GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

We are in the middle of a nice little winter mess here in Alabama with some snow and ice.....needless to say, ice was covering the whole car. I started it up, let everything defrost and cleaned the remaining ice off. I turned the wipers on to get the water drops that were left on there and only one wiper works. The other tries to come up but just gives up and goes back to its resting point. What happened and how do I fix it? lol. Thanks guys!

Stripped wiper arm maybe?

Tell me more abotu this stripping thing with the wiper arm......I am totally not feeling the current E-class Merc single wiper look right now....lol

Well apparently you turned on your wipers before all the ice was gone. In doing so the motor was trying to complete the swip and because it couldn't it took the path of least resistance and in turn the small toothed gear that the wiper sits on top of either jumped a few gears and is now out of sequence or as it's already been stated you striped the gear.. To check this you will need to pull the wiper arm off the base. It's pressed on.Once off inspect the teeth on the gear. If they are flattend you will need a new one. If it's just jumped you can turn on the wipers and let them complete a cycle and then put the wiper arm back on, in the home position, after it's completed the cycle.

See if the bolt holding the wiper arm is loose...

In an emergency situation, if you stripped your wiper arm post, you can use a tiny drop of super glue to get you through the bad weather, until you can get it properly fixed. I haven't tried this, but one of my co-workers did just that on a nasty trip back from Virginia a couple of Winters back. The glue held for a week or so.Always make sure that the wiper is free to move and not still frozen to the iced windshield. Hope it warms up for you soon.