Did I Hurt My Windshield Wiper Motors?

[timmerk]

This morning I woke up to find about 5-6 inches of wet snow on my truck. Since I was running late (and because I'm lazy), I didn't brush off the snow on the windshield. I turned on the wipers to clear the snow off and they pushed it all over, but with some strain.

 

As I was driving to work, more snow kept blowing and sliding to the area where the wipers sit when off. I had the wipers on throughout the drive to work, but eventually too much wet snow had accumulated and the wipers couldn't go back to "resting" position and were stuck 1/4th of the way up. They were still on trying to wipe then go back to normal position for about 10 minutes.

 

After I got to work, I cleared the snow off and they seem to go back to the normal resting positions, or almost (maybe 0.5-1 inch off). Did I hurt the motors or anything? Sorry I ask, but I'm paranoid about these sort of things. Now I know to brush the snow off in the future! The wiper "arms" don't look bent or anything either, so I'm hoping it's all ok.

[stadt11]

You should be fine, I've had build-up before where wipers wouldn't go back to the resting position.

 

If you're so paranoid, why didn't you brush off the snow, it takes a whole 10 seconds

[BuckFeverZ]

You should be fine, I've had build-up before where wipers wouldn't go back to the resting position.

 

If you're so paranoid, why didn't you brush off the snow, it takes a whole 10 seconds

 

+ 1 gizillion

[Metro12]

Hey Doc, ever time I do THIS it hurts. I keep doing it a lot, and now it really really hurts. Did I break IT?

[rjirvine]

If you know it's gonna snow, its prudent to pull the wipers away from the windshield so they don't stick. It makes scraping the windshield easier. I know its too late now, but good idea next time. When I first saw people doing that I was like WTF? But it makes sense!

[pennzoil29]

You should be fine, I've had build-up before where wipers wouldn't go back to the resting position.

 

If you're so paranoid, why didn't you brush off the snow, it takes a whole 10 seconds

 

[timmerk]

Hey Doc, ever time I do THIS it hurts. I keep doing it a lot, and now it really really hurts. Did I break IT?

 

Haha, I know I'm dumb, but at least I only made this mistake once and it will be the last time. It's not sometime I will be doing over and over.

[Metro12]

Just giving you a hard time. I know some cars have a type of slip nut, so if too much pressure is on the wiper, it loosens the arm form the motor-stopping it from burning out.

[[email protected]]

Just giving you a hard time. I know some cars have a type of slip nut, so if too much pressure is on the wiper, it loosens the arm form the motor-stopping it from burning out.

 

I've got a dead passenger wiper. Same reason. slip nut eh. . .

[the blur]

they design them for lazy people.

[slamed350]

more than likely, you stripped the splines in the arm