Friday, 19 August 2011

Alfa Romeo 156 wipers problem

I have an Alfa Romeo 156 1.6 16V 2004 year.
I had a problem with wipers, wipers worked only in 2 positions - quick wipe but I had to hold the switch for all the time as wipers stop to work when I released the switch, and on the last fastest position - wipers were working constantly.
I read few forums and was looking for solution of this problem but none of them satisfy me.
So I fixed wipers on my own and make few pictures which are attached.

It could be few reasons why wipers did not work properly:
1.wiper relay - which is attached to wiper's engine
2.broken wiper's engine
3.grease

In my situation was the last one.
Any way I will describe step by step how to safely get to the area of our interest.

Firstly you have to remove wiper's arms.
You will need a screwdriver and also ring spanner or socket size 13mm.
Lift up plastic cover on bottom of wiper's arm, unscrew the nut under.
To release the arms you have to close the bonnet, and lift slightly wiper from the windscreen and very easy move arm clock - and anti-clock directions.
Now you have to take off plastic cover.
Few screws are holding it and also 4 plastic pins underneat of the cover.
Be careful for pipe coming to the sprayer.
You can see now rubber cover on wiper's engine section.
Rubber is connected to the body of the engine so don't try to take it off, just lif it.
I advise to disconnect two plugs.
Grey box is wiper's relay. Inside is PCB. To open it you will have to lift 3 clips on the side of 'box'. Give it a close look and check is there any sign of burned tracks etc.
If you noticed it you have to get the new one PCB, make sure you got the number from PCB (there are not the same - that what Alfa Service says).
If it is ok keep going.
Now you will have to lift 4 clips holding the 'box' where PCB is fitted.
You have 3 contacts under the 'box'. Mine were totally covered by grease and there was not connection between contacts and tracks.
Cleaning them fixed the problem. Notice that the contacts are a bit worn, so just to make sure conection is good I bent contacts toward to tracks. 
I decided to get in  inside wiper's engine.
Engine is fitted by 2 screws - you need Allen key size 6mm. There are C shaped clips holding engine, one on top, second one on the bottom, could fall down. 
Now move engine out pararell to the ground.
Pull up for commutator to get inside can.
Check motor brushes, are they clean, and still there, check armature etc.















You should also check bearing.
As you can see in my situation armature is slightly damaged but still working, so I left it like this.

 Enjoy!