Getting at the fuse box to fix wipers?

Mon Nov 16, 2009 11:36 pm

Now the wet weather has arrived it seems that my wipers have decided its a good time to stop working most of the time. They will stop, randomly, and not start working again until I give relay K10 a wiggle. Sometimes they start working all by themselves.

When they're broken I can hear K10 clicking when I turn the stalk on and off, plus when I wiggle K10 to bring them them back to life I don't hear it click either. Thinking a bad wiring connection on the power side of things.

The rear wiper works fine (except it parks wherever it wants) but I'm not sure if that runs off K10 or indeed the same fuse.

I had a look at removing the fuse box to investigate further but didn't get very far due to the amount of wiring. From a search on here it suggests it can't easily be done. I tried removing the two screws and taking just the top off but that wasn't happening for me either, am I missing a screw/daft clip of some kind?

Any other words of wisdom on fixing it chaps?

As an aside would it be worth at least moving the fuse box to check for rust underneath? I had to patch the battery tray and assume the fuse box side is as much of a rust trap. I've had to sort out all the other usual rust spots on this thing...

Mon Nov 16, 2009 11:59 pm

http://www.e30zone.net/e30zonewiki/inde ... per_faults

Tue Nov 17, 2009 12:08 am

Cheers Spadge, but already followed that guide a while back when I had issues with them not parking correctly.

Tue Nov 17, 2009 12:11 am

engine_ear wrote:Cheers Spadge, but already followed that guide a while back when I had issues with them not parking correctly.

Sorry i didn't realise

The top half of the fusebox should come away an inch or two once the 3 screws securing it are removed.

1 is on the outside and there are 2 others beneath the relays.

Do not remove the torx headed screw though!

Tue Nov 17, 2009 8:03 pm

SPADGE wrote: Do not remove the torx headed screw though!

Eek! What if I was to loosen it off thinking it held the fuse box top on?

The wipers didn't behave themselves today either, a sharp tap to the top of K10 got them working though.
I got back with them stopped halfway across the screen so did some further quick testing tonight. When they were broken I moved the stalk and only got a click from K10 when going to/from high speed wipe; nothing when moving between normal speed, intermittant and single wipe.
I assume one relay within K10 switches between high/low wiper speed and the other actually turns the motor on?

Once I hit K10 and got them working the stalk was in intermittant; when starting the motor was very jerky and I could here K10 clicking away rapidly. Once so far across the screen (I guess once out of the park zone) they were fine, it did this every time they came on.
No idea what that suggests!

Is there a better wiring diagram than the one in Haynes available?