Wiper parking

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TopBananaRacing
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Wiper parking

Post by TopBananaRacing »

2004 Berlingo. Wipers work fine, correct full sweep from side to side etc but they 'park' half way through the up stroke! Right across the screen. :roll:
Any ideas? I believe that on old Fords you could strip the motor and move the park tab, is it the same on these?
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Re: Wiper parking

Post by Gibbo2286 »

I can't really answer your problem but you can forget the 'old Fords' bit I think.

On the C5 there's an option to park central (The maintenance position) to work on the blades and I think it's another bit of the magic of modern electronics done through the comm 2000 so may be something that can be set with the dreaded Lexia.

Ps. Looked it up in my handbook, it says: For this, switch off the ignition, push the wash/wipe control stalk downwards, to return to the stop position push the stalk again.
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Re: Wiper parking

Post by Mandrake »

What's missing from the original question is when did this start happening ? Did you buy the car like this or did it just happen one day ?

I don't know about a 2004 Berlingo and whether this is controllable electronically these days but on older cars the park position was dictated by where you chose to align the wiper arm crank on the spline on the motor shaft - the crank should be pushed onto the shaft when the motor has self parked and the blades are positioned at the correct resting position. If the crank is pushed onto the spline at the wrong angle the blades will still cover the normal sweep of the window but park in the wrong place...

Fixing a misalignment like this is then just a matter of removing the retaining nut, lifting the crank off and repositioning it correctly on the spline.

The above general advice only applies to a wiper system that shares a single motor for both wipers.
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Re: Wiper parking

Post by Stickyfinger »

Many cars, including the C5 have a way of setting the parking position to vertical so wiper arms can be lifted and blades changed or wipers lifted off the screen during snow/ice conditions when parked up overnight.
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Re: Wiper parking

Post by Hell Razor5543 »

If you want to change the wipers on a C5 or Xsara Picasso turn the ignition on and off again, and then tap the wiper stalk in the direction of 'single sweep'. That will put the wipers into the 'service' position.
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Re: Wiper parking

Post by Paul-R »

Mandrake wrote:... on older cars the park position was dictated by where you chose to align the wiper arm crank on the spline on the motor shaft - the crank should be pushed onto the shaft when the motor has self parked and the blades are positioned at the correct resting position. If the crank is pushed onto the spline at the wrong angle the blades will still cover the normal sweep of the window but park in the wrong place...
Whilst the information about choosing the position to push the arms on to the spindle is correct the results for not doing so are a bit awry. It won't alter the parking position at all but will change the position at which the wiper arc starts and stops and could mean that the arm(s) try to wipe their way through the bonnet or off the screen to one side!

If the blades wipe the screen properly but just park in the wrong position then don't alter the arm on the shafts, the problem is elsewhere.

I'm not sure about Citroens of this period but I think the parking position will determined by a combination of the motor and the control unit for it. For instance, on my wife's Xsara estate, the rear wiper now parks where it wants on the rear screen but wipes the correct area when it does go. This is caused by a well-known fault on the cars where the wire(s) inside the loom break with constant movement caused by the tailgate opening and closing. I repaired the break once before (along with broken HRW wires) about 5 years ago but obviously it needs doing again.

If yours is the same system then I would suspect that either the motor control unit has gone faulty internally or the feedback wire from the motor to the unit has broken/fallen off somewhere. You can identify the position of the control unit (on the Xsara - hope it's the same on yours) by putting the wipers on intermediate wipe and then listening for the clicking of the relay. Then I would start pulling wires off and reconnecting them at both ends and looking for a break in the circuit.
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Re: Wiper parking

Post by Mandrake »

All these suggestions of how the service position works are great, but I have to assume that the car will be smart enough not to let the wipers stay in the service position when the car is being driven ? And therefore can't be the cause of this problem ?
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Re: Wiper parking

Post by Mandrake »

Paul-R wrote:
Mandrake wrote:... on older cars the park position was dictated by where you chose to align the wiper arm crank on the spline on the motor shaft - the crank should be pushed onto the shaft when the motor has self parked and the blades are positioned at the correct resting position. If the crank is pushed onto the spline at the wrong angle the blades will still cover the normal sweep of the window but park in the wrong place...
Whilst the information about choosing the position to push the arms on to the spindle is correct the results for not doing so are a bit awry. It won't alter the parking position at all but will change the position at which the wiper arc starts and stops and could mean that the arm(s) try to wipe their way through the bonnet or off the screen to one side!

If the blades wipe the screen properly but just park in the wrong position then don't alter the arm on the shafts, the problem is elsewhere.
Paul somehow you completely misunderstood what I wrote.

I'm not talking about the position of the wiper arms I'm talking about the position of the crank that attaches to the motor...

I can assure you that adjusting the position of the crank on the wiper motor spindle does adjust the parking position of the wiper blades and does not affect the sweep range. I have made this adjustment many times, on many different cars...
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Re: Wiper parking

Post by Paul-R »

I can understand what you're saying now. I haven't ever done that as I didn't know it was possible. I thought that you were talking about the wiper arm (which is what I thought you meant by crank) position on the spindle. I'd wager I'm not the only one.
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Re: Wiper parking

Post by Mandrake »

Sorry, I may not have explained it very clearly looking back at my post.

I don't know why but I've come across this problem a lot on cars I have bought. Even the Xantia V6 I have now was parking its wiper blades a couple of inches above the bottom of the sweep when I got it - missing paint flecks on the nut that holds the crank onto the wiper motor spline provided the incriminating evidence that the wiper motor may have been replaced at some point and the crank was not correctly positioned...that and the broken scuttle panel around the wiper motor.... :roll:

Of course these days I think many cars now have separate motors for each wiper with the relative positions of the wiper blades controlled electronically instead of by linkages, (what could possibly go wrong ?) but I'm not sure that that was the case in 2004.
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Re: Wiper parking

Post by Paul-R »

Thinking back to my Montego a vague bell has tinkled.

I sort of remember a problem with parking on that (disregarding the little forward, reverse, forward to pull the blades under the bonnet line) where I had to loosen the linkage off the motor, switch the motor off (to park) and then reconnect to get the right position. Sounds like it's a related incident.
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Re: Wiper parking

Post by GiveMeABreak »

And don't forget - when you do eventually decide what is wrong and need to align the wiper arms again, there are usually (depending on model) 2 marks embedded into the bottom of the windscreen to show you where the wiper arm tips should lay at rest. I had to do this yesterday, as even Mr Autoglass didn't know this, so I had to re-align the driver's wiper arm as it was about 2 inches higer than it should be. I managed to unbolt the arm and wiggle the arm off the spindle, without the tool, align it and bingo.
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Re: Wiper parking

Post by TopBananaRacing »

Thanks for all the replies.
Firstly, l bought it like this, repositioning on the spindle would make the sweep go too low over the scuttle panel.
The sweep is correct just that they park six inches up the screen.
I can see no mention of the "clever" park in the manual, handbook or anywhere else , I suspect that a 12 year old car that was pretty basic in its day probably doesn't have such luxury.
Tomorrow's task is to remove the lot, check for play, mess around and refit, I suspect some fettling on the clunky linkages and a bit of motor adjustment will give me a result.
Thanks once again to all.
Mandrake, I will be looking at the crank position though as I didn't realise you could change that either. :-)
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Re: Wiper parking

Post by Mandrake »

TopBananaRacing wrote:Thanks for all the replies.
Firstly, l bought it like this, repositioning on the spindle would make the sweep go too low over the scuttle panel.
The sweep is correct just that they park six inches up the screen.

I can see no mention of the "clever" park in the manual, handbook or anywhere else , I suspect that a 12 year old car that was pretty basic in its day probably doesn't have such luxury.
Tomorrow's task is to remove the lot, check for play, mess around and refit, I suspect some fettling on the clunky linkages and a bit of motor adjustment will give me a result.
Thanks once again to all.
Mandrake, I will be looking at the crank position though as I didn't realise you could change that either. :-)
If by spindle you mean the position of the wiper arms on their pivots, don't change that. As you say, it would cause the wiper arm sweep to be wrong.

I assume that you only have one wiper motor with a set of linkages to drive both wiper arms. In that case disconnect the crank lever off the wiper motor shaft (It's just a tapered spline with a nut holding it on) and turn the crank position around until the wipers move to their lowest position and re-attach it. Job done!
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Re: Wiper parking

Post by TopBananaRacing »

UPDATE: Fixed!!!
Checked with local know it all (and dealer), no clever parking on these so it's mechanical of electrical or both.
Scuttle panels out and already it's looking dodgy as there are two bolts missing and all the others on the spindle mounts are loose. :-(
Tighten it all up, much better action but still parking mid windscreen. :-/
Remember what Mandrake said about crank arm being adjustable, quick bit of twiddling, bolt wiper arms on to match new throw and just like Penelope's Peter, it's perfect. :-).
Thank you one and all, later on I'll be back to discuss temperature sensors/senders and oil leaks.
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