GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

My wife started our '06 vibe this morning after a bad night of ice and snow. There was a very thick build up of ice at the base of the windshield, to the point where neither wiper arm could move. When she turned the wipers on nothing happened. I can grab either wiper and manually move the wipers ( both of them move in sequence) and there is tension on them as they move ( like they are still connected) but when you turn them on, only the rear wiper works. I'm wondering if I may have broken the transmission for the wiper assembly. Is this a common problem or is there something else that may have failed? Thanks for your time.Rob Wade

Are you sure the wipers aren't on delay?next time tell your wife not to turn on the wiper when they are frozen to the window... it will break the motor or the plastic gear that turns the wipers. most likely the gears have been rounded off and the only way to fix it is to replace it.Best thing to do is, remove the wiper arms, turn on the wipers and see if you notice the motor turning the gearset on the wiper arm. If not, the motor is shot, if they do turn, look at the gear that the wiper mounts too. Most likely it's been rounded off because the motor turned and the wipers were frozen fast to the window.It's only a common problem when people turn on the wipers when they are frozen to the window.Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.The rear wiper is on it's own motor

Thats the sad part. She actually had lifted the wipers off of the windshield for the night ( thats my girl) so the wipers weren't even on the winshield to get frozen. Its the black plastic cowl area where the wipers come through at the base of the windshield. This whole area was filled solid with ice, so neither arm could move if it wanted to. When she hopped in the car, this wouldn't be visable to her from the drivers seat. Now that I look at the design of the cowl, I'm surprised this hasn't happened before this. Oh well. Off to garage to pull it apart and see whats gone wrong.

Whoohoo. Well I went out to the garage and I was able to remove all the ice and snow from the cowl area. Since I could manually move the wipers, I figured I would return them to the park position. As soon as I returned them to park, everything started working again. Thank gawd. I really didn't feel like pulling this all apart AND I really couldn't figure out how, if the motor/transmission was broken from being frozen. How had it not happended until now. I think I will ponder this some more over a cold Coors Light. Night all. Happy Holidays.

glad to hear it wasn't too much of an issue.Enjoy your coors light