Electrical issue with wipers
 

Soo i noticed my wipers move or get ready to go when the key is in the on position.
My car has not been running well since the body shop. I had to tow it home. For now i wont blame them, i will blame the fact that these cars have not the best wiring. And even then fd wiper motors arent the best.

Ive been trying to fix it. Readjusted tps new plugs.

After failed attempts and car just randomly dying i decided to unplug the wiper motor. The motor itself was really hot to touch even though it is on exhaust side. I unpluged it and started the car. And it ran fine warmed up rev'd it a few times and. Let it warm up and started it up a few times.
if anyones had this problem let me know of a solutuon.
Ill probably leave unplugged use some rainx and avaoid rain for now.

Hard to say, this is not something common. Will the wipers move if you try and run the wipers?

Almost sounds like the wiper linkage is jammed up, the motor is trying to force the wipers to move, and it's getting hot because it's stuck.

Dale

I did try to turn them on but they dont work. When the key is on they move with the click of the air pump and when they is out they move back. The abs light is also on. I know its useless since theyre right next to each other it might not be coincidence

I dont think both abs and wipers are on the engine harness but ill check. This is just more electrical problems surfacing

I'll move them manually and see

You could try running 12v to the motors directly and see if they function maybe? Might give you some idea if the linkage is jammed or if something is wrong with the motors themselves.

Ill give it a try after work. And i gotta see which pins since it is 6 pin connector i believe. Whether they work or not im more concerned as to why it didnt let my car run:scratch:

Just figured it might narrow some stuff down. I haven't had to mess with my wiper motors yet, but I imagine its similar to the fans where its directional based on which pins you use.

Do you have an OEM size battery or smaller? You might try monitoring the battery and alternator voltage and see if its dipping too low. Maybe if those motors are jammed and sucking up a lot more power than usual thats causing some voltage issues?

I'd think with a healthy alternator those wiper motors wouldn't be able to create a high enough load, but who knows.

I can't think what other relationship power to the wiper motors would have with the engine running.

Im gonna remove it and test it outside the car and plug it in while the car runs. See if it affects anything if theres no chance of it jamming up

Battery is a new optima red top. I think i might go get the alternator tested, but it seems to fine
It would make sense if its jaming up and causing voltage issues from heating up affecting either spark or the injectors.

(I drove the car in to the body shop, it had no issues at the time, they did try and start it once but it smoked so they stopped. After that i believe it just sat. And when i turned it on to go home the wipers wanting to activate with key on. I thought it was weird but thought noting of it at the moment.
unless they messed up some wiring somehow)

Next time theres a post about fd not running I'll let'em know to check their wiper motor:lol:

Wiper wiring is LOOOOONG. It goes from the combination switch, all the way around the nose of the car, and into the motor. But like the others said, it sounds like your motor is jammed. As for why it is trying to go just by the car being ON, that could be a short in a wire where it's skipping the combination switch, or a bad combination switch. The connector into the motor is a 6 pin but only 5 wires into it - Black ground and 4 Blue wires with varying stripes, one with fused power (green stripe - from Joint Box) and the other 3 are the speed settings.
Def agree to use a battery for bench tests and bust out the ole Multi Meter to start...after that it may be tracing time..

I have fixed my wiper issue. I guess it was stuck or somethin.

For the sake of not starting another thread

1)Cold starts are now problematic. If i think i have leaky injectors. When i start the car it runs badly or dies and then it" clears up
Can i crank the engine over with out spark plugs(ignition and fuel disabled) and see if it spits out mists of gas?
is there a better way? I'll keep searching

2)I tried looking in the manual for these clips for the side mirrors, anybody have any ideas or should i just go and make use of extra double sided tape.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...38e9198144.jpg

It's hard to diagnose leaky injectors. Only way really is to pull the rail up, pressurize, and see if it drips. May just be worth putting them and sending them to be cleaned and serviced.

On the side mirror, I've recently done a lot on RX-8 side mirrors and this looks like a similar design. The large hole in the middle should pop over a ball in the mirror housing that it pivots on. The 2 white things aren't supposed to be on the mirror, they should be in the housing. Those are what extend and retract to adjust the mirror with the switch in the car. Normally that ball joint pops out and the white part stays in the housing.

Also, this is from an RX-8 mirror, I've yet to dig into an RX-7 mirror :). But that may get you started.

Dale

Dale- after doin research my other possibility is coolant seal. dear god I hope not.
I do get darker smoke and strong smell of gas which is why I'm leaning towards leaky injector. doesnt smell like coolant and when there is white smoke it clears up after warming up

when the body shop tried to pry out the mirrors the glass broke. Now that i have replacements, I want to put them on.
yes the picture is the back part of it. So the white parts are what the motor moves.
It sounds like i can put them back in the mean time since my motors dont work, but if i were to fix them i would need the white part that broke.

Are those white parts on any other mazdas besides rx8? I would assume if they would as long as they have power mirrors. Or part number?

Also i found your thread on the review mirror, mine has some gunky looking stuff around the edges and a replacement is $100+ but the one you suggested is much cheaper:icon_tup:

Hey,

This happened to me not on my RX7 but my 2001 VW Jetta 1.8T.....the motor ran extremely hot similar to how you described and then I took it to a local shop that pulled apart the linkage and the bushings inside were totally ceased with rust etc... might be worth it to just go ahead and pull the linkage and check for ease of movement. I had to replace the entire linkage and then the wipers were fine at all different speeds.

On my RX7 however lol, I cant seem to reset the wipers to get them to work correctly....the shop pulled the wiper motor during paint etc but didnt mark the starting point on the motor, so no reference point :( .....any suggestions? Feel free to message me, as not to take away from the OP.

Cheers

Trinity- i think thats what happen at the shop in my case. Took the wipers off but then didnt put them back in the same way and may have forced the wipers down.
when i tried to start the car the motor wanted to reset but couldnt cuz the positioning was off. What i ended up doing was checking it outside the car with a battery and then connecting it to the harness with the motor still out and and pretty much cycled it then i just installed it with the wipers offand put those on last.

If you send that picture to Ray Crowe I am sure he can hook you up with some new clips for a fair price, assuming they are still available from Mazda.

I wouldn't jump straight to thinking its a coolant seal, but you can check a couple of things to verify:

1. If you start the car with the coolant cap off, do you see lots of little bubbles fizzing around?
2. They rent/sell coolant pressure testers at any auto parts store. You can make sure your coolant system is holding pressure that way.

Rough cold starts can be caused by a lot of things though I think. Could just be an adjustment needed on one of the many throttle body components, or a dirty/bad IAC, or a TPS that needs adjustment.

If you're not on the OEM ECU, it could just be a weird spot in your tune as well.

Dorito-
ill take a look with the ol champagne test
tps curently checks out and one of the first things i checked
I guess ill have to remove the elbow and take a look at the throttle body parts.
Also Ai did read someone put a pressure tester on the fuel to see if it drops significantly after shut off, would this be a useful test?
i have "stock" pettit racing ecu

Not sure on how long it should hold pressure after shut off, someone else might know more about that.

If you still have an unmodified stock ECU, you might swap and see if it does any better. Not saying the tune is the issue, but it's easy enough to verify if you happen to have an ECU around still.

Thanks I will give that a try.

Cheers