So some mornings when I go out to leave I start the car and turn on the wipers to clear the morning dew off the windshield .... Not all the time, but maybe 1/3 of the time the wipers delay turning on for maybe 15 seconds, maybe 25 seconds or so. Once they turn on they work fine using the intermittent and both speeds...

Is there maybe moisture getting in the switch and delaying the contacts? I replaced my faulty wiper switch the other year so I don't think it's that. the car is a 90 vert if that matters or not. Any thoughts on this? Kind of annoying to have to sit around and wait to leave for work until the wipers kick in

 

check the nut on the wiper motor... it is probably slipping.

Either that or you have a relay inside the switch that is about to fail... if it is only the middle (ON) speed, then it is relay #2 in the switch... which really almost never fails.

 

mines started to act up recently, it would stutter..halfway through a wipe it would stop in between and i'd have to flick the switch to get it down...

 

wait ice, what did you mean by

"if it is only the middle (ON) speed" ?

mine rarely works on the first and last setting and even the mist setting, but the normal speed always works.

 

There are three settings in a FC wiper switch. Intermittent (or the first position), ON (or the 2nd position), and High (the third position).

So in his case where the ON setting didn't work, either the wiper motor to linkage is loose or the #2 relay in the picture above is starting to fail (although it is a pretty odd failure- they normally work or don't work.

In your case if you have the middle setting (or ON setting) but intermittent and high (first and third positions respectively) then Relay #1 has failed.

I sell the relays on my webstore or you can get them from digikey or I can rebuild the switch for you or do have some switches in stock.

 

Next time the wipers don't work right off, wiggle the ignition key back and forth and see if they don't start working. IF they do, it's the ignition switch or a lot of keys on the switch. Remove extra keys.

 

Good point! Most Japanese cars are not designed to handle 10 or 20 keys on the key chain dangling from the ignition switch. It pretty much kills the ignition switches.