one of the hardest topics I've had to find information on... most threads opened are about learning to search... anyway.

After much stuffing around tonight I've determined my wiper cluster switch thing is had it. Have rigged up a temporary switch in place of it to get me to work, which looks fantastic and is rather useless to use. But at least that confirms that the switch is bung.

Symptoms: Wipers don't work at all, but occasionally give a wipe or two upon initial usage. For months the only problem was that the slow setting didn't work, but in the last week of lots of rain, it's deteriorated rapidly, from semi permanently working, to semi permanently not working, to not working at all.
My electro engineer mate had a look at the wiring diagram and informed me that it can't be the common relay that there's write ups about replacing, because that looks like it only affects intermittent operation.

Anybody got any useful info for fixing the switch? Or do I start phoning wreckers...?

 

just get a new cluster...mine had a problem also, i had to whack it to turn it off and it only went on the fastest settingand then i took it out and got a new one and it worked fine...but one ting...don't look on ebay i have seen them for upwards of 85$!!! i got mine for 10 at my local junkyard

 

They can be rebuilt:
https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showth...threadid=65516
Iy you want to search try "wiper and rebuilt"

 

wiper switch fix

hugues -

 

can anyone confirm precisely what the relays in the switch control? As far as we've been able to see from the wiring diagram, it shouldn't be possible for the relay to stop everything.... is there anything else on the switch that is known to break? If someone confirms that the relay can break everything, then ok I'll order a relay...

 

Sounds like you have both a bad switch and a bad motor.

I would repair the switch first, though, because it needs to work no matter what.

The relay in the switch, switchs between the output for normal operation and high speed operation. When the wipers are on intermittent or high they use the active set of contacts. In the normal on position, they relay is not active, however if the contacts are burnt inside (not unusual) then the motor won't work at all, or will work very intermittent in any setting.

 

the motor is fine, my temporary switch works acceptably, it's just taped into the female plug in the dash. It's a 3 position switch, off, slow, high, all works ok, the wipers don't go back to home though.

slow on the mazda switch stopped working months ago, the rest started to play up last week and have now stopped totally.

The cluster switch appears to output fine, lights up little led's alright at the motor end, but then it apparently all craps out when there is load on it. (ie, the wipers are actually going)
Whereas my homemade switch carries on fine...
Thought it may have been a bad earth, but cleaned that up and it's no different.

 

Well there are position locator switches inside the motor... when those go bad... well that is what I meant when I said a bad motor.

and switch outputs that can not handle the load, again suggest a bad relay in the switch.

 

I understand the motor has to know what setting to be on... but I'd have thought since my switch works ok in low and high, that the motor knows what it's doing?
When voltage is fed to the motor pins straight off the battery, low, high, int, and home all work perfect.
If you say the relay is a reasonable possibility then fair enough, I'll give that a crack. Cheers for the help btw.

 

woops