According to my son, his 88' SE windshield wipers work normally in the "high" and "low" positions but when in "Intermittent" they act the same as in "low"(no intermittent function). He said he also has to hold down the switch in "mist", otherwise the wipers will park on the windshield if he releases the switch. I did a search on the subject and nothing I read sounded like his exact problem. Every thread I read about the intermittent function not working also mentioned the "high" speed not working. Is there something else besides the relays in the switch I should look for, or is it that the relay(s) are just starting to fail? Forgot to mention, his car does not have a rear wiper.

 

Since the HI/LO speeds work (although you didn't mention if it parks correctly), the motor is probably fine. All the tricky functions are handled in the switch and that is usually the part that fails.

Personally I'm neither capable nor motivated enough to do anything but replace these things and I've been lucky so far with my junkyard part but assume it will start acting up at some point.

 

The intermittent part has a dial to alter the speed of the wiper (there are perhaps 10 different speed positions to choose from). Have you dialed in the proper setting to see if it works properly?

 

Funny..
I lost the HI speed on my car.
changed the switch..nope..not that.
Changed the switch back.Put in a new(well,used..ya know) motor..Success.

I always thought it to be the switch that fails as Clokker says,but in this case it was not.

 

When one of the two main speeds fails it's tricky because that could be either switch or motor.
In this case though, both speeds apparently function, so the motor is good and the switch is the likely suspect.

 

+1 I'd say the switch. More specifically, two particular relays within said switch. They're not bad to replace; yet, a lot of people tend to do it wrong and destroy the contacts so the switch can be worse off than when it started.
One relay runs on the timer and runs the intermittent part of the switch, the other selects speeds. Due to multiple connections for each, your relay could be failing only at two different places rather than the entire relay failing. I've seen this happen a few times.

 

Ok, I got a little better clarification from my son. He said both high and low functions work fine(I believe the wipers park when they should since he didn't say otherwise). The wipers will raise a bit then park on the windshield during the intermittent, mist, or wash functions.

 

Switch.

 

Got another switch yesterday from a wrecked car at pick-n-pull. Hoping it works. If not, at least we will have a spare incase the relay replacement doesn't go so well.

 

couple of mine, intermittent starts acting up first, then they stop parking, then high goes out later

becareful soldering the relays in and out( if you dont now what your doing google soldering hole through parts, and desoldering using wick)