Front wipers acting up in the cold

[n0stra]

So my 09 C5 2.0 exclusive is acting up when its cold. First winter with this one. When the temperature fell below minus 10 one night the front wipers decided not to move at all. No sound, no jitter, no nothing.

First time this happened i drive the car warm for 40 minutes, still nothing. Then after it stood outside in the cold for 2 hours the wipers worked perfectly again. And still did for a couple of days with minus 5 or warmer.

Then yesterday, same problem. No nothing.

What might the problem be. And why does it only happend at times, and why (if its the cold) does it not make any sound/act slow etc?

Hopefully there is something that can be done that dont involve replacing wiper motors etc since they are extremely expensive even used.

[Doo]

It's entirely a gues, but perhaps some condensation has found it's way into the motor housing and frozen between the contacts/brushes, or thereabout. The under-bonnet temps eventually reaches the motor & melts the ice....


Purely a guess, but you never know. Or maybe these have a built in shut off if the wipers stick and it needs to allow a short time delay before restoring power. If they are very stuck, it would keep shutting down. Vive la CanBus

[Dormouse]

It may just be that the mechanism needs lubricated all the way through the spindle bushes. If the lubricant there is gummed up then that could be enough to stall the motor and trip the protector. Thoroughly clean and lubricate the wiper mechanism and see if that helps before you go much further.

[Ross_K]

If the freezing rain and fog around here ever goes away, I'm going take my dead motors out and open them up

Looks like there are multiple possible problems with these wiper motors:
- Water ingress rusts out the mechanical components
- Water ingress damages the circuit board
- The magnet moves out of alignment, and needs to be glued back into place?

I'll take some photos if the opportunity arises

[GiveMeABreak]

I think 'RainX' are in for some major sales to X7 owners ....

[Ross_K]

This is how I roll now

[Hell Razor5543]

This is how I roll now

That is not an accurate image, as it does not show the 'icicle dreadlocks' or the road grime on the face!

[quintet]

I presume you've tested to see if the wipers are NOT frozen to the screen before trying to operate them? So far as i can recall the command from the wiper stalk will keep trying to command the wipers to operate until it see's a signal back from the BSI to say that they have operated (swept/worked) . This continued command to operate i think is what often causes the (10amp) fuse to blow under the bonnet, i've replaced countless 10 amp fuses with the during cold periods with customers blaming the vehicle to be at fault. Anyway, can you confirm that they have not been frozen to the screen before being operated, might seem obvious but i've seen it so many times. Comms unit's are also a little prone to failure but that usually affects lights/indicators first, if they do play up again i think it's possible to test/operate the wipers using a lexia if you have access to one.