2000 V70R brakes, headlight wiper motors and 12V plug-ins

Post by **scot850** » 14 Oct 2014, 12:16

Hi Guys,

More curious issues to tax the minds of you magnificent geniuses!

1) Headlight wiper motors- I know many say to junk them, but up here in Canada we like them as the roads get messy in winter. I have 2 that work great on the car, but had the opportunity to add to my stash when at Pick-n-Pull last week when a car was sitting with 2 still fitted. Today I had time to try them out. I disconnected one headlight (LH in case it is important) and connected one motor. First try it worked, second try nada. Disconnected, tried the other, same issue. When I switch the ignition off, and then on again, the motors both look like they are re-setting, and then nothing again. So clearly they appear to work, no strange noises or slow movement. So why do they not work more than once? Do they need the weight of the wiper arm and friction of the wiping action to get their bearings? Or are these duff parts (they can be returned for refund). Is there any other way to test them that is more correct?

2) Brake pressure. Car does not get used a lot these days, but sometimes when I get in and start up, it is like there is no brake boost and the peddle is hard. I had it into the dealer the first time this happened, and they could find no problem. It is intermittent, but is this the booster or something else possibly?

3) 12V socket in the center dash and rear garbage bin. I pulled 2 as spares, as for some reason both in my car are fairly corroded in their contact points. Is there any way to test the bulbs on the bench, and if the bulbs are duff, how do you remove the black housings to replace the bulbs? Also what are the bulb specs.?

: Rear 12V socket

: Front 12V socket

As always, any help appreciated.

Neil.

Post by **jimmy57** » 14 Oct 2014, 14:09

headlight wiper motors that are aged will likely all have the bad PTC protection resistors bad. The good news is that they can be fixed by removing the PTC and substituting with a folded piece of aluminum foil or a piece of copper shaped to fit in place. The downside of this is you lose the shuts itself off feature if wiper is frozen to headlight.

On cold days at first start for as much as 30 seconds the engine makes almost no vacuum due to CVVT postioning of cam and retarded ignition timing for faster warmup. The hard pedal is the reason the electric vac pump was introduced later. Your booster could have a slight leak that lets stored vacuum be sealed in booster after a few days. Lots of faint booster leaks go 200K miles with no issue other than hard pedal until engine runs and pulls vacuum. What I'm saying is you could replace booster and have a hard pedal on second push with a new booster. If the problem is only for the 30 seconds or less then you don't have to do anything.

The bulb holder comes out if you twist n pull.

Post by **scot850** » 14 Oct 2014, 15:57

Thanks jimmy. But I need a little more detail please.

1) If the wiper motors do rotate, all-be-it only once, and then appear to try to re-set after switching the ignition off then back on, does this mean the resistor you mention is bad in both? Both do the same, and it would seem strange that both have failed and operate the same way. Where is the resistor fitted? I remember trying to open the housing on one of these before, and let's just say it wasn't pretty.

2) You are right that the boost does seem to return eventually and then all is well. I have had the car sitting for some time and there has been no problem. Other times it can have a hard peddle sitting over-night. It is weird. I do have a spare booster that I know was good on the shelf, but it is not a job I look forward to!

3) Which part do you twist? If I look carefully there a 3 cut-outs on the side of the bulb holder, one with a barb. I have managed to break part of one holder trying to twist it and no luck. The other one opened easily, but not quite sure how I did it. With careful prying, I was able to get the whole black portion to snap of the side of the green housing without breaking anything. Do you know what the bulb rating is?

Thanks again,

Neil.

Post by **abscate** » 15 Oct 2014, 04:16

It could just be a bad check valve on the brake booster, too.

I've noticed my 1999 no longer hold vacuum overnight.

Post by **scot850** » 15 Oct 2014, 11:02

Thanks abscate. Your input is appreciated. I'll have to look into that check valve.

Neil.

Post by **jimmy57** » 15 Oct 2014, 12:41

CRAP! Long reply earlier and the site crashed or something.

The resistors for wipers are in the motor case. when you go around edge and pry tabs when it comes open there is a silver/gray wafer you will see inserted between two copper tabs to make the connection between them. Remove it and substitute some piece of metal. Remember, this removes stalled more protection. I know of no place to source new PTC wafers. The wafers fail from use and age and do fail more or less at the same time. These wafers are the same thing that takes down lock motors. They are in the end frame of the little perm magnet motor inside the lock motor on those.

I think you're seeing the bulb melts socket to receptacle problem with the cig lighter illumination.

Post by **scot850** » 15 Oct 2014, 13:18

Thanks again jimmy57. I had a similar problem last night with the system crashing during a response!

So you say the wafer is not a normal 'old style' resistor but a wafer technology. I guess as there is probably no way to know the resistance value to replace (if physically possible) with old tech resistor of same value rather than padding out with the metal. I don't get the point of this if you can't get replacements for these of having the 'fuse'. I'm assuming they are there to prevent over-loading the motor and possibly breaking the drive cogs. But if the unit is toast anyway, what's the point. You'd think there would have been a thriving repair/exchange market for these, or a simple way to replace the link without resorting to opening the unit and the resultant potential damage to the unit (from people like me!!).

I opened a new thread for only the wiper motor follow up questions as the other questions had been answered. If you could check that thread as I believe you have possibly more answers for me on that thread.

I got both of the lighter units up and running with new bulbs (12V 1.2W) that I discovered in my garage. I will install these when I start a push on final dress up repairs prior to selling this car (not using it enough and getting too much damage parking it at work in retail). I'll pull the center console for that.

As always, appreciate your insights and advice (as I do for anyone that takes the time to help).

Neil.