate the wiper arm wrench until the motor side looks like the 'after' picture (note the two linkages are parallel to each other)and reattach the motor side linkage. Run the motor again and repeat the process as needed. It took me a couple attempts to get it perfect, the first time there was still about a 1/2" dip of the wrench when the motor started.

: motor linkage.JPG (29.27 KiB) Viewed 14170 times

To reinstall the door trim, I got lucky and just reused the clips that were still attached to the panel. Give them a quarter
turn and pull out, then slide them in the slot on the gate. Then just push the panel into the gate and they should just
snap into place.

VolvoTurbo850 · Post by **VolvoTurbo850** » 27 Apr 2011, 09:41

Fantastic write up. Thanks for this!

Post by **matthew1** » 27 Apr 2011, 12:00

Awesome, Jack. It's in the Repair Database now.

Post by **firestix** » 27 Apr 2012, 15:46

I just started going in to check out my non operational wiper. Found this helpful. I thought I would add a hint here regarding the tailgate trim. I got the top of the rear interior panel loose. In my case I pushed/ pulled the panel clips in the first picture up to slide them out. Once this was loose I could peer in and see the top end of the tailgate trim and lock tabs. So i went around to the interior side and jammed a flat head screw driver between the plastic and the carpeted panel to apply pressure. With another screwdriver I went in between the interior panel and the back door an pressed on the locking tabs thus freeing the tailgate trim without cracking or breaking it. My problem seems to be too much drag on the pivot so I'm off to see if I can't figure out how to remove it and free it up.

Post by **firestix** » 30 Apr 2012, 02:21

Yup great write up. Man that pivot was messy. Got it all cleaned up and back together. Yet somewhere along the line I got something mixed up. It operated entirely backwards. I.e. it wanted to wipe the tailgate and not the window. First fix was to reposition the wiper to the right side, only to realize wiper fluid streamed down the window till the wiper made it over to that side. Next fix was to turn the motor side armature 180 degrees so it stuck straight out at rest. Now I know when I pulled it it looked like the After picture above when at rest. I can't figure out for the life of me what I did wrong in reassembly to make the mechanism work entirely backwards. I didn't mess with the wiring. My only thought is the spinning and back and forth twisting trying to remove the stuck pivot somehow reoriented the geometry of the mechanism. While it functions perfectly now I know in the back of my head its not right. Ooh, I got another idea looking at the above pictures. If I'm right ill post pics of right and wrong of what could be an easy mistake in this operation.

Post by **rspi** » 30 Apr 2012, 06:33

How long does the "fix" work? I just replaced it with one from a rear hatch I had, from a junked car. It was real easy and no guess work. My motor was bad. Now these things do have a relay that causes them to park. Powering them without that relay would cause them not to park properly. I was able to test the wires to make sure they were getting power without taking the unit off the door. This is what I did (http://www.atthetipwebs.com/technologyi ... _hatch.htm):

With the hatch panel removed, unplug the wire connector from the motor. It simply pulled loose.

The wire end of the connector has 3 wires. A ground (2 - orange), a intermit wipe power (3 - yellow/purple), and the constant wipe power (1 - green/orange).

To test the switch to make sure it is delivering power to the motor, turn the switch on "constant wipe", turn the ohm meter on to test for voltage (on my meter I had it turned around to the .50 V), place the ground wire on the #2 post and the power wire to #1 post. You should get a constant power reading (12 volts) to your meter. Then turn the switch on the "intermit setting", place the ground wire on the #2 post and the power wire to #3 post. You should get a pulsating reading to your meter from 0 volts to 12 volts. This will let you know that your switch is sending power to the motor.
NOTE: If you are getting power to the motor and it is not making your wiper work you have one of two problems. Either your motor is bad or you have a seized transmission/arm assembly.
Since I had good power, I assume my motor was bad. So I checked for continuity in the wiper motor.

To test continuity in the wiper motor I switched the ohm meter to check ohms. Then I placed the ground wire on pin #4 (on the motor) and the power lead (red) to pin #5 on the motor. Mine read 0 (zero) ohms. I then tested the other side of the motor, the intermittent side (pins #4 and #6) and still got 0 ohms. Then I did the same test on the spare motor I had from a V70 hatch and when I tested #4 and #5 pins it read almost 3k ohms.

Post by **Jack Rock** » 30 Apr 2012, 16:05

[quote="rspi"]How long does the "fix" work?

A year now I guess. I should note though that I recently noticed that my wiper parked on the wrong side. In the 'after' picture, the nut on the motor shaft should be visible, so I should have had the first linkage from the motor 180 degrees around.

Post by **rspi** » 30 Apr 2012, 16:14

I have seen a few wagons with the wipers parked on the passenger side. I was wondering about that. As long as it parks and wipes in the proper area, I guess it's fine. It doesn't have a parking bracket. Could be a bad relay.

I don't use my rear wiper much. I was wondering if one of those VW delay relays would allow for the intermit wiper timer like it does on the front windows?

Post by **firestix** » 30 Apr 2012, 16:59

Jack Rock wrote:
rspi wrote:How long does the "fix" work?

A year now I guess. I should note though that I recently noticed that my wiper parked on the wrong side. In the 'after' picture, the nut on the motor shaft should be visible, so I should have had the first linkage from the motor 180 degrees around.

So if what your saying is right. Mine is set right. I took a picture of one at the scrap yard today on an XC. It too was 180 degrees and the nut was exposed. SO I am inclined to believe that my thoughts were misguided when I was taking it apart. I think ill try and take a picture before I button it all up again and get it posted here sometime soon.

On another related note, the tailgate release can also be safely removed by getting a flat head screwdriver in the top starting on one side and gently pushing downward with an outward pry. I could hear the pop when one of the lock tabs let go then knew to work toward the other side. When taking it apart today the light was wrong and I could not see the tabs on the inside so working from one side to the other I successfully got it out with out visible damage using this method.

Post by **firestix** » 03 May 2012, 14:56

As promised a picture of the whole armature how I'm buttoning back up. It seems to be operating just fine. Although I still have the nagging feeling the motor park was when the armature was over the bolt. However all evidence points to that feeling being wrong.